There are two types of film criticism. There's what people who write for newspapers do, which is tell you whether or not you should go see a movie and why. I'll call this 'practical film criticism.' Then there's what people who have Ph.D.s and write books do, which is analyze movies psychologically, politically, historically, etc. I'll call this 'academic film criticism.' What I'll be doing here is mostly practical film criticism.
As a Cornell graduate with a double major in Film Studies and Philosophy, I've done a fair amount of academic film criticism in my day. But if that's what you want to read, I can recommend a whole bunch of books by people much better at it than I am. Chances are, though, if you're looking for movie reviews on the internet, you want to know one thing and one thing only:
Is this movie worth $10 and 2 hours of my life?
No doubt my formal film education will shape my opinions of movies, but my main goal is to answer that question. Every review I write will start with a rating of 5 key aspects of the film, each out of 10. That will be immediately followed by The Bottom Line, which is basically one sentence that answers our key question up there. Then there will be a more in-depth review with maybe some analysis.
Many of my reviews will actually be of movies that are no longer in theaters. I'm going to try to keep up on current releases, but in all honesty, unless I get famous enough that studios comp me tickets, it's pretty expensive to keep up with new releases. But if you're looking for ideas about what's worth renting tonight, this is a good place to go.
From time to time I'll also have posts that aren't reviews of specific movies, but opinions about movies in general.
So that's about it. I guess from this point on I'll let the content speak for itself. Enjoy.
