By Daniel A. Campisi
Dec. 30th 2000
Here I'll give you and example. There was this movie that I really didn't want to see, it sounded boring and didn't look like the plot was that great either. Well the day it comes out I hear raves about it from movie critics in newspapers and on TV, so I decide maybe it's not so bad and head over to the theatrer to see this film. Then I proceed to spend two and half hours bored out of mind, not wanting to leave cause I paid eight bucks, and praying the movie gets better... but it doesn't. It turns out to be one of the worst films I have ever seen in my life (but it had good special effects...ugh. That is a rant for another time). I leave the theater depressed and trying to understand how that boring waste of film got in such good favor of those critics.
Then there is the other side of the spectrum. There was this film I had been waiting to come out to theaters for a good while. It had a fantastic trailer and enough hype to make a fanboy drool. I really, really wanted to see this movie. Then the reviews come out, and needless to say they were very lackluster. Some said the movie was either average or just plan bad. Despite these reviews I still went to the movie, paid my eight bucks, and... HAD A GREAT TIME! The movie was awesome and put the rest of the summer film flock to shame. That night I left the theater trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with the critics?
Fast forwarding to today, I read a review of Gladiator (A movie that has been give four dings by this web-site, and is nominated for Best Picture in the upcoming Golden Globes) that was absolutely terrible. This review was written by Roger Ebert, the name amoung names when it come to film critique, and actually lowered my opinion on him as a critic. I was so dissappointed with his review I wrote this essay, but this isn't the first time this has happened.
There is a site I visit frequently called Rotten Tomatoes that lists critic's movie reviews from all over the country. Here I compare the established critic's reviews to my own, and I am sometimes pleaseed, and sometimes extremely pissed off. Here I have read bad review upon bad review of Love and Sex, a movie I personally love. There were bad reviews galore about Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? and Unbreakable, two more movies I thought stood out as some of the best of the year.
It's not that the bad reviews bother me, it's just some of there reasons for the bad reviews. Some of the critics I read are so picky about the little things a film has or doesn't have. I love it when the critics say stuff like "The acting was great, it had great costumes and set designs, but it didn't bring anything new to the screen," or "I didn't agree with or like the angle or set up the director used in this one scene." What the hell is that? You are supposed to critique the movie on the important stuff like plot, acting, character, direction, and to a lesser degree music, costumes, and FX, not the nit picky little stuff. And don't you love it when a critic calls a movie bad by comparing to a classic film. I call this the "Citizen Kane Syndrom." The review by Roger Ebert of Gladiator is guilty of this ploy. It's like a reviewer saying "Compared to Citizen Kane this movie sucks." Helllllllooooooo, Wake up!!! Compared to Citizen Kane almost every movie is going to suck (With a few exceptions like Casablanca, etc.).
So what the hell is wrong with the critics? I guess nothing since they are entitled to and just voicing there opinions, but doesn't really just bug you when your favorite movie of all time gets a terrible review? I sometimes wonder if the major critics get paid a certain way to pan to praise a movie. Anyway here at the Reel World we pledge not to review on little insignificant part of movies and we shall try to avoid the "Citizen Kane Syndrom." So if you reading this ever catch us doing these things I just ranted against let us know right away. We may be a lot of things here, but the last thing we need to be are hypocrites. Also if you disagree with our reviews let us know, we love to discuss them and find out what other people think.