We’ve been besieged by movies bearing the critical designation “an instant classic.” A what?

Midnight Meat Train may be no classic of the genre, but it’s certainly a better and more interesting film than most of what passes for horror movies these days.

Let us examine the pitfalls of revisiting some long unseen favorite movie or TV show from your younger years.

The comments and debates — along with readers’ personal anecdotes — have been lively, civilized, fun and thought-provoking, which is exactly what online exchanges ought to be. Now, that I’ve established the fact that I think highly of the folks who post here, let me put something to you: where do we go from here?

Madness has been a staple of movies as long as there have been movies, and it affords us an absolute treasure trove of great moments in film, because — at least so far as the cinema is concerned — madmen are amazingly gregarious.

I’m not that impressed by the Oscars, period. They simply have too long a history of overlooking anything and anyone that might frighten the horses in favor of the safely middle-brow. All the same, it’s impossible to be interested in movies and completely ignore the damned things however irrelevant you think they are.

The real question is whether 3-D is the saviour of the movie business or just the gimmick du jour.

Film criticism, film theory and film history — all inextricably related — are by necessity voracious animals. The problem is that there’s only so much to work from — even though there’s more of it all the time. This can result in some pretty curious notions.

What surprises me about 2008 more than the high number of worthwhile films is the scarcity of middle-ground entertainment.

I think this year the reflection process has been ramped up by virtue of the death of film historian and collector Forrest J Ackerman at the beginning of December.

For the past several years I’ve been asked to come up with holiday viewing suggestions at this time of year. This year you’re on your own. Instead, I’ll tell you what I’m planning on watching and let it go at that.

As promised last week, here is the top half of my top 20 characters/performances.

The results are certainly not geared to maximum recognition value. But they do reflect 20 movie characters I find indelibly imprinted on my cinematic psyche.

The comments in last week’s column — from a fellow veteran of the University of South Florida’s early-mid-1970s marathon movie screenings — brought my own memories of those days back with no little nostalgia for a time when I was young enough, resilient enough and possibly dumb enough to undertake such a thing as 16 movies in the space between Friday evening and Sunday afternoon.

All I knew was that it was really cool, that it took place in this really neat place and boasted a super cool hero. And it had a great opening credit sequence with a terrific theme. When you’re 13, that’s more than enough.