Comments on: Reader response wrap-up

By: stephkitten

stephkitten — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:47:27 +0000

and wow..please also ignore my redundancy and typos…see what I get for not re-reading before hitting ‘post’

By: stephkitten

stephkitten — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:46:16 +0000

I will echo the many who regularly consult Eric’s reviews before seeing a movie, and pretty religiously read new reviews to see if I’m missing anything good. And I appreciate that Eric is consistent…I know where our opinions will regularly differ: I absolutely love chick flicks. If Eric gave it a C or higher, I will probably enjoy it thoroughly. Also, I cannot understand his love for Will Ferrell…the only movie that I have honestly really liked him in was Stranger Than Fiction. All his other movies are funny for about 30 min., then become incredibly boring…a 15 min SNL skit drug out way past the joke is funny. And yes, that included Anchorman. Other movies that got a “meh” response from me that Eric loved were the oft-mentioned (in these last few threads) History of Violence and also Eastern Promises (I hope I am correctly remembering that those were directed by the same person). Both of them had wonderful performances by Viggo, whom I adore, but left me with a “that’s it?!” feeling at the end.

On the other hand, I absolutely adored Juno and Waitress, both of which I may not have seen except for Eric’s reviews. In fact, Stranger Than Fiction may be in that group, too…although I do love Emma Thompson, and that may have eventually overcome my non-affection for Will Ferrell eventually.

I apologize for the long uber-post. I was much to lazy to respond to each thread individually

By: kevith

kevith — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:57:42 +0000

I use Eric’s reviews in almost all of my movie decisions. Even if I watch a movie without knowing Eric’s review, I almost always go to the review after the movie is over (or sometimes while the movie is playing if we rented the dvd).

Thinking about all this brought up a question in my mind:

Eric has never given a movie an A+. Is that grade so very rare that no movie so far has actually attained that status? Or is it just not a grade contained within his rating system?

By: Turkey

Turkey — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:50:05 +0000

It’s funny, I rented Bend It Like Beckem for myself based on your recommendation. I assumed the Husband wouldn’t care for it so planned on watching it alone. Then the husband asked, “Well, what did that Snider guy say about it?” He watched it with me based on that alone. And he loved it and was summarily insulted that I was going to watch it without him. Go figure.

By: Adam

Adam — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:39:56 +0000

I don’t watch a lot of movies, but I will watch any movie that Eric gives an A or A-, regardless of how uninteresting it seems, because I know he reserves those grades for films that are well made.

I like Eric’s reviews because he focuses on quality, and whether a film succeeds at what it’s trying to do. Whenever I watch a well made film, I’m glad I did, regardless of what it was about or whether I “agreed” with it, and Eric has an eye for well made films.

By: Billy Bob Thorton

Billy Bob Thorton — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:39:35 +0000

The most important thing Eric does is provide well thought out opinions of movies. I may agree or disagree with his ratings, but I know from his review of a movie that he has thought about the movie, its “message,” and its success in telling that “message.”

I often read Orson Scot Cards “blog” to get his opinion on books, but I don’t like his review of movies. He seems to think if a movie has a social commentary or entertains his 8 year old daughter, it’s a good movie. Read his comments on the movie “Why Did I Get Married?” here: http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everything/2007-10-21.shtml.

He seems to be saying it’s a good film because it has a good message, not because it’s a good film.”

I don’t mean to go on a tangent criticizing Mr. Card, I respect his work and have probably read every book he’s written, my point is he’s blinded by the “good message” and doesn’t realize the movie sucks.

From Eric’s review: “”Why Did I Get Married?” is blunt and ungraceful in the way it presents its messages.”

See? Even though Eric probably agrees that married people shouldn’t cheat on each other, he was able to see past the “good message” and see the “bad movie”

Anyway, thanks Eric.

By: OMAllen

OMAllen — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:14:53 +0000

Most of Eric’s reviews are on the money. I wouldn’t have watched the Waitress, if not for his review. It was one of those movies my wife wanted to see and I could’ve gotten out of it based on the Sci-Fi Movie rule, where she doesn’t have to go to Sci-Fi movies with me if I don’t have to watch chick flicks, but I figured if Eric says its as sweet as a baby chick dipped in honey, then I’ll give it a shot.

By: Fox

Fox — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:00:14 +0000

I religiously refer to your reviews Eric and we rarely don’t see eye to eye. The only “meh” to your “wow” I can think of recently is A History Of Violence but then again I looked eye to groin [or whatever] with lots of other reviewers over that one too.

My wife used to tease me about my strict habit of never choosing to watch a film that hadn’t been ok’d by Eric and a few other select critics [regarded as slightly obsessive and weird in my neck of hicksville Australia] but recently I have caught her out by asking me “what did that Snider guy say about this one?” as we peruse titles in the DVD store.

A victory for Eric. A victory for me. A victory for common sense and nerdiness.

By: Stacy

Stacy — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:17:43 +0000

How about a time I didn’t listen to you?

I remember when I thought to myself, “Hmm, maybe Eric is wrong about Man of the Year…” I cry myself to sleep each night thinking about the ten bucks I could have spent elsewhere…

By: Phil Cardenas

Phil Cardenas — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:54:18 +0000

I’m sorry. I gotta say it. I LOVED CRASH. I don’t care if the film had a bad view of the public in general. I don’t care if it was contrived/coincidental. That movie MOVED me. I hadn’t felt that much emotion in a film since “The Shawshank Redemption”. I lived in LA at the time I saw the film and it truly resonated with me. Of all of the films that year, “Crash” really did stand out, and I was very happy it won Best Picture.