The level of ignorance here is so astronomical I'm getting an aneurysm

"the level of films the community actually enjoys is atrociously simplistic and generic"

*A rather simplistic statement, no? Check the Top 250. There are some clunkers in there, sure, but a great many of the films on that list, as being representative of what "the community" likes, are great films.
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"the collective suddenly spawns individuals who feel they're film buffs and bash it, when obviously they know absolutely nothing about films."

*You make it sound almost conspiratorial - as if these 'individuals' are normally just minding their own business and then gang up on films like "Get Low" for some arbitrary reason. I'll agree many people tend to 'bash' films without citing specific examples, etc. This can be frustrating but if you're interested in having real discourse, ask questions and go for *specifics*. You will quickly weed out the riff-raff and find people who really do want to discuss the film.

I wouldn't get too caught up on the 'trolls' and those who don't care about really having a serious discussion. There are plenty on this board who do take film seriously and like good rhetoric. Besides, having contrarian posts/arguments is important, I believe. It prevents a board from becoming a hysterical fanboy circle-jerk. Case in point: here are the first ten topics on the "Dark Knight" board as of this writing:

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Some chicks look hotter when they're NOT smiling
Boardwalk Empire or The Walking Dead?
Goldeneye... Rogue Agent!
What a day. Michael Shannon as General Zod and JGL as a young Joker!
I just noticed every Wikipedia featured article this week started with P
Hey congrats chicago...
They still haven't cum up with something better than the condom???
Bob Dylan
i've been on a keanu kick for the last few days
Andre has been compared the Hollywood Reporter.
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Aside from this, there are plenty of people who didn't like "Get Low" who do indeed know a lot about films. I myself thought it was a decent actor's film, but nothing really incredible. Even Ebert, Mr. film critic supreme, had this to say: "All of this is just plain enjoyable. I liked it, but please don't make me say it's deeply moving or redemptive and uplifting."

Ask point to point questions and simply DON'T RESPOND to pissing-match posts unless that's what you want to do. Even responding to a 'troll' by saying "You are a troll" is responding! I find myself noticing a lot of the same, smart users on the same boards as me, and it's fun to engage those people in different contexts. I'm not interested in being friends with anyone or whatever, but it is fun when you find a half-dozen people you can rely on to take film rhetoric seriously.

"There is no inner peace. There is only nervousness and death." - Fran Lebowitz

OP is right, I was just thinking something along these lines myself.
Reading some of the completely ignorant and outright stupid posts here I'm slowly beginning to grasp how it's possible for such utter filth as "Transformers" (I or II, take your pick) to become box office hits.
The problem with freedom of speech is that it applies to total f'ing morons, too.
Sigh.

TheThirdRevelation posted on Sun Apr 3 2011 04:55:31:

This board, well most of IMDb, is dominated by the most utterly inane *beep*

Hey, it's not just IMDb. Internet message boards in general have become dominated by those with extremely limited intellectual tools -- the types of people who require explanatory cartoons and stick figures to be able to grasp even elementary points.

Sad to say, but most of the Wally World and NASCAR crowd has now discovered the internet, and these people are reproducing at an alarming rate.

I don't understand why you'd take something so seriously that you risk your personal health over it, especially over something so simple as different people expressing different opinions about one movie. I hate to tell you this, but IMDB is not exclusively an film elitist's, enthusiast's, or intellectual's web site. For better or for worse, anyone with an e-mail address can sign up and express their own opinion on here. That's the price to be paid for a free web site. As for "Get Low", I enjoyed this movie and found it fairly entertaining, but it was very far from the greatest movie I've ever seen. It was a very unique story with a stellar cast. However, I have to state that even for this kind of story, I found the pace to be a bit slow, and this is coming from someone who's not expecting a car chase or alien invasion happening every ten minutes, either.

[deleted]

Why get upset about it? Seriously, pick any 50 of the top 100 films of all times, look on these Boards and you'll see a thread labelled "the most overrated film of all time" or "this movie was awful" or something along those lines.

We live and have always lived in a society where great art is not always appreciated by the masses (or a segment of the population). I thought this movie was the best movie that I've seen in years.

There are people that think "Citizen Kane," the Beatles and Dylan are overrated and boring. I think this way, the people that say this movie was awful, or Dylan is awful, I wouldn't really want to be engaged in a discussion with them. If I wouldn't want to speak with them in person, why on earth would I read their inane thoughts on these Boards. I simply ignore threads that have those titles and posts that express those sentiments.

[deleted]

This movie was well made, minus a few hiccups. But its not like its the long lost masterpiece that everyone pretends they get when they don't lol. Just saying