Ask Mick LaSalle: How many artists bat .500?

How many people in the creative arts can make that claim?

Dear Jake Gerber: I just looked at a list of Woody Allen features, and by my count he has 21 solidly good movies, while 23 that are either bad or mediocre — though I may have been too hard on a few of them.

[...] I agree with you about Woody Allen’s average, depending on how we’re counting the mediocre movies.

To extend the baseball analogy, if we count the mediocre movies as getting on base with an error, then he’s at .500.

The AFI has “Star Wars” ranked 13 on their list of the top 100, and yet many film buffs argue that “The Empire Strikes Back” is a better film.

If so, does “Star Wars” receive more attention because it was a breakthrough of sorts?

[...] “The Empire Strikes Back” was playing at the time and I had to see it over and over every day.

Maybe I’d feel differently if I worshiped success or was indoctrinated as a small toddler through a combination of forced VHS viewings while being denied breast milk.

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