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I love film. I write movies, I study movies, and I watch movies. It's what I do. If I have something to say about a film than there's going to be reasoning and feeling behind it because of my love for it. Not much else is important for you to know about me, just be damn sure I'll be plugging the movies I write real hard.
As far as reviewing film, it's a tough, tough business. First, the scale: A - F? No stars through four? Nothing is more complete and original than what Jeh and I have come up with…the 100 point system. There are complications within that as well. Is 50 your average or is 70 (school system) your average? We opted for 50... and I imagine it will take some time for us to perfect it.
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 Now onto the complications of genre. What films get nominated for academy awards? Most often drama. In this years case you had to make a film on war or have the film take place in England hundreds of years ago. Comedies nominated? Don't think so. Action films? Don't think so. Sure there are exceptions but not many! So how then does the greatest action film ever made compare to lets say the greatest war film ever made? Should the war film score a 100 and the action film somewhere below that? F**k no. That's not the way it works. I embrace most genres and will rate the film according to its particular genre. So when you see that Happy Gilmore scored in the 90's and Saving Ryan's Privates didn't even make the 90's understand what I'm comparing it to. Happy Gilmore is an absolute riot with incredibly replay value. It is always funny. How can you make a better comedy than that? You can change the type of humor (wittier, darker) but as far as the laughs are concerned, and that's what comedy is all about, Happy Gilmore f****n' rocks so it's in the 90's, plain and simple. Do I give 0's? You better believe it. A Joel Shumacher Batman movie is an automatic candidate. Do I give 100's? It's tough because I may view the movie as "perfect" but maybe it doesn't have great replay value or maybe it didn't move me, or maybe I didn't spend the next week thinking about it constantly. There are so many factors that come into play I hope this will give some understanding of my ratings.
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And on one final note - see a foreign movie - and make sure it's subtitled, not dubbed. Some may laugh at one who hasn't seen "Citizen Kane" (generally viewed as the greatest American film of all time) and in response to them I would ask, have you seen "A Better Tomorrow" or "Peking Opera Blues" (two greats from Hong Kong) or how about "Street Angel" or Yellow Earth" (two greats from China) or how about "Seven Samurai" (great from Japan) and then there's the French film scene and so on... lots of great films out there made outside of America!!!!!! If you enjoy film, culture yourself with it!!!!!!!! One final point to encourage the viewing of foreign films, where do you think great writers get so much inspiration? For example, most people know who Quentin Tarantino is, but what influenced his writing? He was inspired greatly by the French New Wave cinema. So why is it we watch his movies and the not the films of the French New Wave?
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CULTURE, CULTURE, CULTURE. I will include "must see" foreign films often, and I am and will forever be in the process of being cultured, so I'll let you know some of the greats as I see them for the first time.
By Justin Reznick
© 1999
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