Movie Reviews
by Keith Metcalfe

As an avid movie watcher, I have many opinions on the various films I see. Film is my favorite art form, and the one I find can affect people the most.

I've been tracking my ratings of all the films I watch, since around 1997. For almost fifteen years (1998 to 2011) I saw a minimum of two per week in the theaters, which doesn't sound like a lot, but that's 100 films a year. And I felt like I caught just about everything that played. I wrote reviews for about a quarter of them. With the end to movie review shows like "Siskel and Ebert" and "At the Movies" (movie appreciation shows, really), I've found myself missing a lot of good arthouse films that it took critics like Ebert to bring to the public's attention.

Here is an ongoing list of my ratings of movies I've seen this year. Ratings by me from previous years are available by selecting the full list from the Index.

If you find an inherent weakness in star ratings, like I do, much less the thumbs up or down system, which is far too black and white, I have also written several full length reviews that can be found here. And I'd like to point out that I chose a five star system, because the more common four star system lacks what I consider to be very important; a middle rating.

I make all my ratings starting with 3 stars, and decide whether it succeeded or failed being the type of film it wants to be. I'm not comparing a Jackie Chan action pic with Citizen Kane with a Will Ferrel comedy, but instead judge it within it's genre, and how successful it is at accomplishing what it is trying to say or be, how original it might be, and what I think too many reviewers forget... how entertaining it is.

My Youtube Reviews can be found here.

I recently uploaded all my movie ratings to Letterboxd.

Real (reel?) men see movies in a theater. A distant second best is on a home digital projector. Unless you want to lose respect from me as a movie lover, don't justify missing a quality film in a theater that you want to see by saying that you will catch it on cable. I used to say that is one very small step above watching a film while on an airplane, but now I cannot believe how many groups of people sit on a couch watching (listening to) a good movie on a laptop sitting on their laps, while actively texting on their phones.

I own a Sony MDP Laserdisc Player and had a collection of almost 200 Laserdiscs. In early 2020, I decided to sell them to a collector, keeping only about 15 very special ones.

My store bought DVD list never even reached that size. But one reason for that is because my wonderful Marin County library system has thousands of DVDs for rent, high quality DVDs actually, and you can easily go and check out ten films for a week.

After I watch a film, I like to read reviews from my favorite critics. The only critics I read are those who don't merely tell you whether or not you should see the film based on what other films they can compare this one too. Instead, critics that analyze the film, and hopefully make me think about it on another level. So I read them after I see the film, treating them almost like a director's commentary track.

Speaking of Director's Commentary tracks, you should check out Rate That Commentary if you enjoy listening to them as much as I do. I've been reviewing commentary tracks on there for several years, and am now the 3rd largest reviewer.

Roger Ebert is the critic that I enjoy and respect the most. He is the only film critic to win a pulitzer prize, and for good reason. While most 'reviews' limit themselves to discussing the lead actor's previous works and who they are currently dating in real life, Ebert dissects a film with as much detail as any DVD commentary track. Even when I don't agree with his overall opinion, he often will bring up new points that make me question what I originally thought about the film.

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You may also click here to view Roger Ebert's movie review page. I think I agree with Roger Ebert's opinion about 85% of the time, and that is very good. Even when I don't agree with his final analysis, I often agree with what he said about the film. Here is a review I wrote about Why I admire the writings of Roger Ebert so much.

I also need to mention Walter Chaw. I wish I had a link to his page. Unfortunately there is no page specifically for him, and instead I have to read his reviews on Film Freak Central through Rotten Tomatoes. I find his reviews to be of great psychological and analytical depth. He is very wordy, and I often don't agree with his final assessment, but he has clearly thought out his beliefs on a film so long that you feel there must be something to them.

In 1996 I first wrote: "Like most avid Laserdisc fans, I am annoyed by the recent victory of DVD over Laserdisc. It came so close to being a worthy successor to the Laserdisc format, but by making severe drawbacks in the hardware format (like MPEG-2 compression), DVD is only partially superior to Laserdiscs, when it could have been truly the next logical step. Is this how Beta owners felt when VHS won the race?"

In fairness however, this was when DVD's were poorly compressed, and the discs woefully bare of many of the extras that Laserdiscs had. Since about 2001, DVD's have greatly increased in quality and features, many of which are superior to what the average Laserdisc had. In 2009 I got my first blu-ray player (a PS3, actually), and of course acknowledge the superior quality of those, even though I see almost nothing that way.

Click here to read detailed DVD Comments by me.

I'm very open to any E-mail comments. If your opinion varies from mine on a film, let me know. If you'd like me to review a film, request away. I've seen 'em all! I've also been know to answer questions for three different local video stores when people can't seem to find a particular movie or actor. Request away.

You can leave me an E-mail at keithco@comcast.net

Movie Ratings for films seen in 2005

Click here to see my Movie Ratings for films seen in 2004

Click here to see my Movie Ratings for films seen in 2003

Click here to see my Movie Ratings for films seen in 2002

Click here to see my Movie Ratings for films seen in 2001

Click here to see my Movie Ratings for films seen in 2000

Click here to see my Movie Ratings for films seen in 1999

Click here to see a collection of Best of / Worst of the Year Lists for 1998 and before by me.

Best of / Worst of the Year List for 1999.

Greatest Movies of the 90's Decade.

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