Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Best Film-Tech film/presentation reviewer?

This is topic Best Film-Tech film/presentation reviewer? in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Jim Bedford (Member # 4) on 03-29-2006, 09:10 AM:

My vote is for Evil Sam Graham. He's absolutely consistent in his review form, reviews from door in to door out (theatre AND film) and provides great tidbits from the concession stand to squeeky doors to incisive comments, i.e., "The World's Fastest Indian" is sort of like "The Straight Story Starring Crocodile Dundee". If Sam don't give 'em a good review they're probably not worth watching!

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 03-29-2006, 09:35 AM:

It's too bad I have to skip over his reviews until after I have seen the movie since he usually has spoiler information in the review. At least he gives a warning about it though.

Nevertheless, if it's a movie I'm interested at all in watching I don't want to see any spoiler information of any kind.

Some people still want to try to give away things in a movie. It doesn't matter how much charisma any person has, they're not going to present the storyline in written or spoken form better than the movie. Even if it's a bad movie. Let me see the show first and then we'll talk about those specific points later.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 03-29-2006, 11:17 AM:

If a reviewer says "World's Fastest Indian is about legendary New Zealander Burt Munroe, who tinkers with motorcycles and dreams of taking his custom Indian to the Bonneville salt flats", that hardly seems like a spoiler to me. I used to put a very basic plot summary like that in some of my reviews, and someone accused me of "spoilers". So I stopped doing it.

Here's a spoiler for you: SPOILER ALERT!!!!

"Burt Munroe's American adventures include making friends with a charming transvestite Hollywood motel clerk, bedding an old woman living alone in the desert who lets Munroe use her tools to repair his broken trailer, and finding out he's not eligible to run at Bonneville because he failed to register in advance, but is ultimately allowed to run when he makes friends with influential Americans in charge of the Bonneville event."

I also vote for Evil Sam Graham. [thumbsup]

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 03-29-2006, 11:26 AM:

This is a no brainer. The Evil Sam Graham's movie reviews are generally more entertaining than the movies themselves.

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 03-29-2006, 11:40 AM:

I vote for Phil, Keep them short and simple. I dont want to read a novel, I just want to know how many bare titties you see. [evil]

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 03-29-2006, 12:11 PM:

quote: David Stambaugh
If a reviewer says "World's Fastest Indian is about legendary New Zealander Burt Munroe, who tinkers with motorcycles and dreams of taking his custom Indian to the Bonneville salt flats", that hardly seems like a spoiler to me.

No it isn't. But I hope you're not trying to infer that I think merely explaining the premise of a movie is a spoiler.

Sam writes good reviews, but yes he usually includes some spoiler information in his reviews. He is polite enough to provide a spoiler alert notice, which is better than what some others do (they'll just blurt out whatever and its your tough toogies if they ruin something for you).

quote: Brad Miller
The Evil Sam Graham's movie reviews are generally more entertaining than the movies themselves.

In the case of a lot of films that may be true. I have zero plans of seeing a movie like that Larry the Cable Guy thing. So I might just read his review straight away for a good chuckle (that is if he even wastes any of his life watching it). In the case of something like Superman Returns, I may not read reviews from anybody until after I've seen it.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 03-29-2006, 12:27 PM:

Some people do consider a one-sentence plot summary as a spoiler. [Shrug]

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-29-2006, 01:06 PM:

I enjoy Evil Sam's writings about his theatre experiences more than the actual movie reviews. But he'd get my vote too.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 03-29-2006, 02:46 PM:

My reviews are the best. However I don't watch many movies. Also I am far more evil than that Sam Graham character. I steal from old people and play soccer with little babies, using them as the ball. Also on holidays when I see people starting to feed money into a parking meter that's free, I just giggle to myself and keep on walking instead of telling them that they don't have to pay. I am truly evil.

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 03-29-2006, 03:11 PM:

I vote for Phil as well... Sam's ok, but his reviews seem to suffer from the Harry Knowles "my breakfast toast was crunchy" syndrome, in that 95% of the "review" is about something else other than the movie itself.

Posted by Jim Bedford (Member # 4) on 03-29-2006, 03:18 PM:

Joe, please don't confuse "evil" with "weird." You are WEIRD, but you give weird a good name. You are also funny but in a funny-not-always-so-funny way......sort of a weird way. And you are almost always weirder and funnier after you've had your daily beating.

Being 65 miles away from another theatre makes it hard to see too many films we don't play at the Nugget. I like to read others' takes on films as it adds to my info as a booker.

And like Mike, I too enjoy the comments, observations and critiques by Evil Sam and Large Ian (and others) regarding in-theatre foibles, fubars and FU's that are reported from toilets to screen and from concessions stands to parking lot. Who knew that movie entertainment wasn't just up on the screen?

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 03-29-2006, 04:21 PM:

Just because he is bald does NOT make Sam evil! He is just a guy! I bet he even helps others and is generally a nice guy. Unacceptable! Don't make me pull up my review on The Day After Tomorrow.

Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 03-29-2006, 04:32 PM:

quote: Joe Redifer
Don't make me pull up my review on The Day After Tomorrow.

Joe pull it up...I want to read it.

Thanks Joe, I appreciate that and agree whole-heartedly with your review. [thumbsup]

[ 03-29-2006, 09:17 PM: Message edited by: Bob Maar ]

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 03-29-2006, 06:13 PM:

I can only link to the page, not the exact post. So you'll have to scroll down about 5 posts. Sorry.

http://www.film-tech.com/ubb/f4/t000778/p3.html

[ 03-29-2006, 08:53 PM: Message edited by: Adam Martin ]

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 03-29-2006, 08:53 PM:

Huh. You *can't* link directly to the anchor. I wonder when that started.

TESG's reviews kick ass. Especially when I'm familiar with the theater he went to!

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 03-29-2006, 10:12 PM:

Oh crap. People actually READ this site?!?

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 03-29-2006, 10:28 PM:

I think Sam types his stuff in a separate word processor. Check it out:

quote: Sam's 40 Year Old Virgin review:

Notice the question marks instead of apostrophes. What the hell?

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 03-30-2006, 01:23 AM:

There is an issue with a recent Apache upgrade. Daryl will be fixing them when he gets to an internet connection.

Posted by Jim Bedford (Member # 4) on 03-30-2006, 07:27 AM:

quote:
quote: Sam's 40 Year Old Virgin review:

Gee, Sam doesn't look old enough to have been reviewing virgins for 40 years. When did he start? And did you say you're reposting your The Day After Tommorrow review the day after yesterday or the day before today?

Hey, we got more than a foot of snow overnight and I'm going skiing......

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 03-30-2006, 12:21 PM:

Christian Volpi's reviews are pretty good. Short and to the point mostly. Most often the show is summed up: "it's crap."

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 03-30-2006, 02:01 PM:

quote: Bobby Henderson
tough toogies

What's a toogie?

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 03-30-2006, 03:22 PM:

Toogie? I don't know; probably not the same thing as a "noogie." I've heard people say it though. I guess it sounds more nice than "tough shit."

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 03-30-2006, 06:51 PM:

quote: Joe "MORE EVIL" Redifer
I think Sam types his stuff in a separate word processor.

That particular review was indeed typed in Word and posted later, as I was traveling and didn't have web access at the time. I should have thought to clean that up.

But normally, I bang out the review directly on the board.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 03-30-2006, 10:06 PM:

Lesson learned:
MicroSoft Word is the world?s worst word processor.

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 03-31-2006, 02:05 AM:

I gotta agree with those that like it short and sweet/sour and to the point.

While it is sorta interesting to some people (?) to hear all about how shitty the johns/crappers are or how the staff fucked-up the curtains...etc, the thread is about the ***MOVIE***!

While I recognize the value of the film review with superfluous theatre information to the theatre owners of FT members, most of us do NOT own a theatre and could care less unless we go to that specific theatre. If ya wanna post about showmanship, or about your experience at a specific theatre, start a "Showmanship" thread!

That reminds me, unless you get to travel the country, most people don't give a sh!t about a particular theatre since it's a rare thing that they would EVER be able to visit it unless your biz takes your all around the US like some people...(ADAM!).

IF we must deviate from theme of the "Movie Reviews" thread, then I vote for a separate "Showmanship" thread and just post MOVIE REVIEWS in the "REVIEW" thread or change that thread's title to "Movie Reviews and Showmanship"!

OBTW: I vote for Brad. Sometimes out-to-lunch, but usually right on target! [beer]

Yours in Christ...

[ 03-31-2006, 03:11 AM: Message edited by: Phil Hill ]

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-31-2006, 12:17 PM:

quote:
the thread is about the ***MOVIE***!

Yeah but if they only write about the MOVIE it's no different from any other millions of movie reviewers out there. Theatre-oriented people have a different perspective so I think it's cool that the experience might be written about, along with the movie. It can affect your view of the film.

When we first installed our DTS at the Roxy, I watched "True Lies" with a friend of mine to test the system. He remarked: "This could even make a shitty movie fun to watch!"

Posted by Jeremy Jorgenson (Member # 2989) on 03-31-2006, 01:11 PM:

While it is true ... one's opinion about a particular film, and one's opinion about the experience seeing that particular film on a particular date/time/auditorium should probably be separate opinions ... I also think that the two are linked so closely, that most people don't separate them.

I don't read the movie review threads until after I've seen the movie ... I do that for newspaper or magazine critics too. I just want to have my own opinion about the movie without wondering why s/he thought this or that... So when I'm reading a review of a film, I guess I'm more interested in the overall experience the viewer had, not just their thoughts on a film.

so... Reading that The Evil Sam used self serve butter machine X over self serve butter machine Y may be integral to my understanding why he liked/disliked a particular film. On the other hand, if somebody just says, "awesome [thumbsup]

" ... well, that's fine too.

so ... uh ... I guess this whole post was just to say ... keep on reviewing however you want ... as Mike said, there are a bunch of opinions about movies available. Whether what is written about in Film-Tech's "review" threads should be called "experiences" or "showmanship thoughts" or "movie reviews" ... well, that's an interesting topic, but ... it's a topic that I don't have any particular opinion on, yet.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 04-01-2006, 07:23 PM:

quote: Joe Redifer
Also on holidays when I see people starting to feed money into a parking meter that's free, I just giggle to myself and keep on walking instead of telling them that they don't have to pay. I am truly evil.

Oh, I am ROTFL!!! [Big Grin]

Guffawing!

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 04-08-2006, 11:11 PM:

I love Evil Sam's reviews but Evil Sam has ALOT to learn about movie theatres. OK Sam say to yourself ten times... over and over..... "There are no good theatres in Salt Lake City or nearby..... The nearest "best theatre is Casper, Wyoming's... America Theatre..... The next nearest "best theatre" is in Hollywood.... 9 more times now....... [Big Grin]

See You'll learn.....