Introduction & DISCLAIMER to One Sentence Movie Reviews

I happen to believe that when a movie can be described in one sentence, it's probably a pretty bad movie.

But whether the movie was good, bad, or just so-so, a clear opinion of it should fit to the left of one little period. Unless, of course, it was exceptionally good... or bad.

This blog has a two-fold purpose for me. I don't go to the movies often enough, so this is a way to motivate me. Since I want to be a screenwriter, I should have an ever-expanding knowledge of film and what *I* think makes a movie good or not.

I also sometimes have a tough time succinctly voicing my opinions, of which (you will likely quickly learn) I have many. By the time I feel like I am accurately explaining my point of view, I sense that my audience has already begun to lose inter...

HEY!! Over here! FOCUS!

So, whether you agree or not doesn't really matter, but go ahead and leave comments regardless. I like disagreeing with people, and I like passionate conversation.

I've also decided that when a movie rates at 1.5 or lower, or 9.5 or higher on my scale, it warrants more than one sentence. These will be the only times when I veer from my one-sentence format. Because anything that is that amazing or that pathetic needs to be expounded upon.

DISCLAIMER: I know that no matter how negatively I respond to a film, those involved in its making are creatively far more brave than me. They have taken risks and put in a LOT of hard work to make their visions possible.

I am not delusional, pompous or bitter enough to think that just because I am able to create a bumper-sticker summation of my opinion that it even puts me in the same league with them as creative visionaries -- if I want to be in the same league with them, I must take the same risks and put in the same hard work and expose myself to the potentially hurtful or damaging opinions of others. I don't have any misconceptions about that truth. No matter how badly I may bash a film, don't think for one second that I think I could do it better. But someone can.

Even when I don't enjoy a film, I can always at least walk away from it knowing how and why I would have done it differently, and that knowledge is an added and blessed bonus to the price of a theater seat or my netflix subscription. So even when I diss a movie you may find to be your ultimate viewing experience, try not to get your panties in a bunch.

It's just an opinion, for chrissake. If we all agreed on what made a movie great, we'd only have one, and then people would stop acting like they're interested in what Warren Beatty is bleating about, and Brad Pitt would have to pull his El Pollo Loco chicken suit out of mothballs.

Oh, and Letterman would probably get cancelled. Which would really suck.