My reviews are based on experience — What have I seen before that has wowed me, in terms of technique or performance? What makes a favorite film? While I’m certainly no expert on the art of film, my many years of movie-watching allow me to recognize what works and what falls short. My reviews are also largely based on entertainment value and how well I’m able to personally connect with the material.

A film doesn’t need to be a complete masterpiece for me to give  it a high rating, because I see value in both cheesy romantic comedies and dramatic, Oscar-worthy pieces of work. I appreciate great films very, very much but I’m not a film snob in the least. It should be fairly easy to distinguish which films get serious high ratings and which ones are simply rated highly for enjoyment. Reviews of cheesy films will sometimes include a Corny Cliff Scale score in addition to a serious score, so those of you who love bad movies as much as I do can better determine whether the film is worth a watch for you.

All films are rated out of five stars/points. Decimals are rarely used, but you will see some .5s (where the film floats directly between two rating levels) and the occasional .8 (where the film misses the higher of the two ratings by a hair).

5/5! – The best of the best of the best – instant favorites.

5/5 – Not an instant favorite, but a really great film. Worthy of endless re-watching, and adding immediately to my DVD collection.

4/5 – Almost there. Great, but not with enough of a wow factor to earn that extra point. Worthy of many re-watches and an eventual DVD purchase.

3/5 – Good. Would definitely watch it again and consider buying it.

2/5 – Okay, but I’d never buy it and probably wouldn’t watch it again.

1/5 – Pretty bad. Wouldn’t watch it again and definitely wouldn’t buy it.

0/5 – The worst of the worst. Will avoid at all costs in the future. This is a very rare rating.