I read Roger Ebert and Dave White’s “One, Please!” columns regularly, Ebert because we seem to have a similar Midwestern sort of sensibility and because I know him well enough to know when I’m likely to disagree with him, and Dave…well, 'cause he’s funny and cool and closer to my own age. Both critics restrain themselves from doing the Pauline Kael “here’s the movie they might have made if they were as smart as I am” thing.
What movie critics do you read regularly and why? Who is not to be missed?
I think Ebert is one of the best reviewers out there. His reviews are always very well thought out and 90% of the time I agree with his critique. He also loves movies, loves to talk about movies, and it shows easily through his reviews.
This guy (or girl?) is absolutely hilarious at times. The whole feel of the reviews have changed a bit since he first started, but they can still be uproariously funny.
James Berardinelli (http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/) is a great reviewer. His reviews are always good reading. Even when I disagree with what he has to say, I still enjoy reading the review. He’s a great writer.
There is a website for suggesting movies based on your input. You rate a bunch of different movies, then based on what other people have entered it tells you which movies you might like to see. I used to have a link to this but lost it and now I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the site.
This might be helpful for the OP, so its possibly not a complete hijack, but if anyone out there knows the name…?
I always read Eberts review if I’m interested in a movie, but I generally don’t agree with him. Siskel (sp?) was the man. Rotten Tomatoes is excellent for getting a general overview of a movie, and you can dig into anyones review that looks interesting.
ShibbOleth, I’d be very interested in that site if you come up with the name.
Ebert’s gotten soft. Three stars for ‘Tomb Raider’? Bah. While his reviews are entertaining and informed, I will take things he likes with a grain of salt. One thing, though, if he gives something a bad review, you know it must be a fetid, steaming pile of crap.
You are probably thinking of Movielens. I use this one. It usually has a 50/50 shot of being right about what I’ll like though. For instance, I think it told me I’d give Swordfish 3 1/2 stars out of five, based on the fact that I seem to generally like action films. But it of course does not take into account that Swordfish was a piece of crap. My favorite feature is that you can make a “To See” list for yourself. This is very helpful when the hubby and I are going to rent stuff, as it cuts down on the “Whadd’ya wanna see?” “I dunno, what do you wanna see?” discussions. I just print out my list, and off we go to the store.
As to the OP, Roger Ebert is my favorite. I would say that 90% of the time, I agree with him. Based on his reviews (reading the whole thing, not just the star rating), I can usually predict if I will like a film.
I loved Movie Critic, but they’ve gone under. Which is partly what inspired this thread. I had more than 1400 ratings on that site!
Ender, I’ve seen Mr. Cranky (though not recently), and he is funny. Just a little too cranky. He doesn’t like anything. Some movies he hates less than others. The joke gets a little old after a while.
I forgot to mention this one: if you have kids, or are kinda squeamish about movie violence, maybe, and want to know what you’re getting yourself into, there’s a good site called Screen It!, that spells out exactly how much of what kind of kid-unfriendly stuff might be in a given movie. Or, if you’re not a kid, you could use it to look for, erm, “boobage” and other…good stuff.
I have found that there is one critic is almost always a surefire indicator of wether a movie is good or bad. His name is Mick LeSalle, and he writes for the SF Chronicle (or used to, haven’t seen a review from him in a while) Now, the thing you have to understand is that LeSalle is a moron. He wouldn’t know a good movie if he was strapped in a chair with his eyelids propped open a la A Clockwork Orange. So, if he give a movie a good review, don’t go. It sucks. It’ll be Freddy Got Fingered but not so high-brow. On the other hand, if he pans something, check it out. If he gives it an empty chair*, run to the theatres because LaSalle is probably talking about a talent the likes of which we have not seen since the heyday of Orson Welles. I’m completely serious. On the rare occasions when he actually likes a good movie, he almost always is wrong about why he liked it. He’ll rave on and on about why he likes a movie, but his reasoning usually shows that he completely missed the point of it.
*Sf review system: Empty chair, guy asleep in chair, bored guy in chair, applauding guy in chair, jumping up and down applauding guy in chair.
Movie reviewers I like who haven’t been mentioned yet in this thread:
Stephanie Zacharek at Salon.com. (Zacharek is a critic I love to read, whether or not I agree with her estimation of a movie. In fact, I generally don’t care if a critic matches my sensibility as much as I care about the critic writing something worth reading, especially something that will make me see something new about a film if I read the review after seeing the movie.) Actually, Charles Taylor’s usually a good read, too.
Mike D’Angelo, who began writing on his own site and now writes reviews for Time Out New York (you’ll have to do a name search for his reviews at TONY).
Another very handy site: the Movie Review Query Engine. Enter the movie title you’re looking for and the MRQE pulls up a number of reviews from a variety of sources.
I slightly prefer it to Rotten Tomatoes because it’s faster and features less extraneous stuff. But RT is good for searching by critic.
Roger Ebert is OK, except he seems to like a little too much of everything.
My favorites:
Stephen Hunter of the Washington Post. But the WP online only goes back 2 weeks for free. He used to be at the Baltimore Sun, but now they make you pay for his old reviews.
Also Elvis Mitchell of the NYT. I can’t stand AO Scott of same.
Sometimes the reviews by Stephen Hunter Elvis Mitchell about movies they hate are pretty funny.
The most reliable movie critic I know is a lady I work with. I wait for her to see a movie, ask her about it, and then believe the exact opposite of what she said. So far, she’s been right on every time I’ve checked. She loved Vertical Limit, for instance.
Holy Cow. I was going to say that reviewers that you always disagree with can be very useful, and I was going to give Mr Lasalle as my #1 example. He is BAD.
