Introduction to my Blog

I’m going to start doing movie reviews and I’ll be posting them through this very blog on this very blogspot.  Now onto some FAQS!

James, what prompted you to start doing movie reviews?

That’s a very good question, I’m glad you asked it.  Well, when I was young’un, it occurred to me that I actually haven’t seen that many films, or at least not as many as I should have, so I decided to change that and I made a list of all of the fils I needed to catch up with.  l haven’t finished the list yet, but a few weeks back I took this poll: http://www.listchallenges.com/top-1000-greatest-movies-of-all-time-by-imdb and realised that I still have over 800 films to watch, which catalysed me into beginning to watch films again.

James, if you’ve been watching films since you were a young’un, why are you only doing reviews now?

Another great question from the young man.  The real answer is because I’ve never wanted to create a blog or do reviews before.  Even though I enjoy writing prose and poetry, I’ve never written non-fiction recreationally as I don’t enjoy it.  I’m not a particularly opinionated person and so my opinions about certain films and books aren’t usually more than a one-word response.  So I wish to try and hone and improve my critical reviewing skills.  Plus, I’ve never been confident in actually making any non-fiction writing easy to read.  Even when I went through a brief stint of making vlogs on youtube, they were as boring as all hell. 

James, if that is the case, why are you starting now?

Well to adopt an old cliche, as a writer it’s always a good idea to write what’s unfamiliar to you and to always push yourself out of your comfort zone.  This is the only way you can keep progressing and stopping yourself from stagnating.  Plus, if I do want to get into publishing, editing and the like, then I think it would be important if I have some experience in journalistic writing.

James, what films will you be watching?

The simple answer is all kinds.  I don’t have any restrictions on what type of film I watch, but they will be films that are on the list that I linked above and films that are already on my list.   I’m also not sure whether I’ll go back and review films that I’ve already seen.  It will depend on time and my mood.

James, when will you be posting?

You don’t have to call me that every single time. Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Yes I do.  Don't argue! James, will you be reviewing everything else?
Atm, I’ma stick with films, because it is much faster than books and TV, which means I can get my content out to you guys much faster.

James, will you have some type of rating system?
Yep, I’ll rate films using one of six vague adjectives, which I’ll define more here.

1. Shit-this is reserved for films that are just catastrophically bad such as Anchorman which tried too hard to be funny, Frozen which is the only bad Disney film I’ve seen and Shank which is just a complete mess.
2. Alright-this is for films that are pretty bad but have one redeeming quality, such as 4,3,2,1 which is pretty terrible but has Noel Clarke in it who is a saving grace.
3. Meh-this is for films that aren’t particularly bad or good and didn’t make much of an impression on me, such as Guardians of the Galaxy.
4. Good-again these are films that have a mixture of good and bad qualities, such as The Beach, which despite having great visuals was let down by the omission of Jed and the bizarre moment where Richard thinks he’s in a video game.
5. Awesome- films that are generally good, but have one or two things that don’t quite work or could have been better.  Examples include Life of Pi, which despite having AMAZING visuals and being very faithful to the book, it was let down when they gave Pi an unnecessary and silly love interest that didn’t pan out, and the Terminator which I watched yesterday and despite being very intense, I felt that it substituted a lot of narrative for bullets and explosions.
6. Superlative- films that are amazing without fault.  The only film that I would class as superlative is 127 Hours.

James, that was a very long post, do I get a potato for reading it?
No.  This isn’t 9gag.