Are Total Film's Reviews becoming increasingly lazy?

[Orbits]

I don't want this to de-evolve into a bashing thread. I would like criticism of the reviews to be done in a constructive way in this thread, so no personal insults, flaming, naming and shaming etc etc


but I do want to criticize and I do think something needs to be siad. I have followed TF magazine for sometime now and I loved its open honesty when dealing with films but lately I found them pulling back and not giving full honest opinions anymore.

Part of my problem is the star rating, there are just so many films lumped into that play-it-safe 3 star category. Now I know some of you can say star ratings don't matter, you could change the rating to a mark out of ten or a percentage% and there still would be problems. I always respected this mag for its honesty, the writers here were very frank on how they felt and you didn't get the fanboyism or ocasional disaster rating u get in the other mag...begins with an 'emp', TotalFilm had the better magazine and web review standard.
In recent times the magazine seems to be getting scared of their own honesty, I know star ratings aren't the big deal. However what gets me is the last paragraph in so many films where TotalFilm reviewers say something like this film has some great moments and there are some very good acting performances but there are also some moments they didn't enjoy and maybe were not so great, then they recommend seeing it anyway cos its good....there are so many reviews no that are not getting full commitment and reviewers are pulling back and playing it safe, sitting on the fence somewhere between a fair and a great film, without giving their TRUE opinion.

Another minor criticism for me would be you don't have your girls review a guys film very often. That in itself is an important part of the cinema going experience for me. If I'm taking my girl to a scifi, superhero or action flick I hope that there is something in the movie that a woman can enjoy cos I don't want to be in the bad books and then owe her a marathon of boring RomCom's to sit through.

The biggest problem for me is some you guys have started to Sit On The Fence. I can imagine Green Lantern, 21 JumpStreet, the Help and Thor all be ranked into that 3 STAR RATING category and the review finished of with a lazy inconclusive sit on the fence paragraph. There are so many films that don't rank into this 3 star box along with A-Team, MatchPoint, SupermanReturns, FastFive, OpenWater, Predators, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Indy4, Phone Booth....but in the past 2 yeasr Total Film is suddenly deciding to play it really, really safe and refuses to stick its neck out and give us an honest write up on how their reviewers feel about a certain movie.

TF should either drop the star rating system or just focus on giving readers more honest movie write ups.


and No Changing Cinema Reviews for the DVD. I honestly don't understand how a magazine can print a review one year and then the next year change their review so much its as if they watched a totally different film.

that's all I have to say on it
thanks for reading my rant

[Punchbowl]

If it's anything like gaming is these days, you f'ck over a film and the studio / publisher makes it very difficult for you to get exclusives or previews in the future.
A lot of games get that 'safe' seven so as not to upset a publisher or developer and I would imagine film studios use the same methods. There's a lot of money going into these films these days and the studio politics mean that investors need to be kept sweet.
Ergo, the journo and reviewers at the end of the process get used and bribed or punished and black listed.
You can virtually guarantee a studio or publisher without any financial clout will not be handled with kid gloves when it comes to reviews.

[Jeffbiscuits]

Quite often, I will hate a film at the cinema then enjoy it on DVD.

[Lizhawkins]

I think the main reason the cinema rating and DVD rating tend to vary is because TF purposefully use a different reviewer for both.

[Jeffbiscuits]

That makes more sense. Ignore what I said {slinks sheepishly toward the door}

[morris]

It is a different experience though, between seeing something at the cinema and seeing it at home. Some things only work on the big screen (eg TDK in IMAX) and others reveal a possibly overlooked charm in repeat home viewings.

Then there's movies which are crud in both formats, like Scream 4, Pirahna 3D and Saw whatever-it-is-now.

[Jeffbiscuits]

That is true but in the context of movie reviewing it seems logical to have a different reviewer for each release stage of the movie.

[morris]

I concur in the affirmative that this information appears to be correct.

[MillerCrosses]

You guys are really getting the hang of the "saying he's great while admitting he's not actually great" review. Combine it with your Bel Ami review and you'll get an award for saying "we're sure he's great, we just are"!

[daveb3007]

I didn't get the chance to see it on the big screen and, to be honest I had not managed to see a review of the film. I thought I could catch up with the story with the TF DVD/Blu review. No!

The review is just a load of waffle, no mention of the story etc, spread over 2 pages too. Someone beat Simon Kinnear over the head with a Thesaurus, and a copy of the DVD.