It's All Good

One lazy afternoon, a number of years ago, I was at a friend's house, and we decided to rent a video. So we walked over to the video rental place a few blocks from my friend's house. It was not one of these mammoth chains, like Blockbuster's, with wall after wall after wall of video racks, teeming with thousands of offerings, but rather, a small place with a modest selection. There was just one woman there, who managed the place.

My friend and I began the familiar, and not unpleasant, process of perusing the rows, in search of something intriguing. Finally, I came upon a title that caught my eye. I asked my friend if he'd seen it, and he replied in the negative. But, the big question: was it any good?

We approached the woman who ran the store and asked her if she'd seen this particular movie. Her response:

"Oh, yes! Great movie! I really liked it. I think you guys would enjoy it."

Okay, that sounded promising. So we stored that video on our "potentials" list, and continued to browse. A few minutes later, my friend walked up to me holding a video he'd found, and asked if I'd seen it. Nope. So, once again, we approached the woman who ran the store and asked her if she'd seen this one.

"Sure! Now that is an excellent movie! Loved it!"

My friend and I were now quite pleased, because we now had two solid contenders. We continued to survey the scene, to see if there might be something yet better. After a few minutes, we found a third title, which we also showed to the woman.

"Fantastic movie! It was so good! Really funny! I laughed my head off!"

My friend and I exchanged glances, and shared a telepathic Hmmm. A definite pattern was emerging here. And, sho'nuff, our next inquiry elicited the same ultra-enthusiastic response from our movie maven.

Being scientifically minded, I decided to conduct an experiment. I told my friend to look for the absolutely worst movie he could find, and I did likewise. Presently, my friend and I came across a film that we'd seen together on a previous occasion. What a dud. Simply awful. The cough medicine of movies.

Our film connoisseur's reaction when we, with straight faces, presented this title for her appraisal? Unbridled excitement, bordering on hysteria, that made all of her previous reactions seem blasé.

"Ohh!! That is an amazing movie! The absolute best!! You guys are gonna love this one!!!"

Behold, like the proverbial boy who cried "wolf", the woman who cried "this movie is excellent".

We respectfully thanked our flick aficionado for her input and exited, stage left, with a selection of our own.