Well I liked Forest Gump

I loooved "Forrest Gump" as well. I love most things Tom Hanks does. He's a very fine actor.

Forest Gump is a great movie, one of my favorites. If it's lowbrow I haven't noticed or haven't cared.

Hate to be a "me, too"-er, but me, too.

Can't say I'd ever watch survivor... or any other reality show... the few minutes I've caught here and there seem to consist mostly of the kind of bickering I prefer to avoid in every venue.

Forrest Gump is one of my favorite movies of all time. I love Gump, and strongly recommend everyone give it a shot.

The Davinci Code was a very enjoyable read. Not so much so that I've picked up another Dan Brown book, mind you... but I couldn't say I never would. Indeed, I’ve read most of Grisham’s books… because they are interesting without requiring much thought. No, he’s not Dostoyevsky… but in certain moods I’d prefer his style just the same.

IMO, Pseudo-intellectuals tend to reveal themselves by jumping on the “that’s beneath me” bandwagon when it comes to art and entertainment. When I hear or read the term “lowbrow”, it trips a flag that tells me I may be conversing with a snob, but more likely a phony. The people I consider giants in terms of intellect seldom bother pointing out the things they consider “beneath them”… I suspect because it doesn’t take much intellect at all to recognize opinions will vary.

I have heard Being There well spoken of by just about everybody whose judgement I trust. But, sadly, I've never seen the movie. As for edgar's contention that Forest Gump knocks liberalism, I won't argue with that except to say that I had never noticed this nor heard that opinion voiced until now.

I don't think popular is necessarily bad.

I just think Forrest Gump and Da Vinci Code are bad.

I love some things that are popular and definitely low brow.........but I like them if they are, in my view, well crafted and interesting.

I go to films and read books that some of my friends sneer at......and I really enjoy them.

But only if they are to my taste.

FG and Da Vinci Code stink, in my view.


I haven't watched any Survivors, so I can't comment.

It's not because they are popular I don't like them.

If you like them, go ahead and enjoy.

Who gives a damn?

I adored Seinfeld, for instance. Friends sneer at it. I tell them they are nuts. So it goes.

I like Phillipa Gregory's historical stuff......so sue me.

I also loved The Flounder.

I don't know what the cultural pressure is like for you guys, but the Indie Kids are my generation. It's like we're bred to hate everything, and love only the obscure... until someone else loves it.

Forrest Gump was a good film. I have never heard it called low brow...

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They were fairly obvious about it, without mentioning it by name.

interesting

forrest gump was okay

i've listened to both of dan brown's langdon books and enjoyed them, but i like a lot of escapist literature

as for tv i watch about 1/2 hour of news a day and that's it, i do watch a lot of shows on dvd, mostly brit coms or dramas because i enjoy them

i rarely listen to commercial radio and when i do it's news and information mostly, the music i listen to on a regular basis doesn't fit mainstream radio (at least not in my area)

i'm fascinated by pop culture, but i get my information from web sources, radio shows (opie & anthony, ron & fez, various podcasts)

I'm most definately NOT saying that people should like what I like. I know that I like some stupid stuff.

The reason I mentioned Forest Gump is because I recall it getting pretty good reviews when it first came out. (I read reviews even though I don't go to movies.) I saw the movie several years after it's release and, as I sometimes do, I looked up some reviews (I guess it's my way of discussing a movie when no one is talking about it anymore). I was surprised to see that the tide of opinion had really turned on the movie -- people loved to hate it.

Here's another example -- Harry Potter.

I just happened to be browsing the bookstore looking for a gift for my 7 year old niece within days of the book having been released. A clerk in the store recommended it (called "hand selling", usually used for worthy but not "popular" items). I bought it read it, enjoyed it, sent it off to my niece.

About a month later I was meeting with a group from a children's charity I was involved with. We were planning a party. I suggested a Harry Potter theme. Nobody, not one person in the room had heard of Harry Potter - and this was a group of people actively involved with children.

We all know how hugely successful this series of books became, right? Do you remember the articles (not reviews) that started coming out about the books? How they were derivitive and didn't deserve so much hoopla.

Their popularity made them "uncool" but it certainly didn't reduce their popularity. (I started ordering two copies -- one for me and one for my niece so they made double their money on me.)

This "evolution" of a product is interesting to me: at what point does a products popularity start working against it? Or maybe it doesn't.....

Has anyone read Paco Underhill's Why We Buy? Fascinating stuff.

speaking of lowbrow, I spent most of my adult years in a bowling league usually on the city police bowling team, My intellectual liberal friends found this below contemptible. I really enjoyed it.

It sounds like you've stumbled onto a weird community that's one part Stepford Wives and one part The Village?!

Unless this group has completely eschewed all forms of television and published news media I'm certain this is a tad case of hyperbole. Or they all happen to either come out recently from a collective coma or all immigrated from completely isolated Namibian like tribe or extreme hippy commune.

Regardless, if they or any single living relative of theirs hadn't read the books if they had any contact with modern media, I'm sure they've heard something about the first billionaire author that is JK Rowling. Her phenomenon and the sales of the recent Dan Brown books is nearly impossible to miss in terms of their status in the whole media shebang.

Perhaps this is a case of cultural and/or social plausible deniability?

This was about a month after the first book came out.

The Harry Potter books were not a big hit at the very first, the bookstore clerk was hand-selling it to people, it wasn't flying off the shelf.

That's kind of ironic these days considering how hipsters and assorted wealthy intellectual liberals, (is that redundant?) here in New York City have co-opted the game of bowling and now it holds the opposite reputation. Okay, its still not considered high brow but it doesn't have that blue collar feel to it in the sports 'lowbrow' heyday.

Whew! Thanks for explaining when this actually happened. At first I thought this was a recent phenomenon.

And I love to bowl. My very first date was at a bowling lane. Fun!

How - being there was made prior to Forest Gump??? Therefore it is the opposite.

"Forest Gump" is a satiric commentary about people who though Being There was a good movie.

Well, boomerang " some people have the need to feel superior to others. Because something may be considered not so brainic or cultural or artistically superior you are considered a dumb a$$ if you watch, read or enjoy engaging in some aspect of items more “common”.

It is a way for those that have that need to feel smarter, more cultured, etc. to have this opportunity. Sort of like when you are children and you make fun of someone that has glasses or some other thing " it makes that person feel better. It is really just childish.

If you enjoy some trash " go ahead and enjoy it. I have my list of trash I love as well so there. And I don’t give a hoot.

Personally, what determines my choice of books, films, & TV are my own particular tastes. I couldn't care less if other folk's tastes are different to mine. I'm not remotely interested in watching any television "reality" shows, simply because I don't enjoy them & find them rather too contrived (& sometimes demeaning or patronizing of the participants). But then, I don't watch much TV, anyway.
As for Forest Gump. I agree with edgar about the politics. But if I turned off my "politics filter" I could appreciate it as a well-made film.
With books, often the author is the key as to whether I choose to read a particular book or not. If I was engrossed in a previous book by a particular author, I figure there's a good chance I'll enjoy the next one on offer.

I've always loved Gump, and have watched it (especially certain scenes) over and over. And I never really noticed the anti-liberal thing, but come to think of it...
Everything in there was rah-rah America and anti-hippy radical stuff. Yeah. I see that.