Siskel and Ebert established a place in our popular culture with their patently adequate "thumbs up, thumbs down" method of appraising movies. My sister, Anne, has an even better system which could be called "Somebody owes me..." This is because when asked how she liked a given film, her review will be based on a fairly uncomplicated formula that begins with her tally of her overall financial outlay (i.e., ticket price, cost of popcorn &/or soda, and sometimes the price of gas or parking, depending on her mood). This amount is then decremented by her determination of the entertainment value.
Let's say she went to a matinee (she usually does), enjoyed the aforementioned culinary treats and found free parking; we might be starting out at say, $15.00. Then, if the movie had a reasonably interesting plot, respectable technique and direction, utilized a modicum of editing (rare these days), and had a high "cute boy factor," Aunt Japan would likely declare that it was "pretty good." However, if any of those qualities were missing, the verdict could easily be, "Somebody owes me about 8 bucks." The reaction is, of course, scalable depending on her level of enjoyment or lack of amusement with said flick. To illustrate, Wall*E received an implicit nod of approval, while I believe somebody owed her about fourteen bucks after The Titanic. Over time, one finds her judgments to be at least as consistent a barometer as http://rottentomatoes.com/ or whoever is playing Siskel and Ebert these days.
Oh. You may be wondering why I'm referring to my sister Anne as "Aunt Japan?" Well, that goes back several years to when my kids were in their pre-adolescent imp stage. For completely inexplicable reasons (is that an oxymoron?), "Aunt Anne" morphed into "Aunt Japan." And, it just stuck. There is nothing very Japanese about Japan, other than her small cache of Asian objects d'art; collected over the years, I suppose, with just a hint of irony.
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