Five DVD reviews of mine were posted on Movie Gazette Online since El Bulli: Cooking in Progress. I like single-disc releases such as that one because I can write something right away, whereas with, say, Doc Martin: Series 5, which I'm currently watching for a review, it takes time for a review to form. I'm not in a rush or anything, but sometimes I want to write right away. I've got my novel, so that helps, but to write for readers, I like being immediate. But then, the DVD sets that take time to review can elicit richer writings that explore what's involved in a show, what makes it work, or what doesn't work.
If the DVD set is really good, I don't mind it, and having received the miniseries, Washington: Behind Closed Doors, a fictionalized take on the Nixon administration, I'm going to watch it all because of the presidential aspect. Normally, I don't watch all of a DVD set. I can't, because some reach well over eight hours. For a review that's usually less than 1,000 words, it's not necessary to watch everything. But I love how each DVD review differs, that I watched I, Claudius: 35th Anniversary Edition, and just recently finished Hazel: The Complete Second Season. Yesterday, Rebecca Wright, the head of Movie Gazette Online, forwarded a press release about Tom and Jerry: Around the World, asking if anyone wanted to review it. I do, because I like Tom and Jerry, though my favorite animated character is Popeye. By the time this DVD comes, I'll probably have watched the Carlos Mencia DVD I'm expecting, written a review of Doc Martin: Series 5, and started watching a German film called Young Goethe in Love (owing to my desire to watch more foreign films after seeing We Have a Pope three Fridays ago at The Landmark in Los Angeles). In DVD reviews, there's always something different to watch, and even though that was true of Film Threat, I feel far less pressure now because I don't want to be a full-time film critic anymore. I can have fun with this, and I am.
Here are my new DVD reviews, from earliest to latest:
Patton Oswalt: Finest Hour
I, Claudius: 35th Anniversary Edition
The Getting of Wisdom
Titanic (2012)
Hazel: The Complete Second Season
Excellent, thanks for the links. Someone's been busy lately! Nice work. Off to read them now...
ReplyDeleteIt's not only my drive to be a better writer that keeps me busy with this, but also having the option to only review what interests me. And in the rare times of reviewing what doesn't interest me, such as Hazel (which I reviewed at the request of Rebecca, the head of Movie Gazette Online, who had enough to do as it was), I can always find something in it that makes the writing of a review interesting.
DeleteYour reviews are so wonderfully rich and thorough - it seems perhaps that you were made, in part, to write reviews. I really enjoy them. Certainly makes my efforts at reviews seem pedestrian in the extreme.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to see a real pro at work.
Thanks. In reviews, you just focus on what you like, didn't like, what you want to work out in writing, such as it was for me in my review of Hazel: The Complete Second Season. I would be happy if all the episodes were as pleasant as "Hazel's Day Off," if they embodied that same good humor. It would have been a better show. But those episodes don't come often, and they're mostly taxing to get through.
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