My brother Kevin, the man behind film review site Pretentious Musings (see also sidebar), takes some shots at print-media film critics at MSNBC:
The proliferation of online critics has been described as a “democratization” by many who enjoy getting their movie information from various sources throughout the land. Kevin Koehler runs a site called pretentiousmusings.com, which is included in rottentomatoes.com’s roundup of critics. He has a different take entirely. He feels most movie critics have written their own obituaries because they’re just not very good. He is not a fan of most of the film critics found in traditional print publications.
“I think most movie criticism is terrible,” he said. “Most of the best criticism now is online. For instance, I really like Walter Chaw, who writes for filmfreakcentral.com. Another is James Kendrick. Now because of the Internet, a lot of movie critics feel threatened. ‘Why aren’t people listening to us?’ It has to be the audience’s fault. Nobody ever says that maybe they should write better.”
Check out my brother’s site if you haven’t already.
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Kevin Koehler and I both share an appreciation for Walter Chaw’s critique. He described “21″, quote, makes “Rounders” seem like a work of great and serious import. In my own estimation, it’s not even worthy of a direct-to-DVD status. It’s a direct-to-my-bittorrent flop just so that I can watch it and know what I’m talking about when I trash it. He’s a truly acid mofo when it comes to movies that he hates. You need a damn thick thesaurus handy to understand a good chunk of what he writes also. It’s because of no-holds-barred critics like him that I find reading reviews a lot more entertaining than watching the movies themselves.
“It’s because of no-holds-barred critics like him that I find reading reviews a lot more entertaining than watching the movies themselves.”
Maybe I’m old school, but I read reviews to get an idea whether it’s worth it for me to see some movie in the theater or on DVD. When reviewers are competing to see who can be the cleverest when bashing a movie, it can get in the way of honest assessment of the film.