Comments on: DVD Releases for July 15th, 2008

By: martha

martha — Fri, 27 May 2011 05:24:59 +0000

My friend, you are a good writer. Your article is really amazing. You should do it for money

By: K. Bowen

K. Bowen — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 01:37:48 +0000

Maybe this is the newspaper guy in me, but if get too many over 750 words, I start going into a sugar coma. But a review should get as many words as it deserves.

But generally, I think film bloggers too often go on and on unnecessarily. If you aspire to write reviews for a newspaper one day, you have to learn to write intelligently, insightfully, and entertainingly on the shorter side.

The rule of thumb is 30 words = one inch

750 words= 25 inches. That’s around the limit for a standard film review, to my mind.

1350= 45 inches. For a blog that’s fine. For a newspaper review of Mamma Mia, that’s way too long. Although it depends on the paper, I suppose.

By: Craig Kennedy

Craig Kennedy — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:07:53 +0000

This will sound annoyingly Zen but it’s in line with what Mr. Harrington said: I’m learning to let reviews be as long or short as they need to be. Originally my target was 1000 words. Anything below that was a failure and anything above was a success. It turns out some movies just don’t deserve that much and I used to waste a lot of time trying to make them longer.
Now I just say what I have to say, always trying to keep plot recaps to the barest minimum, and then get out. If it’s less than 400, I’ll pad some, but otherwise anything goes.
Like a movie, an entertaining to read review can never be too long and a boring review can never be too short.

By: Evan Derrick

Evan Derrick — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:55:15 +0000

Thanks for the thoughts, all. Luke, I agree, my HB2 piece was too long and in need of some serious pruning. And Mom, your TJ quote reminds me of what Pascal once said, “I apologize for the length of my letter. I would have made it shorter, but I didn’t have the time.”

It’s hard to cut something out of your piece that took you 30 minutes to write, but sometimes it just makes everything flow better.

By: Cinexcellence

Cinexcellence — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:48:49 +0000

Penelope looks promising. Neat cast at least.

By: Ruth Derrick

Ruth Derrick — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 04:19:57 +0000

When in doubt, I like to return to Thomas Jefferson’s words: “The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.” Sometimes that means revising. Often it just means editing.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:19:15 +0000

Wow, you weren’t kidding about the selections after the jump.

The Year My Parents is the best of this week, no doubt.

I’m obviously not one to talk about word counts as my “300 Words” are typically closer to 400. Whatever. I think your average reader will prefer short and sweet, but sometimes that just doesn’t fit the bill with what you’re trying to write, as you found out. Unless you’re being held to something I say just write what naturally comes out. If it seems too long, read it over and reconsider. Maybe something could be condensed or removed completely. I’ve found myself doing that more recently – doesn’t mean I remove much, but I’m paying more attention to it.

Some movies just lend themselves to longer reviews and more discussion. Nothing wrong with that.

By: Luke Harrington

Luke Harrington — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:31:58 +0000

I may as well throw in my two cents here...I try to use exactly as many words as it takes to say what I have to say, and no more. I realize that's a bit of a cop-out, but I think it's really the key. Essentially, if I have a lot of observations that I think are worthwhile, I say them as concisely as I can, but don't worry so much about the end length. So a movie that I have a lot to say about, like Diary of the Dead, gets more than a thousand words, whereas a movie like American Gangster (which was well-made, but unremarkable) barely gets four hundred (as Internet critics, we have this freedom, since we don't have to fit into a certain amount of space). In other words, if you have something to say, say it, but don't waste people's time. And if a film does absolutely nothing worth commenting on, you're more than entitled to just give a plot recap and a thumbs-up or -down. For a point of reference, I thought your Speed Racer review was fantastic, whereas your Hellboy II review started losing me pretty fast, even though it was shorter. The difference? Hellboy was wordier than it deserved to be. You could have said the same thing in five hundred words less. Especially with the cutthroat competition of the Internet, the key is to tell people something interesting, but get to the point and don't be wordy where you don't have to. I realize this is all pretty obvious, but...well, they don't call me Capt. Obvious for nuthin'.

By: Evan Derrick

Evan Derrick — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:19:54 +0000

50 syllables… that sounds like some other site I’ve heard of…hmmmm….

By: Colleeny

Colleeny — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:44:32 +0000

I think your reviews are WAAAAY to long. I think you should shorten them down to no more that 50 syllables. Then you could change your site name to 50 Syllable Cinema….

By: FDr

FDr — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:42:52 +0000

I prefer long, thoughtful reviews in the Pauline Kael mode, but I wonder how well they fit the blog format and audience.

By: Evan Derrick

Evan Derrick — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:03:10 +0000

Thankyou, Julia. I was hoping someone would validate my love of internet memes.

By: Julia Harrington

Julia Harrington — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:08:28 +0000

I like lolcats.