Well, I guess maybe I do need emoticons after all...There is a distinction between "adoration" of a film and "drooling adoration" of a film. First of all, I don't know how I can make it any clearer. I said I liked ET, thought it was okay. Said it twice. Never said I "didn't like it."
So, my definition of "drooling adoration" is that sort of fan who is so gaga over a movie that you must think exactly as he/she does about it. Anything less, anything different and you're the anti-Christ. You have to adore it, you have to think it's wonderful. Any criticism of it will not be brooked. Any attack on the film is construed as a personal attack on the person.
To say that ET does not have these type of zealot groupies would be an absolute falsehood. Almost any film that has made the money it has, a part of its following is made up of these sort of folks. The type of folks who stand in line for two days, freezing their ass off, to be the very,very,very, very first one to see the next installment of STAR WARS. That, my friends, is "drooling adoration". ET has those fans. But I never once suggested that anyone on this board or any specific person here was one of those fans.
No one said it's bad to like a specific movie, to love a specific movie, to adore a specific movie, but I find "drooling adoration" a bit problematic. It is, after all, only a movie.
And what's amusing in this entire discussion is that I didn't dislike the movie. I just didn't pee my pants with delight over it. Big deal.