Hmmm... an interesting question. I view movies probably differently than a lot of others do. I like going to the movies to analyze and critique them, though personally at the same time I don't like most movie critics out there. If I had to pick favorite films, the ones from Pixar would definitely rank up there, as they're really in a league of their own. I'd say my favorite from Pixar is definitely Ratatouille, as I went in to that movie with exceedingly high expectations, and came out simply blown away. Any movie that can do that is worthy of my respect.
My friend and I will go to the movies to see some of the less well known yet critically acclaimed films. We'll also sometimes go to see the latest work of a director we really like, or enjoying analyzing. Examples of this would be David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises", or Terry Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus." I guess you could say we tend to be a bit more avant garde in choosing the movies we'll see together.

We were on a Korean movie stint for awhile earlier this year, as there was a Korean film festival going on in DC and the environs that we were checking out at the time, and we even got have a Q&A session with the director of two of them (Im Sang-soo, for "The Housemaid", and "The President's Last Bang", both excellent films), and that was pretty awesome.
I really like animated films though, as to me, animation is not just for kids, it's simply another medium of telling a story on film. I can be hit or miss with Dreamworks, as they make great films and other films I thought were not so great. I like Blue Sky Studios too, as their movies are always fun.
I guess I judge a movie by a few things. Story writing, characters, and entertainment value, though I don't always judge a movie by all three simultaneously. Most movies tend to be stronger in some fields but lacking in others. I guess some of my top films... if I had to name them... would be "The Shawshank Redemption", "I Saw the Devil", "Ratatouille", "Shutter Island", "Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters", and... I guess that's all I can think of right now for movies off the top of my head. I know there are more, but I'm not at home at the moment, I'm at work, so can't really look at my movie shelf

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Anyway, I hope that wasn't TOO confusing.

As said, I guess you could say I'm a bit strange when it comes to movie viewing. XD When it comes down to it, I really just enjoy seeing movies, and I tend to look at the from a lot of different angles. My friend probably had something to do with this, as he's very into films himself, so yeah. To us it's more like a hobby than a pastime, if that makes any sense.
