Movie Reviews - College Style

For my Critical and Creative Thinking class, we had to write a movie review for a movie we saw recently. The point of this assignment was to use language in a way to give the reader a clear idea of what the movie is about and how we formed our opinion on it.

We were to avoid a review such as : "This Movie is really neat. I liked the characters and the story was really fascinating. . . blah blah blah."

Neat, interesting, nice and the like are vague descriptions, you're definition of what makes something 'neat' or 'nice' may be different then somebody else's, right? So I tackled the review with this in mind.

I chose "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind".

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is an engaging and clever film. The main premise involves a mild mannered man named Joel (played by Jim Carrey), who realizes that his eccentric girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) has recently gone through a revolutionary procedure to have him and their entire relationship erased from her memory. Confused and angry, Joel decides to do the same, only to realize as the memories fade that he doesn't want to forget her. The movie takes an unusual twist by showing events out of chronological order, as Joel's relationship with Clementine is revealed in reverse, from the last argument they had to the moment they met. The casting director also did something rather unorthodox by casting Winslet in the eccentric role instead of Jim Carrey, and both actors perform their parts brilliantly. I found this particular film fascinating as it engages your mind and makes you wonder about what you would do if presented with a similar situation. It also mixes humor with drama and presents itself in a light manner while remaining deep and thought provoking.

I felt I covered the assignment and I posted my answer. Of course, I have to read other people's reviews and post in reply. One struck me as particularly, well, bad. I get the impression that she didn't read the instructions and only saw 'Write a Movie Review'.

The movie I saw a couple of weeks ago was about a man who became a cop so he could get the down low on his mob friends. The other guy was a cop how was sent to the mob to be under cover. In this movie the main mob boss was trying to find out who was the snitch or undercover cop in his mob. He was giving the other cop information about all of the guys under him to see who was a cop. The movie starts out with this bad cop handing out with the mob boss as a child. He is taken in like an orphan. Then it catches up to this day in age. I liked the movie and I just can't give a way the end it would ruin the whole movie. I came to this conclusion based on my perception of the movie.

My reply:

. . . Huh? Ok, two questions. One, what is the title of your movie, and two, Huh? You lost me, as this appears to be a rambling mess and I have no idea what I just read.

Ok, so I didn't particularly say that (though I want to) but I'll probably write something similar (and toned down for proper netiquette) but still, what in the world?

I would say, and this is just me, that this is below standard for a 400 level college class. I feel compelled to reply to this girl. I mean, seriously, can I critique something like this without coming across as an ass?

It kind of makes me a bit weary about continuing with my education at this institution. We shall see, eh?