Subject: Reviews/Criticism (Page 24)

It is hard to resist a flatterer who gets it right.

American writer

The epitome of ‘blah.’

American movie critic

It's a car movie made by people who couldn't find reverse in a Volkswagen; a puzzle box thriller assembled by the functionally insane.

writer, editor & film reviewer

It's like watching the travel video of the most annoying guy you know.

film reviewer

The covers of this book are too far apart.

(1842 – 1914) author & satirist

The play holds the season’s record, thus far, with a run of four evening performances and one matinée… by an odd coincidence, it ran just five performances too many.

(1893 – 1967) writer, humorist & poet

In AI, Spielberg is bleaching the dirt out of the human mind and leaving behind only the vacant gaze of machine ‘love.’ Coca Cola ads do much the same thing — and they don't take two hours.

(1951 – ) British journalist & author

The entire film seems to consist of three thoughts, cycled ad nauseum: Don’t leave me. I can’t live without you. Make me a vampire.

film critic

Sometimes he was inaudible – those were his best moments.

(1906 – 1972) pianist, composer, author, comedian & actor

If I’d had anything to do with it, I’d be wearing a balaclava and writing under an assumed name.

British broadcaster, writer & film critic

This is an old idea, beautifully expressed by Wordsworth, who said, ‘Heaven lies about us in our infancy.’ If I could quote the whole poem instead of completing this review, believe me, we’d all be happier. But I press on.

(1942 – 2013) American film critic, journalist & screenwriter

The play was a great success, but the audience was a disaster.

(1854 – 1900) Irish dramatist, novelist & poet

The Good, The Bad and the Elderly

musician & film reviewer

Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original and the part that is original is not good.

(1709 – 1784) English author, essayist, critic, editor & lexicographer

The old man and the Cialis.

American movie critic

You could do worse… by which I mean you couldn't possibly do worse.

writer, editor & film reviewer

It’s as if seven Vice Presidents of Production sat in a boardroom for three days straight, without food or water, and finally their collective genius, poring over reams of test screening data, resoundingly declared with one voice, “We Need More Rum Jokes.”

film critic

Boat Trip arrives preceded by publicity saying many homosexuals have been outraged by the film. Now that it's in theaters, everybody else has a chance to join them. Not that the film is outrageous. That would be asking too much. It is dim-witted, unfunny, too shallow to be offensive…

(1942 – 2013) American film critic, journalist & screenwriter

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days: They could just have called it How to Lose an Intelligent Audience in 10 Seconds.

British editor, writer, author & reviewer

Michael Madsen? Michelle Rodriguez? ‘I’ll take “Actors Who Should Never Appear in Period Pieces” for $500, Alex.’

writer, editor & film reviewer

He decided to make it [Daisy Miller] exactly as it stood; he crammed James’s words into Cybill’s mouth like fish into a letterbox.

(1931 – ) American-born, British screenwriter, novelist & journalist