Who is your go-to movie reviewer these days?

Cafe Society
1

Back in the day, I would always read Siskel and Ebert (or watch their show), and together they would supply me a pretty good triangulation on whether I should go to a particular movie or not. Nowadays, of course, Siskel is gone, and Ebert’s output is way down. I can no longer count on finding a review from him for any given movie.

So, what’s a poor boy to do? Who are your favorite current movie reviewers, that help you decide if you want to waste your hard-earned cash and time an the latest celluloid offerings? That provide enough insight and analysis, and have a good track record of helping you make good decisions?

2

Not a single reviewer, but I usually get the best info (meaning, most in line with my tastes and opinions) from the Onion AV Club.

3

Try Metacritic.com

It’s a compilation of reviews that give a movie an overall grade (much like Rotten Tomatoes, but I find Metacritic to be more reliable). Two critics I often read within the Metacritic listings are David Edelstein from “New York” magazine, and Dana Setevens from slate.com

4

Seconded.

5

James Berardinelli. I find that I am in agreement with him about 85-90% of the time.

6

As always, Ebert.

7

Salon
Onion AV Club
New Yorker
San Francisco Chronicle

My favorite reviewer, by a mile, was the San Diego Reader’s Duncan Shepherd. Unfortunately, he retired a year or two ago after 30 years.
.

8

I read Ebert online. He reviews the movies I’m interested in (along with a bunch I’m not) and I enjoy his writing style. I also read Something Awful’s weekly movie reviews column. I occasionally read other review sites as well as the user reviews on IMdB, but these are my go-to sites. Their RSS feeds sit on my Google Reader so I don’t miss them.

9

Chris Hewitt from the Pioneer Press, he reviews movies like a 12 year old boy would. Whatever he hates is something I’ll look into.

10

Mark Kermode. His podcast with Simon Mayo is glorious.

11

Am I the only one here who reads Film Drunk? That’s a guy who agrees with my sensibilities. Hell, a few weeks ago his ‘Weekend Movie Recommendation’ was something like ‘Save your ten dollars’.

12

I’ve a Google fill in the blank, I’ve forgotten what it’s called, that puts in Nytimes.com and Ebert whenever I enter ‘review’.