March 28, 2008
Reviews and More
J.E. loves movies. She has reviewed almost three hundred of them since she started her blog, Reviews and More eighteen months ago. Now I like movies too, but I don’t go to the theatre, being perfectly content to wait until each film comes to me on TV or DVD. Conseqently, I had to scroll through several months of J.E.’s reviews before I found movie I’d seen so I could get a feel for her handling of something that I was familiar with. That movie was The Princess Bride, which she reviewed on the occasion of the release of the 20th anniversary special edition DVD. She has done a solid plot summary with minimal personal input and critique. I don’t agree with her rating of 6.5 stars out of ten, but she makes it clear that that’s based on her own personal reactions, so it’s still a good review. I found her reviews of several other movies, including My Fair Lady and Because of Winn Dixie to be agreeable, so I’ve decided to forgive her for not loving Buttercup and Westley as much as I do. I’ve added several movies to my “must see” list based on her opinions. An alphabetical listing of her movie reviews would be a nice addition to her blog, making it easier to find out her thoughts on any given film. I’m not criticizing what she’s got, just offering a suggestion that readers might find helpful.
You would think that J.E. wouldn’t have time for anything beyond all of the movie-watching that she does, but there are more reviews of TV shows and individual episodes than of movies on her blog. I had a better basis for comparison here, since she’s reviewed several shows that I watch, including Without a Trace, Criminal Minds and House. I found her TV posts to be thoughtful and thought-provoking, causing a “Duh! Why didn’t I notice that?” reaction several times. Why didn’t I notice that a character was behaving inconsistently or that a plot seemed to contradict prior episodes? I suspect it’s because J.E. is much more cerebral in her TV-watching than I am. I rarely focus on what I’m watching, but J.E. is dedicated to providing comprehensive reviews so she really pays attention. Her recent general observation about a discrepancy between small screen life and real life? Spot on!
Reviews and More is a good source of product, service and website reviews, too. While her opinions are all “personal,” J.E. is consistently fair and informative. She approaches her posts on everything from video games to cheap flights to web hosting with equal focus on the task at hand, which is always to provide a service to her readers. She does that, and does it well.
Technorati Tags: blogs, reviews, Reviews and More
RSS feed for comments on this post.
TrackBack URI
March 28th, 2008 at 12:53 pm, J.E. Says:
Hey skeet, thanks for the wonderful review! It’s funny that you should mention my category problems, because I’ve been meaning to address that for some time now. The movie reviews really need to be organized in a way that makes them easier to find, so thanks for the gentle reminder!!
March 31st, 2008 at 5:17 pm, skeet Says:
Sorry to be so slow to answer you J.E. I enjoy your blog and enjoyed reviewing it. You know, don’t you, that I have a terribly disorganized blog that I’m always going to fix up … soon?