Film Reviews

Film reviews, consisting of an analysis and a rating, are produced both by critics and fans. Critic reviews can be found in newspapers, magazines and online. Mainly new releases are reviewed and the critics usually see the film once and only have a day or two to formulate their opinions. Critics have an important impact on the films, especially on certain genres. The plot summary and description of a film that makes up the majority of any film review can have an important impact on whether people decide to see a film. For prestige films with a limited release, such as independent dramas, the influence of reviews is extremely important. Poor reviews will often doom a film to obscurity and financial loss.

Online reviews.

There are some film review websites, for example:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/film+tone/reviews

http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/

http://www.channel4.com/film/

http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/ - all of these provide both critic and viewer comments and ratings.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

At first it seemed to me that this film is loved by critics, since it received 13 Academy Awards and 11 BAFTA nominations, however, the truth was different. From the 11 BAFTA nominations, it won just three: Best Makeup&Hair, Best Production Design and Best Visual Effects. I believe these were not the kind of wons everyone were hoping for, since "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" was also nominated for categories such as Best Film, Best Director - David Fincher, Best Leading Actor - Brad Pitt, Best Cinematography - Claudio Miranda and Best Editing, basically, the kind of nominations film makers are working/hoping for. The critics reviews were sometimes completely opposite, for example, The Guardian gave it just one star, whereas Empire voted it the highest 5 stars.

Article from The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/feb/06/benjamin-button-brad-pitt-cate-blanchett

Article from Empire http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/review.asp?FID=10606

The funniest thing about these two is that they both are complete opposites, not only because of the 1 and 5 star rating, but because The Guardian says: "Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett star in 166 minutes of twee tedium about a life lived backwards" whereas Empire: "Aptly for a film so concerned with time, Button is 13 minutes shy of three hours and just flies by. If this is Fincher selling out, can he sell out more often please?"