Oklahoma- OK?

There is a funny episode of How I Met Your Mother that is all about re-thinking previously held opinions. One of the main characters, Ted, discovers that he has a fondness for an old shirt, food item, even an old girlfriend that he had disliked in past years.

This happens to me all the time. It's a great day when a hated shirt in the closet becomes the perfect complement to a new pair of pants, or when an old song pops up on my iTunes shuffle and I re-discover it all over again. Today I realized that my opinion has changed regarding the genre of the movie-musical.

Previous Opinion: I hate musicals.

With the exception of Sound of Music and My Fair Lady, I really could never stand them. The worst ones, usually set in the American West, featured calico-clad girls and men in suspenders breaking into song in the middle of a cotton field, among other awful pioneer cliches.

Updated Opinion: I love musicals, but I still do not like old musicals.

I thought through the musicals that have been made in the last ten years: Moulin Rouge, Phantom of the Opera, Chicago, Hairspray, even Enchanted, to an extent--I have enjoyed them all! It's fun to be surprised to learn that good actors are sometimes also good singers and good dancers (I'm not referring to "crossover artists" like J.Lo or Jessica Simpson- I think that those girls are lame and I'm not revising my opinion here).

I've gotten to the point where I look for movie-watching experiences that are fun and mindless- no thought-provoking, high drama for me. By Friday night, I'm ready for some mental cheesecake. The modern movie-musical is often just what I'm looking for.