Why am I not the critic I used to be?

By Tanner Smith

I don’t write many negative reviews anymore. But when I was starting out with this blog, I had a pretty good balance of positive and negative. Sometimes, I would purposefully seek out supposed “bad” movies just so I could add on to their piles of bad reviews.

I was too influenced by other film critics such as Siskel & Ebert and Richard Roeper. But they got/get paid to see movies and give their two cents about them. I just did it so I could stay active.

But the thing is, I’m an artist too. I’m a filmmaker. And I’ve grown a lot since I started this blog. I’ve also learned…that if you look for something to dislike about a movie, you’re going to find it. It’s easy. And it’s lazy. What takes effort is crafting the art and looking for the good things in other art.

What I’m trying to say is that it’s just not fun for me to write negative reviews anymore.

What movie did I say I hated most? Freddy Got Fingered. Well, you know what? Tom Green deliberately set out to make a troll movie and he succeeded big-time. I will never see this movie again…but I will strangely admire Green for his efforts.

What other movies was I too harsh on?

Reality Bites. I don’t hate that movie nearly as much as I did before. In fact, I still own it on DVD for the good things in it plus the interesting audio commentary from director Ben Stiller and writer Helen Childress.

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones. Everything that bugged me about this intriguing chapter in the “Paranormal Activity” franchise don’t bother me anymore. In fact, watching it again recently, I think I like it.

The Happening. So much of this movie doesn’t work, but I can see what M. Night Shyamalan set out to accomplish. Why fault him for that?

Armageddon. C’mon…it’s goofy as hell and I think that was Michael Bay’s intent.

Angels in the Outfield. I grew up with this movie. My criticisms still hold true, but it didn’t do anything to harm me at all.

Evil Dead. I needed to see this movie for what it was and not what I wanted it to be. It’s a decent remake.

Short Circuit. I still like “Short Circuit 2” more, but still, why give one-and-a-half stars to Johnny Five?

Toy Soldiers. This movie could have been written a lot better. But look at all the pyrotechnics that was put into it!

Three Amigos! Really, past-Tanner? It’s not THAT bad.

Neither is Child’s Play 2. Or Uncle Buck. Or The Grinch.

Half-a-star to Kazaam, huh? Is that why it’s one of my guilty pleasures?

At least I admitted in mostly-negative reviews for movies like Exorcist II, The Last House on the Left, Mommie Dearest, Top Gun, White Water Summer, The Good Son, and Red Dawn that they each had their own merits to them.

Even “North,” the film that inspired Roger Ebert’s “I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie,” I don’t particularly care for it but at the same time I think director Rob Reiner and writer Alan Zwiebbel suffered enough because of it. And they just wanted to make a fun comedy–they didn’t intentionally set out to make a bad movie.

Oh, and 2 stars to Good Burger?? C’mon, you love that movie and you know it! Oh, and 2 stars to the 1990 miniseries Stephen King’s It? Is that why you watch it every once in a while–just to make sure you don’t like it? (Boy, I’m glad I didn’t review “Hocus Pocus” at all.)

I think what I’m ultimately trying to say is that I shouldn’t have tried kidding myself back then about being a “serious” film critic. I’m both a movie lover and a filmmaker, and I’ll never forget that for the rest of my life.