I do enjoy most reviews over there. Kaufman and Liebman write well, though I tend to find Kaufman's reviews a little too flowery for my taste. I appreciate his linguistic deftness, but his reviews can be too "rich" for their own good (maybe that's just me.)
My favourite reviews tend to be Atanasov's. I have no idea who the man is, but I like his reviews' unpretentiousness. His language is a lot plainer than that of his colleagues, but this allows his writing to make a greater impact when he truly feels the need to gush about something. The others write elaborately without ever letting up. At times it makes their writing tiresome and diminishes the intended effect. Imagine listening to an orchestra playing a Beethoven symphony, but performing it fortissimo from beginning to end with no contrasts in between. It will get boring. (And the brass and woodwind sections will be clambering for emergency oxygen masks afterwards, but I digress.) Writing is no different.
I have a sizeable bone to pick with Neil Lumbard. His reviews wouldn't pass muster as English language homework for the first year of junior high. He actually follows a template for each review, writing a paragraph on the film's plot, then the performances, then the direction, then the cinematography, etc., etc. The lack of imagination and passion is extraordinary, and critical analysis almost entirely absent. It baffles me how this guy is hired by the site, but then our own Luke Bonanno cannot find a steady income as film reviewer.
I don't mean to be so harsh on Mr Lumbard, but his "reviews" are of such a low standard that I find them shocking. Unfortunately he is not the only case on the internet, and I have come across numerous "professional" DVD Review sites with reviewers who lack the mental capacity to critically dissect a used teabag, much less cinema.
Having said all this, there is one site on this tangled web with truly magnificent reviews, and that's DVDizzy! Luke's reviews are impeccably written, witty, stylistically sound, and are wonderfully detailed without feeling laboured. Honestly, I don't think if he were to compile all his movie reviews (even if divorced from the DVD-specific elements) into an printed anthology, it would be a bad idea. I reckon he's written enough to put together a nice, fat, healthy book.
EDIT: I put this in the Main Disney section because it's not clear where I should best place it. I guess Off-Topic or General Entertainment would do, but I want people to see it, lol.
