I’m not entirely sure what inspired me to create this site. On one hand, as a first-year law student who already spends way too much time not studying, I probably don’t need any more distractions. On the other, it’s three months until baseball season and I need something to occupy my time during class.
My motivation to create a site of reviews is twofold. First, since leaving college, I’ve realized that I have absolutely no idea what my friends have thought of movies they’ve seen, or what TV shows they watch, or what music they’ve been listening to, or for the half of them that read, what books they’ve read. My idea behind this site is to not just post my opinions, but to hear what my friends (and maybe, at some point, people I don’t know) think as well. One of my favorite things to do after watching a movie is talking about it with the people I’ve seen it with and I’d like this to simulate that experience.
Secondly, I think the vast majority of critics suck (ha! A criticism of critics…how deliciously ironic). There are a few exceptions — the avclub and pajiba are pretty good, and Tim Goodman has got to be the best TV writer in the country — but on the whole, I’ve found other reviews to be useless enough that I never read them.
Not only that, I absolutely hate it when a review gives away a key plot point or ruins any kind of surprise within the movie. I’m the type of person who doesn’t like watching the “next week on…” trailers they stick at the end of TV shows, so it pisses me off to no end when a review reveals anything. I mean, even talking about a twist ending without saying what it is is giving away the ending in some way. As a result, I haven’t read reviews of anything until after I’ve seen it for a long time now. I promise that I will never, ever give away a spoiler without warning, and I will try my hardest to keep them out of the reviews altogether. The comments, on the other hand, will hopefully be where we can talk more specifically about whatever I’m reviewing and probably shouldn’t be read until after seeing it (unless you are one of those people that hates surprises…you know who you are).
My plan is to post something every Monday, Wednesday and Friday — while I have some ideas for different types of features within each category, the majority of the site will probably be film-related (I mean, seriously, books? That’s just wishful thinking on my part) and hopefully they’ll be movies that are out in theaters, recently on DVD or unappreciated movies from the past. What you won’t find are reviews of anything that I don’t want to see — that’s why I could never be a critic…imagine having to not only sit through Alien v. Predator: Requiem, but also having to find something worthwhile to write about it. Yikes. Also, as a law student in New York (where movies are like 12 bucks now) I’m not paying to see anything that looks like it sucks, and as someone who doesn’t go to movies by myself, it’d be hard to drag someone else to see a potentially shitty movie.
Anyway, welcome and thanks for stopping by. I hope you all visit regularly and participate and comment — it’d be no fun otherwise.
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Adam,
Just found your site (via HeidiTown). I’m a film critic but I agree with your smackdown of many existing critics — too much information running through my brain, to quote an old Police song. I once worked with a guy who spent the first 8 grafs of a review showing off his knowledge of movies from 1910 – present. Didn’t leave much room for an actual review, you know? Another colleague typically gave great movies 1.5 stars …
Odd profession, and some odd people in it (hopefully myself not included)!