I have spent my last full-price admission (matinée actually) for a movie that absolutely sucks.
I regularly read the movie reviews but sometimes I want to see a movie without knowing anything about it. The critics take such glee in revealing critical plot points that to read the review can often ruin that feeling of not knowing what to expect.
But from here on out, I don’t care. First it was the movie “Pay It Forward”, which should have been titled -“Send it Back”. Then today it was “Unbreakable” which was pretty much “Unbearable.”
Had I read the reviews, I would have found some other way of wasting my time and money.
Also with both of these movies, I seriously cannot believe that Hollywood continues to crank out such absolute drivel. Do they really think that little of the viewing public or are they counting on suckers like me -for the last time- skipping over the reviews and heading straight to the cinema. Those bastards.
I always read reviews before seeing a movie and I often decide not to see a movie in a theater based on reviews I read (I wait for video).
I got a nasty shock this year when I went to see “Nurse Betty.” The movie was advertised as a comedy (yeah, I know Neil LaBute directed it, but still, it was supposed to be funny) and twenty minutes into the movie a character was scalped on screen. WTF! Not a single review mentioned that scene and I was really disturbed by it - I seriously thought about walking out. The only reason I didn’t leave is so I could try to erase that image from my brain by watching the rest of the crappy movie. Didn’t work. I was grossed out for a couple days.
My new policy is to check ScreenIt.com before seeing any movie. They give detailed descriptions of violence, nudity, sex, etc. for most new movies. Unfortunately, they often have to reveal spoilers to detail the content, but that’s a small price to pay to know I won’t be seeing anyone scalped. Plus, if I know I’m not going to see a movie but want to know the ending, I check that site.
I really get nervous with reviews. The worst reviewers, like Ebert, will give away things that happen well into the story, sometimes after the climax!
But I still read reviews if I DON’T think I would like the movie, or am cool to it. If it changes my mind, then I don’t mind that it spoiled part of the plot.
I never read reviews. There’s a reason- most movie critics are idiots.
I have seen quite a few really good movies that the reviewers viciously panned, and others that got rave reviews that bored me to tears. Once in a while, a movie will be both critically acclaimed and very good, but this is rare.
I did generally watch Siskel and Ebert a lot. They were different enough in their tastes and outlooks that between the two of them, they were a reliable guide of whether a movie would be worth the ticket price or not. My general rule of thumb was, when Siskel and Ebert disagree, go with Siskel, but then Gene Siskel died, and left me adrift in a sea of Hollywood drivel with no map or compass to guide me to the islands of intelligent and entertaining viewing…
Never, unless I have absolutely no intention of ever seeing the movie (hence my screenname).
I don’t want to know anything about what’s going to happen. I decide about movies based on trailers, basic themes, actors, etc. Sure, it leads to some mistakes (that Richard Gere movie, “Primal Fear” – what possessed me?), but that’s better than knowing the ending of the story – or even the direction of the story. It made “The Cider House Rules” pretty interesting. I had no idea what it was going to be about.
I was also completely shocked by the ending of “Titanic”. I knew that the boat sank, of course, but not what happened to certain major characters – which turned out to be very different from what I was envisioning up to about 10 minutes before the movie ended.
As a corollary, if I do happen to read a review, or have someone decide to tell me the plot of the movie, that’s it, I no longer have any interest in seeing it.
I always read reviews. I want a hint as to what it’s about. But I would never pass up a film based on a bad review for 2 resons. The first is listed by Thea Logica. The second is that critics don’t seem to like movies in general. Many only give good reviews to foreign films with sub-titles. This way they can demonstrate that they are not common as the rest of us.
My main problem with reading reviews is that it usually spoils the whole thing. I would rather sit through a bad movie than have a good movie ruined for me.