Serious reviewers are a somewhat jaded bunch. They have to watch so many movies in their line of work that it takes a bit more than a few gratuitous topless scenes and a car crash here and there to make them stand up and take notice. Some of them even have advanced degrees in film studies and understand things like camera nuances and lighting techniques. They want art. They want edginess. They want thought-provoking scenes. They want a movie that will allow them to use phrases like “life-affirming” in their review.

The movie-going public, however, wants escapism. Eye candy. Explosions. They want a plot they can understand, and a character with motivation. It also helps if Good triumphs over Evil in the end. In recent years, so many blockbuster films were being trounced by critics in recent years that some studios stopped sending out preview copies to avoid the buzz-kill. But thanks to the Internet, and sites like the Internet Movie Database, film fans are able publicly share the important factoids about the current screen favorites (“Johnny Depp takes his shirt off twice!”). In today’s Hollywood, box office receipts are rarely affected by critical negativity.