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Do movie reviews affect your movie-going decisions?

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by novelist_wannabe, Jan 29, 2012.

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Do movie reviews affect your movie-going decisions?

  1. I don't leave home without them.

    7 vote(s)
    19.4%
  2. Yes, when I have time to read them.

    4 vote(s)
    11.1%
  3. Only on certain types of movies.

    12 vote(s)
    33.3%
  4. Screw'em. I can make up my own mind.

    13 vote(s)
    36.1%
  1. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    I think it frequently does, actually.

    It is a misconception that critics aren't able to discern between good and bad lowbrow comedy.

    The Hangover: 78 percent
    There's Something About Mary: 83 percent
    American Pie: 60 percent
    The Change-Up: 25 percent
    Freddy Got Fingered: 11 percent

    Sounds about right, no?
     
  2. For my money as far as critics go .. If Kokane_Muhashed likes or hates a flick 90 percent of the time I will as well.
    He's become my movie barometer.
     
  3. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    That's rather eye-opening. Yeah, they nailed that across the board.
     
  4. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    Not since Siskel and Ebert - they were well matched in that Siskel seemed more technical and Ebert more of a emotional viewer of films. If they both liked a movie - odds on it was very good.
    I'll see a very well reviewed movie (figure I'll see The Artist at some point) even if it isn't in my wheelhouse. Some movies that are very much in my wheelhouse I'll want to see early to avoid possible negative reviews clouding my judgement.
    Saw Midnight in Paris last night - and I'm glad I listened to the good reviews (even though I read nothing of the plot). Good, interesting movie.
     
  5. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    One thing I'd like to note: We're mostly journalists or former journalists. It should be our nature to resist slick marketing and propaganda pitched by the source itself. Critics may pen opinion, but they are journalists, too. They are an impartial third party evaluating the product for us. Think of movie trailers as team Web sites and the critics as the sports writers.
     
  6. imjustagirl

    imjustagirl Active Member

    Except most people who read a sports writer on a team are already watching that team and can determine whether or not they agree with the writers' ideas.

    In movie critiques, less so.
     
  7. YGBFKM

    YGBFKM Guest

    The Change-Up is the movie I thought about when I saw this thread. Heard nothing but bad things about it so decided I would avoided it. But the wife picked it up one night and we both agreed it had more laugh-out-loud moments than any movie we'd seen in years.
     
  8. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

    When deciding, I always check out Ebert, who does judge by genre, thus not putting Knocked Up inthe same Judging pool as Schindler's List. Or if he does not have the review, I go to Entertainment Weekly
     
  9. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Well, there are always going to be digressions from consensus opinion and what you like. For example, I thought "The Happening" by M. Night Shyamalan was a good film, for reasons I've already talked about on the movie thread. Critics lambasted it - as did most moviegoers. For the most part, though, getting back to the comedy genre, I don't think that critics are as biased as people think they are.

    For the record, I thought there were some funny moments in "The Change-Up," as well. What made it not work, ultimately, to me was that I didn't find the characters to be likable at all. I wasn't invested in their happy ending.

    But, anyway, I'm threadjacking. It's not my intention to turn someone else's thread into a referendum on "The Change-Up."
     
  10. YGBFKM

    YGBFKM Guest

    I don't get invested in movie characters, which, for me, makes it easier to enjoy the viewing experience. I have too much investing to do in real life, so I tend to shut that off for the most part when I watch a movie (which goes along quite nicely with a suspension of disbelief, I guess). I don't put too much energy into it. It's a movie.
     
  11. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Ultimately, it's a story, though. And good stories require sympathetic protagonists. They require resolutions that make sense within the world of the story. And I'm not demanding that viewers put energy into it - unless you're a bunch of writers like us who think about such things, it mostly works subconsciously.

    But I perfectly understand what you're saying, too - fuck the story, give me the laughs. There are plenty of good movies and TV shows whose plots are essentially an excuse to string gags together. And they work.
     
  12. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

    In following critics, you do have to know your players. For example, Ebert has a gargantuan soft spot for all things Woody Allen, and most critics have a soft spot for quirky European stuff.
     
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