lcliffor@bbncca.ARPA (Laura Frank Clifford) (07/08/85)
** - The Emerald Forest The first half of this story is pretty well done, with a father losing his son to the Brazilian rain forests. The story of the son growing up with an Indian tribe as the chief's adopted son is intercut with the father's ten year search for him. The last half of the story completely changes gears, however, with shoot-em-up adventure, etc. I could have used a bit more realism where the Indian tribe was concerned, also (I mean do all Indian maidens wear flowers behind their ears and frolic naked under waterfalls all day?). **1/2 - Cocoon Great acting from the old folks in the cast (especially Jack Gilford), but the sci-fi stuff is a big bore. They could've ended this film twenty minutes before they did and had a much tighter movie. ***1/2 - Silverado Lots of fun in this tongue-in-cheek western with a fantastic cast that includes Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn, Danny Glover, Kevin Costner, Linda Hunt, Brian Dennehy and John Cleese (as a sheriff!!). I adored this flick and highly recommend it. However my husband thought it was mediocre and "not a real western". Maybe that's why I liked it so much - I don't care for westerns! This movies balances on a fine line between serious western and humor. The four main characters have great charisma both individually and as a group. Neat camera work. All it lacked was a corny theme song.
ccrrick@ucdavis.UUCP (Rick Heli) (07/09/85)
I liked these three reviews in that they were one paragraph each and that they used the star system so that I knew right away where they were coming from. This is the way to write reviews that will get read, folks. No matter what the movie, I can't get interested in anything that goes over a screenful. I suspect there just might be some others out there like me as well... -- --rick heli (... ucbvax!ucdavis!groucho!ccrrick)
jcc@uvaee.UUCP (Jay Colognori) (07/15/85)
In article <344@ucdavis.UUCP> ccrrick@ucdavis.UUCP (Rick Heli) writes: >I liked these three reviews in that they were one paragraph each and >that they used the star system so that I knew right away where they >were coming from. This is the way to write reviews that will get >read, folks. No matter what the movie, I can't get interested in >anything that goes over a screenful. I suspect there just might be some >others out there like me as well... >-- > --rick heli > (... ucbvax!ucdavis!groucho!ccrrick) Yes there are. I am new to the net and really enjoy net.movies, but I could do without 80+ line reviews. One paragraph (maybe two) will suffice nicely, thank you. - Jay C.
scooper@brl-tgr.ARPA (Stephan Cooper ) (07/18/85)
>>I liked these three reviews in that they were one paragraph each and >>that they used the star system so that I knew right away where they >>were coming from. This is the way to write reviews that will get >>read, folks. No matter what the movie, I can't get interested in >>anything that goes over a screenful. I suspect there just might be some >>others out there like me as well... >> --rick heli >> (... ucbvax!ucdavis!groucho!ccrrick) > >Yes there are. I am new to the net and really enjoy net.movies, >but I could do without 80+ line reviews. One paragraph (maybe two) >will suffice nicely, thank you. > - Jay C. Ditto...
lwall@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Larry Wall) (07/31/85)
In article <11671@brl-tgr.ARPA> Stephan Cooper writes nothing more than: >Ditto... Unditto. While there is certainly a place for short, oversimplified reviews of the vitamin pill persuasion ("This is a neat movie, I really enjoyed it, Go see it, 4 stars."), there is an occasional need for something with a little more meat on it. I don't very much want to know if *you* liked the movie; I want to know if *I* am going to like the movie. That takes more than cheers and boos and dittos. (Now, mind you, some people are capable of serving up a 237 line vitamin pill, but by and large the in-depth reviewers in net.movies do a good job, for what they're getting paid.) A movie that takes two hours to make its point may or may not be amenable to digestification down to one or two succinct paragraphs. Nobody can force you to read 80+ line articles. Nobody can force you to think, for that matter. If you want to go to shallow movies, by all means read the shallow reviews. There are enough of them. Or better yet, just compare the number of favorable articles with the number of unfavorable ones. If more than 50% of the people like a movie, it must be a good one. If less than 50% like it, it must be a bad one. Life is so simple in a democracy... Use your 'n' key. Take a speed-reading course. UNSUBSCRIBE if you like. But stop trying to deprive the rest of us of thoughtful, in-depth reviews. Thank You. Larry Wall {allegra,burdvax,cbosgd,hplabs,ihnp4,sdcsvax}!sdcrdcf!lwall