Do you generally agree with critics reviews?

I think it's probably also worth mentioning that if you spend 7 days a week professionally watching films:

1. After a while they probably all start to blur into one another.

2. You start to see narrative patterns and signposting cues endlessly repeat themselves.

3. It's hard to see the merits of a film in isolation, you can't help comparing it to others in the same genre.

4. Film reviews/perceptions are a snapshot of a moment in time. I still can't understand for the life of me why "Titanic" was so warmly received at the time. I mean, it's clearly well made, but it hasn't aged well at all and its heartstring-tugging moments are so clearly orchestrated for maximum effect.
 
Too much weight is put on film critics, I prefer seeing an aggregate score ala Rotten Tomatos. There are plenty of films that I adore that have low scores. I tend to watch several YouTube channels now for movie reviews and sites like this.
Exactly. Likewise, I find IMDB very misleading. They're very highly rated movies I often don't agree with, but the ones in the low 7s I find the ones I like best.
 
I think it's probably also worth mentioning that if you spend 7 days a week professionally watching films:

1. After a while they probably all start to blur into one another.

2. You start to see narrative patterns and signposting cues endlessly repeat themselves.

3. It's hard to see the merits of a film in isolation, you can't help comparing it to others in the same genre.

4. Film reviews/perceptions are a snapshot of a moment in time. I still can't understand for the life of me why "Titanic" was so warmly received at the time. I mean, it's clearly well made, but it hasn't aged well at all and its heartstring-tugging moments are so clearly orchestrated for maximum effect.
I think Titanic was one of the worst films I've ever seen. If you took out the CGI there's nothing left. A hackneyed romance that wasn't believable at all, characters that were stereotypes, dialogue that was bad soap opera level and a acript that was all over the place. Started as a period romance and ended as an action movie on a boat. It was popular because it had, for the time, excellent effects.
 
I think it's probably also worth mentioning that if you spend 7 days a week professionally watching films:

1. After a while they probably all start to blur into one another.

2. You start to see narrative patterns and signposting cues endlessly repeat themselves.

3. It's hard to see the merits of a film in isolation, you can't help comparing it to others in the same genre.

4. Film reviews/perceptions are a snapshot of a moment in time. I still can't understand for the life of me why "Titanic" was so warmly received at the time. I mean, it's clearly well made, but it hasn't aged well at all and its heartstring-tugging moments are so clearly orchestrated for maximum effect.
I think that back in the day, the trap that the traditional, over-worthy arty type of critic fell into is that they weren’t seeing the wood for the trees ie they were too busy critiquing the artistic value of the movie (which was their job, and influenced by the factors you mentioned) to step back and consider whether it was entertaining (which is also part of the job).

To be clear, I think critics are now much more balanced, and the snooty approach is pretty rare.

Maybe I’m going off on a tangent, but perhaps this change is why we get a lot of 5-7/10 scores though. A “dumb but fun” movie might have got 3/10 if judged purely artistically, but if it’s enjoyable enough, it’ll get an extra point or two?
 
I think it's probably also worth mentioning that if you spend 7 days a week professionally watching films:

1. After a while they probably all start to blur into one another.

2. You start to see narrative patterns and signposting cues endlessly repeat themselves.

3. It's hard to see the merits of a film in isolation, you can't help comparing it to others in the same genre.

4. Film reviews/perceptions are a snapshot of a moment in time. I still can't understand for the life of me why "Titanic" was so warmly received at the time. I mean, it's clearly well made, but it hasn't aged well at all and its heartstring-tugging moments are so clearly orchestrated for maximum effect.
I was never paid to do it 7 days a week but I was a film critic and I did receive some money for it over the years, I was the regular critic at the Kent Messenger; so yes fairly low down the food chain.

For me, it just meant I knew how to write 100-700 words about a film with some frame of reference and hopefully could string a few sentences together to entertain. There are patterns you see but the end result, you always have to entertain the reader.

The idea of the snooty critic handing down verdicts on popular culture is surely dead now; certainly for film. Working in various offices last 10 years, most if not all the staff didn't know who Mark Kermode or Simon Mayo were and I don't think the younger Radio 1 film critics were known either. I would often see Doctor K at screenings, and once watched Avengers: Age of Ultron at the Dolby cinema in Soho Square with Simon Mayo and about 2 other folk.

It was an honour to preview films and I like to think I enjoyed it as much as possible at the time. The critics at the Evening Standard can be quite good but recently reading them, I had the impression they just couldn't be bothered any more, there was no joy there.

As with anything in the media now, if your face fits the bill and you can communicate your passion and knowledge for a subject succinctly and pithily, you will get air time......somewhere if you want it.

Getting PAID properly is the hard part! :)
 
Do you find that you agree with film critics scores a lot?

For the last year I’ve been reading through year old Empire magazines, as after a year almost everything is on a streaming service subscription (and I have most). I have been watching almost everything that they’ve scored 3 stars or above (3 stars is a recommendation). I would estimate that I disagree with 90% of their scores. 87% are too high 3% are too low.

I know some will say find a better critic, but I’m generally not that bothered what I watch, just as long as I haven’t seen it before. I’m just amazed how often I disagree. I would often knock 2 stars off some of their reviews. Funnily enough yesterdays film was one of the very few where I would rate the film higher than them. WolfWalkers deserved 5 stars imo.

Is it just me? Anyone else read Empire or other publications and disagree a lot?

I use them to form my watching list. It they say its crap then its usually a must see, if they give it a 9 or 10 then I know I need to see it with some arty farty friends or its not in English :rotfl:
 
I use them to form my watching list. It they say its crap then its usually a must see, if they give it a 9 or 10 then I know I need to see it with some arty farty friends or its not in English :rotfl:

I mean good luck with that.

By my maths, that'll leave you missing out on Spider-Man: No Way Home, Boiling Point, Peacemaker, The Batman, Robocop, Tragedy of Macbeth, Last Night in Soho, and Dune.

And instead watching Matrix Resurrections, Moonfall, The Desperate Hour, Against the Ice, Escape from LA, Netflix's Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Eternals and the 355.

Let me know how that works out.
 
I mean good luck with that.

By my maths, that'll leave you missing out on Spider-Man: No Way Home, Boiling Point, Peacemaker, The Batman, Robocop, Tragedy of Macbeth, Last Night in Soho, and Dune.

And instead watching Matrix Resurrections, Moonfall, The Desperate Hour, Against the Ice, Escape from LA, Netflix's Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Eternals and the 355.

Let me know how that works out.
I miss out on nothing, in reality I check out the Google rating if its shown as low in here or by TV "experts". I've seen most of your list above :smashin: I didn't say I don't watch those rated 9 or 10 ;)

I do read your reviews and if you look back I think last 3 of yours I said were spot on :)

We are all "critics", I was mostly meaning mainstream media reviewers like those on BBC or in the papers.

Lots of "touchy" critics for sure, its all just opinion end of day and we don't all like the same things.

As a sci-fi/fantasy fan I can enjoy some seriously borderline rubbish :rotfl:
 
I enjoy reading Roger Ebert's reviews & generally agree with him but I only read them after I've watched the film, not before. They are on IMDb which is my go-to website for movies, as I'm sure it is for a lot of others. Their composite scores almost always feel about right but of course there will be exceptions for films that I adore but others don't, and visa versa!

A lot of old school critics were really into film as an art form and so love arty films that leave a lot of people cold. eg Stalker, the 1979 Russian film, is adored by many critics but I found it to be almost unwatchable. It used to be on IMDb's Top 250 films of all-time & I decided I'd try to watch all of them. That was an interesting exercise as it got me to watch films that I otherwise wouldn't have tackled. Some turned out to be gems, others were awful. I think I maxed-out at 242.
 
Once upon a time in a galaxy far far away I would go to the cinema once a week [ every Thursday ] no matter what the film was - The Plaza in Bangor changed their films every Friday so by the time Thursday came along the place was empty so we could sit wherever we wanted . Each and every film was a surprise and in all the time we went I would say that there was only one film that had I known in advance what was showing I wouldn't have gone [ ABBA-The Movie ] but I still enjoyed it [sort of ] .
It could be that I got lucky or I went during a time when some rather excellent films came out but I can honestly say that I enjoyed each and every one of those films .

Nowadays , I'll only read what the critics have to say about a film AFTER I've watched it .
 
For me the most important critics are the ones you tend to disagree with. If you have a fairly broad palate in movie tastes then identifying the critics or friends which reliably love the kind of film you hate or hate the kind of film you love is far more useful and likely to be a good steer than a generally positive review in isolation. Also a key tell is when someone compares the influences in films to several other films that they feel are similar to it. For example if someone said "It combines the twisted wit of Get Shorty with the exuberance of Raiders of the Lost Ark and the straight up terror of Alien" i'd be off to see it but if they said "It combines the twisted wit of Withnail and I with the exuberance of Moulen Rouge and the straight up terror of The Blair Witch Project" i'd avoid it like the plague. Armed with that sort of thinking and long experience I can tell that even though The Norseman has just received a very high review here it's not going to satisfy me on either a Gladiator or Excalibur level but is far more likely to be like some evil child of Game of Thrones and The 300 which isn't really likely to be my cuppa.
 
For me the most important critics are the ones you tend to disagree with. If you have a fairly broad palate in movie tastes then identifying the critics or friends which reliably love the kind of film you hate or hate the kind of film you love is far more useful and likely to be a good steer than a generally positive review in isolation. Also a key tell is when someone compares the influences in films to several other films that they feel are similar to it. For example if someone said "It combines the twisted wit of Get Shorty with the exuberance of Raiders of the Lost Ark and the straight up terror of Alien" i'd be off to see it but if they said "It combines the twisted wit of Withnail and I with the exuberance of Moulen Rouge and the straight up terror of The Blair Witch Project" i'd avoid it like the plague. Armed with that sort of thinking and long experience I can tell that even though The Norseman has just received a very high review here it's not going to satisfy me on either a Gladiator or Excalibur level but is far more likely to be like some evil child of Game of Thrones and The 300 which isn't really likely to be my cuppa.
Whilst I agree with your sentiment, you couldn’t be more wrong about The Northman.
Advertising hasn’t helped it, but 300 is definitely not in there in any way, shape or form.

Ironically, I had a conversation just the other day about Gladiator, which ended with me saying although everyone loves it, it bores me to tears.

End of the day, opinions are like arseholes, we’ve all got one
 
Whilst I agree with your sentiment, you couldn’t be more wrong about The Northman.
Advertising hasn’t helped it, but 300 is definitely not in there in any way, shape or form.

Ironically, I had a conversation just the other day about Gladiator, which ended with me saying although everyone loves it, it bores me to tears.

End of the day, opinions are like arseholes, we’ve all got one
Thanks for that. The fact that Gladiator bores you but you enjoyed the Northman backs my decision to wait until it’s free on a streaming platform.
 
Thanks for that. The fact that Gladiator bores you but you enjoyed the Northman backs my decision to wait until it’s free on a streaming platform.
I thought it might cement your decision 😂
 
Never agree with critics because its just 1 opinion, I'll judge on its merits from what I see. Naturally some films I would refuse to see because I don't want to ruin certain things in a possible franchise of movies.
 
Got to be honest, I have never bothered with film critics, much like food critics. I find both topics are so much of an individual taste, that I prefer to sample them myself.
 
i don't give much of a sh*t about the opinion of film critics because they are exactly that: opinions. its been a while since i've read a review of a critic that was objective and just focused on storytelling, camerawork, light and all that stuff. most reviews are full of agenda and i'm not interessted in that.

if a movie like "the Witch" gets the same rating as "Captain Marvel" i'm truly on a different page when it comes to taste in movies..
 
if a movie like "the Witch" gets the same rating as "Captain Marvel" i'm truly on a different page when it comes to taste in movies..
Because The VVitch is clearly superior, right?
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is Home Theater DEAD in 2024?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom