“Great” Scott’s Grand Entrance

“Great” Scott’s Grand Entrance

Hello, readers!  My name (for the sake of this blog) is “Great” Scott.  My mission here will be to watch movies and provide feedback that will help you pick the good movies while saving your valuable time and money skipping the terrible ones.

Just as Unicron is known as the Planet Eater, I would consider myself a “pop culture eater.”  Now, Transformers fans might be the only folks out there who got that reference, so I’ll spell it out for you.  I love pop culture.  I’ve read enough comic books and novels, played enough video games, listened to enough music, and watched enough movies and television to span 10 normal lifetimes.  I own a magic bullet; I own a “Wesley Crushers” bowling shirt; I’ve met and had my picture taken with Biff Tannen (Tom Wilson)…who is one of my favorite movie villains of all time; I’ve seen “Weird Al” in concert seven times.  What I’m basically trying to say is that I’ve been around the pop culture block a few times.  I know what I like and I know what I don’t like.  While I’m no Roger Ebert or Rex Reed, I do fancy myself a fair judge of what makes an entertaining movie.  My tastes might not be totally mainstream, but I think I’m a pretty fair judge of what makes a good movie…even when I don’t enjoy it myself.  It also helps that I majored in English in college.  While my writing is far from perfect, I do know the difference between “its” and “it’s” or “their,” “there,” and “they’re.”

So, now that my “qualifications,” such as they are, are out of the way, let me tell you how my reviews are going to go down.

The Anatomy of a “Great” Review

Here’s how my reviews will be laid out.

Title:  Obviously, I’ll start the review with the title of the movie…clever, huh?

IMDB Page:  I’m too lazy to type out the running time, stars, and genre of the movie, so I’ll let you go look it up on IMDB, one of the finest sites on the inter-web.

One-Sentence Summary:  I figure I’ll provide you with a quick, one-sentence description of the movie.  That way, if people ask you what movie you’re talking about, you can tell them.

What’s Great About It:  My mother always told me to be positive, so I’ll always come up with something good about whatever movie I saw.

What’s Not-So-Great About It:  My father, however, always said that nobody’s perfect, so I figure I’ll offer up some criticism, too.

Rating:  Here’s where I’ll rate the movie on a scale of one “G” (God Awful) to five “Gs” (Guaranteed Classic).  Most movies are going to hit at three “Gs” (Good).

Explanation:  Finally, I’ll provide a little context for my rating.

Before You Go…A Few Things to Know

Before I start posting reviews and you (hopefully) start reading them, let me provide you a little more information about me and my movie tastes.

First and foremost, I’m not an [insert genre here] kinda’ guy.  I don’t like sci-fi more than horror; I don’t like action flicks better than comedies.  I like good movies.  Chick flicks are a borderline exception, but I have found myself enjoying them from time to time…Just Like Heaven and Love Actually were both decent movies.

I’m also not an “I hate [insert actor here], so I won’t go see his movies,” kinda’ guy.  I hate Tom Cruise as a human being, but I rented Oblivion (2.5 Gs…a little boring, but not horrible).  I think Keanu Reeves is a pretty terrible actor, but I enjoyed The Replacements (3 Gs…a movie that I’ll actually stop and watch on TBS).  The only actor I might change this rule for is Shia LeBeouf.  He’s ruined the Indiana Jones franchise, he’s helped ruing part of my childhood by starring in the atrocious Transformers movies, and he stunk in Eagle Eye and Disturbia. 

I’m a big fan of logic within movies.  While I realize that in real life, a man doesn’t dress up like a giant bat to fight a guy with half of his face melted off, I do expect some continuity and internal logic in movies.  For example, in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, you’re telling me they couldn’t have recruited the unbeatable ghost army BEFORE 80 percent of the good guy army was dead?  Maybe go talk to them BEFORE the battle starts?  Huh?

Finally, I realize not every movie is for me, but I go to see some because my wife enjoys them.  She puts up with my undying love for Simon Pegg movies and other weird flicks, so I figure I can go see some chick flicks with her.  In my reviews, I’ll clearly admit when I think a movie’s good, but I didn’t enjoy it.

So, that all being said, I hope you enjoy my movie reviews.  If you’d like to thank me, curse me out, disagree with me, or recommend a movie…feel free.  Thanks, in advance, for reading!