FilmFanatic.org

Although Danny Peary is one of my favorite film critics, there are many other excellent reviewers out there, and the internet has made it easier than ever to read their work. Below I list some of my favorite reviewers and/or movie review websites, and explain why I think they’re worth checking out.

General Review Websites

The following websites provide reviews for a wide range of movies. Each has its own unique pros (and sometimes cons), which I’ve tried to elucidate.

All Movie Guide Reviews
This meta-website has short reviews of nearly every movie ever made — definitely a find for film fanatics.

Apollo Movie Guide Reviews
The reviews on this site are well-written, but the constant pop-up ads are exceedingly annoying. Be forewarned!

Bright Lights Film Journal
This self-described “popular-academic hybrid of movie analysis, history, and commentary” looks at “classic and commercial, independent, exploitation, and international film from a wide range of vantage points”. An elegant and provocative site.

Chicago Reader on Film (Jonathan Rosenbaum)
Rosenbaum is one of the best reviewers around, and a number of his reviews (mostly capsules) are now online.

CinematicThreads.com
Pithy capsule reviews of classic and more recent films.

Classic Film Guide
An indispensable source for any film fanatic, this site aims to “celebrate, educate, as well as provide reviews and recommendations of classic (and also obscure) films.” Sections include “Essential Films”, “Obscure Films”, “Oscar’s Best”, “Silent Films”, “Hitchcock”, and more. Check it out!

Cold Fusion Video Reviews
Each of these cleverly written, tongue-in-cheek reviews includes a truly hilarious section at the bottom called “Some Notable Totables”, which keeps track of body count, breasts, explosions, dream sequences, ominous thunderstorms, streakers, and actors who’ve appeared on Star Trek. !!! Definitely check this site out.

CultureVulture.net: Choices for the Cognoscenti
Self-described as “a somewhat haphazard and pronouncedly idiosyncratic sharing of matters cultural”, this site primarily focuses on films made in the last ten years, but if you scroll down the list of titles, you’ll find a few classics here and there. The reviews are literate, and worth reading.

Film as Art: Daniel Griffin’s Guide to Cinema
Griffin’s provocative reviews discuss films not just as entertainment, but as both art and literature. While the scope of titles covered is limited, it’s a recommended website for those who enjoy in-depth literary criticism of film.

Film Commentary by CGK
Perceptive reviews of more obscure films. Worth a look.

FilmCritic.com
Founded in 1995, this was one of the first online movie review sites. In addition to regular reviews, they offer essays and commentaries on any number of film-related topics. Christopher Null’s reviews are among the best.

Four Word Film Review
This fun, interactive website is exactly what it purports to be. It doesn’t provide much analysis, but certainly gets to the heart of any movie in a hurry!

FilmSite.org
This wonderful website (written by Tim Dirks) is an excellent primer for new film fanatics. Dirks provides an overview of several hundred “great” films, as well as discussions on a variety of cinematic topics (including genres, famous quotes, and how to view a film critically). It also provides links to many other “top 100″ film sites.

New York Times archived reviews
The NY Times website offers a rare chance to read original movie reviews going as far back as the 1910s, by famed reviewers such as Mordaunt Hall, Bosley Crowther, Janet Maslin, and Vincent Canby. It’s especially interesting to compare critics’ initial reactions with modern ones—the passage of time often yields intriguing differences in what is found worthy or not, and why.

PopMatters.com
An “international journal of culture criticism”, this website includes reviews of music, books, and comics in addition to films. The meaty reviews are always insightful.

ReelViews: James Berardinelli’s Movie Reviews
Berardinelli has been reviewing films for over ten years, and you’ll find reviews for literally hundreds of movies–from all eras–on his site. He’s an engaging writer, well worth checking out.

Roger Ebert’s reviews
Better known as part of the television duo “Siskel and Ebert” (or now “Ebert and Roper”), Roger Ebert hosts a website which includes (or plans to include) every review he’s published over the past 26+ years.

Strictly Film School
As its name implies, this elegant website is written from an academic perspective and truly does offer interested readers an “education” in world cinema. Set up as a weblog, many reviews are followed by user comments. Films are searchable by title, genre, theme, director, and more.

They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?
This indispensable website is a haven for film fanatics, especially those who subscribe to the notion of auteurism in cinema. The site is self-described as a “cinematic traffic cop”, one which hopes to “guide readers in the direction of each director’s best work”.

Time Out London
This British web site posts every capsule review from the Time Out Film Guide 13, and earns my vote as providing the best “short reviews” in existence. Within 4-5 sentences, the Time Out reviewers get to the heart of every film—bravo!

Toxic Universe, a.k.a “Culture Dose”
Self-described as “the hipster’s eclectic, literate alternative to generic mass media publications”, the reviews on this site are all-around well-written pieces. Enjoy!

TV Guide Reviews
Believe it or not, these are actually pretty good! The film snob in me was surprised. Check it out.

DVD Review Websites

Since the advent of digital media, countless websites have emerged which critique every conceivable aspect of a DVD release. Below are just a few of the better ones.

Doug Pratt’s Laserdisc and DVD Reviews
While his Laserdisc reviews are clearly outdated, Doug Pratt and his team still offer provocative analyses of many films.

DVD Beaver
This excellent website for movie nerds exists primarily to compare DVD releases from various regions around the world, and is a tireless advocate of region-free coding. You’ll find detailed information on every aspect of DVDs, from sound quality, to image quality, to the comparative appearance of DVD Menus. My favorite aspect of the website is the inclusion of original movie posters and a smattering of “screen captures”.

DVD Talk
This website provides reviews by 50+ reviewers on both recent and older DVDs. Subcategories within the site include Cinema Gotham (specifically about films taking place in New York), and the now-defunct but archived “CineSchlock-O-Rama” column. Glenn Erickson’s DVD Savant reviews are especially recommended.

DVD Verdict
This fun website poses its well-written and thorough reviews as cross-examinations, including sections such as The Charge, The Evidence, and Closing Statement. You’re guaranteed to enjoy these literate debates over whether a movie is “guilty” of bad taste or “free” to be savored.

Specialized Review Websites

The following websites all cater to special movie interests. As such, they’re naturally limited, but can often provide even deeper insights into a genre.

And You Call Yourself a Scientist!
Lengthy reviews of sci-fi, horror, cult, and other obscure films.

BadMovies.org
My favorite features on this humorous website—self-described as “a safe place to indulge in your more unsavory cinematic tastes”—include “Stuff to Watch For” (complete with time tracking), and “Things I Learned From This Movie”.

BMovieGraveyard.com
This excellent site includes LOTS of goodies, including cast photos (with commentary), trivia, a minute-by-minute (and I mean this literally) synopsis of the plot, “special awards” for the characters (including the “Kiss My Ass Award” and the “Smokestack Award”), “Unanswered Questions” (a.k.a. “WTF Moments”), movie stats (i.e., “number of annoying voiceovers”), Screen Captures with captions, sample dialogue, a thematic breakdown (Giant Monsters, Annoying Kids, etc.), and more (whew!). Only a true B-movie lover would go to this much trouble—I’m impressed, and grateful!

CampBlood.org
Consistently amusing, detailed reviews of horror flicks, with a special emphasis on the “queer elements” of horror.

Canuxploitation.com
This site is dedicated to “navigating the murky world of Canadian ‘exploitation’ cinema”.

Classic-Horror: Reviewing the History of Terror
The reviews on this website — “dedicated to exploring and celebrating the history of the horror film” — are succinct and enjoyable to read. Check it out!

CommunistVampires.com
Literate reviews of vampirism in films.

Dark City: Film Noir and Fiction
This site offers reviews of classic and modern film noir flicks. Readers can choose to click on a “mini summary”, “complete summary”, or “review”, or scroll down to view screen stills and memorable dialogue.

DocumentaryFilms.net
Documentaries are one of my all-time favorite genres, so I was happy to find this excellent site. Definitely check it out.

Jabutoo’s Bad Movie Reviews
Self-described as “devoted to the savoring of films at the very bottom of the Cinematic Bell Curve”, you’ll find reviews here of films such as Creeping Terror (1964) and Queen of Outer Space (1959). Check it out.

Not Coming to a Theater Near You
As its name implies, this site specializes in “older, often unpopular, and sometimes unknown films that merit a second look.”

PrisonFlicks.com
Categories of reviews on this specialized site include Women in Prison, Prison Dramas, Prison Action, Prison Comedies, Prison Musicals, and Prisoners of War. The fact that Chicken Run (2000) is listed as a “Women in Prison” flick had me chuckling before I’d even checked out the review. Definitely work a look.

SciFilm.org
Good reviews of sci-fi films, including sections on “What Works” and “What Doesn’t Work” in any given movie.

SciFi Movie Page
Fairly succinct reviews of sci-fi flicks, often with links to scripts.

SF, Fantasy and Horror Film Reviews
This excellent website by Richard Scheib is devoted to sci-fi, fantasy, and horror films. The reviews are immensely readable, and quite enjoyable.

Silents Are Golden
This site contains vintage reviews from magazines such as Photoplay, Movie Weekly, Motion Picture News, The Film Spectator, and more. Additional features include photo stills, lobby cards, synopses, and biographies of famous silent film stars. A true gem for silent movie fans.

“Meta” Review Websites

The following websites don’t provide original reviews, but instead serve the purpose of gathering lots of information about movies into one convenient spot. While there are many such sites, they are not all created equal. I recommend the following three, for different reasons and purposes.

Internet Movie Database
The acknowledged champion of film databases, IMDB keeps growing and getting better every day, it seems. This is always the first place I jump to when I want to find out detailed information about a film, and the External Reviews link usually provides a diverse set of reviews.

Metacritic.com
Whenever I want to get a “meta” sense of how a bunch of reviewers have responded to a film, I head over to Metacritic.com. Their methods for calculating scores from ungraded reviews are far from perfect, but they nonetheless provide at least the gist of a critical consensus. The main problem with the site is that reviews only go back a few years, so (as of now) it’s not reliable for anything other than relatively recent releases.

Movie Review Query Engine
This site is in the process of revamping itself, but is still the number one resource to check if you’re looking for online reviews of any movie.

Current Reviewers

Doing a quick scan of Metacritic.com will provide you with a snapshot of many current reviewers’ writing styles. Below are just a few of my favorites.

David Edelstein (Slate.com, NY Magazine)
Edelstein’s reviews are provocative, timely, and insightful. He was previously with the online magazine Slate.com, where you can find archives of his reviews up until December of 2005; he’s currently with NY Magazine.

Slant.com Online Magazine
Ed Gonzalez and Nick Schager, among others, provide some of the best-written reviews around. Highly recommended.

Kenneth Turan (The Los Angeles Times)
I spent my formative teenage years reading Kenneth Turan’s reviews in my home newspaper, The Los Angeles Times, and still consider him one of the best reviewers currently writing. I can nearly always count on his reviews to be an accurate barometer of my own enjoyment. Unfortunately, his reviews are only online for a brief period of time (The L.A. Times needs to take a lesson from its New York counterpart!), so try to catch them when you can.

Stephanie Zacharek (Salon.com)
Stephanie Zacharek’s reviews are no-holds-barred; this woman tells is like she sees it. Her writing is graceful, acerbic, and compulsively readable.

If you’d like to browse through still more online movie review sites, check out FindMovieReviews.com.