When people gather at the water cooler on Monday morning to discuss the movies they saw over the weekend, the conversation invariably uses words like "good," "funny," and "great."  Comments are usually short, such as "Toy Story 3 is a great movie" or "MacGruber was horrible."  What are the people saying, and what ideas are they trying to convey?  My tendency when hearing vague comments like "good," "bad," "funny," "great," and "terrible" is to ask more questions about the film.

 What are the criteria by which you judge a film?  Why was the story compelling?  Why was the acting good or believable?  Are the special effects that good?  When somebody asks you why you liked a film, do you give that person a gut reaction?  The only purpose of this article is to help the reader think critically about the movie for only a moment and to think and reflect on what it is that makes that film so great.