Anthony's Film Review About This Website I am not a professional film critic, nor am I aiming to become one. In fact, I do not even have any kind of formal education in film studies. I am simply a regular person who enjoys cinema, and I like to tell friends about each movie I've seen. In doing so, I became inspired in 2005 to write quick film reviews. But I didn't launch Anthony's Film Review until early 2008 when I finally decided to share my thoughts about movies with the world, not just with a few friends. Watching movies and writing my thoughts on them have become such a fun hobby for me, even to this day, that I can never see a film without summarizing what I think of it. It's like a ritual, but at least it's a delightful one. There are a few things about me and Anthony's Film Review that may differ, respectively, from some other film critics and movie review websites: I typically do not approach films in an academic way. Rather than analyzing the many aspects of a film in detail, my reviews focus only on the things that stand out the most. Maybe a movie has a simple plot, but the stars have memorable performances. Or a movie has average actors but the story and themes are well presented. Depending on how much I have to say, my reviews vary in length, but all are at least five paragraphs long (in some cases, just five paragraphs long). I consider myself a relatively benign and generous film reviewer. Because of this, I don't like to call myself a "critic." I always trying to find something good in any movie I see, even one that many other people might dislike. However, if I give the movie a negative review, take it as a bad sign, because it means that I definitely lost patience while watching it. I do not review every single movie as it hits theaters, nor do I focus only on currently released movies. I watch movies of any age and of any genre, so whatever I review next is totally random. As a result, I don't put dates in my reviews to document when I've written them. I do, however, put dates on my commentary articles, given that some topics may be timely. I write reviews whenever I feel like it, as I do have a life aside from this site. I focus on mainstream films, but do check out independent films on occasion. I do not mind receiving requests from independent filmmakers who wish to have me review their films. However, my policy on independent films is this: (1) I'll review an indie film when I have time, (2) the film must intrigue me enough to stir my curiosity, and (3) I will only write a review if it's positive, because I reserve negative reviews for big studio films that waste their resources. Because I like to review non-movie stuff in the same manner, I have a section of "Other Reviews" for things like television shows, video games, and other forms of video entertainment. However, this is only for anyone who is interested in whatever else I've written. My collection of movie reviews represents the main content of Anthony's Film Review. Regarding my rating system, I use a scale from 1 star to 10 stars, which I roughly define as follows: This movie is just excellent. It engrossed me intellectually and gripped me emotionally the whole way through. This movie is very good. I enjoyed it greatly, though I might not quite call it excellent. This movie is pretty good. It's certainly better than an average movie. This movie is not bad. There's enough good stuff in it for me to at least smile about. This movie is just OK. I'm giving the movie credit, but only marginally so. This movie is somewhat disappointing. If it had just a little more stuff to make it better, I would give it an extra star. This movie is not that good. While it might have some good things about it, there's a lot more I didn't like. This movie is pretty bad. I wish I hadn't wasted my time watching this. This movie is quite unpleasant. There's barely anything I admired about it. This movie is just torture. For numerous reasons, I would tell people to just skip this movie. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to e-mail me. This includes suggestions for movies I should see, your own thoughts about movies that I've reviewed, and even typographical and factual errors in my reviews that should be corrected (because I self-edit my work). Otherwise, let's enjoy the wonderful world of movies! Home Film Reviews Other Reviews Commentaries Links About AFR RSS Feed Privacy Policy E-mail Anthony