Last night, the wife and I watched Twilight: New Moon. Tonight we watched the remake of the classic arts school film, Fame. Two horrible movies in two days. New Moon had a few scenes that were enjoyable to watch just because...well, just because. Now, I feel like I need to perform some penance, like two La Dolce Vitas and a Godfather, just as recompense. I actually started watching La Dolce Vita on Friday, during the day, but fell asleep midway through (not the film's fault).

I have recently subscribed to the RSS feeds of quite a few film blogs because I'd like to increase my knowledge in the field. I've always appreciated film as well as mainstream Hollywood culture, but I've found myself increasingly disenchanted with the blockbuster hits and craving the independent and foreign film markets. It seems to me that the heart of cinema has checked out of big-time Hollywood.

A note on film critics. My two favorite film critics are Peter Travers and Roger Ebert. Travers because I typically agree with his assessments, and Ebert because of his imaginative and fanciful writing style. I envy the life of a movie critic, although I do realize that it is truly difficult to sit in movie after movie, even when you have absolutely no interest in the subject matter (or you know the film will suck). 

I think the role of the film critic should be modified. Last year, the biggest box office draw was Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which scored a whopping 20% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer. For the two people who don't know what the Tomatometer is, it is a percentage average of the major critical voices in the film industry. It's the overall critical opinion of any movie, and generally an accurate gauge as to the worth of a film. What does this say? No one is listening.

Well, that's not completely true. Those who care about film (not movies) are listening. Therefore, I hearby decree: movie critics should only watch and review movies worth reviewing. The Hannah Montana Movie and the new Twilight flick's audience turnout will in no way be affected by negative reviews, so why bother. The critics will have improved dispositions and the general public won't even notice the difference. 

A note on collecting movies. I'm not going to get into a debate over whether you should be collecting DVDs or Blu-Rays (or anything at all, for that matter). With that said, I've decided that I might start collecting a particular style (although style isn't the right word). I'm considering collecting both foreign and classic films of note. Criterion collection films would qualify, foreign films, and hard to find treasures. The rest of my collection will continue to exist on external hard drives.

Watching next:

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