While the debate rages on between film geeks over whether Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes is the superior criticism aggregator, their is now a third aggregator that has entered the mix, called Movie Review Intelligence. Movie Review Intelligence plans to separate itself from the Big Two by using an even smaller group of critics (somewhere in the neighborhood of 65) and weighting their reviews based on how much “pull” they have.
So far the site seems to have some impressive metrics working behind it, making it a bit of a thrill to read for those of us who enjoy crunching numbers. And while I’m happy to see Star Tribune critic (and friend of the site) Colin Covert being included within this select group, I’m a bit at a loss on why his compatriot across the river at the Pioneer Press, Chris Hewitt, is being left out.
The other negative that I have is that I’m not exactly happy that mediocre critics with wide ranging publications like Roger Ebert, Owen Gleiberman or ugg, Peter Travers, means that they might skew the reviews simply due to their wide readership, rather then their competency. And while the limited amount of critics does reduce the number of highly questionable critics being included, a major fault of Rotten Tomatoes, the same small sample size means that the resulting aggregation might potentially be widely skewed. It will be something to keep an eye on over the coming months, and hopefully this site proves as reliable and accurate as its lofty claims.
I wasn’t what you would call a quick convert to the Church of Tarantino. I remember when Pulp Fiction came out and I fully admit to thinking the ad campaign for it made the film look stupid. My freshman year at the University of Minnesota I lived on the St Paul campus which had its own movie theater. While I can brag that I watched Clerks there before you even knew it existed, I turned a blind eye to Pulp Fiction when it played there. Even that summer, when I was home and working at a movie theater, I did my best to ignore the marketing for it. Why would I care about a bunch of has-beens and never-weres with bad haircuts?
Soon enough I learned the error of my ways. I watched Reservoir Dogs and was so impressed that I finally was rather intrigued at what Pulp Fiction was going to be like. Luckily, I knew several clerks at my local video store and they loaned me a screener copy of the film so I could see what all the fuss was about.
Finally a week in which their are multiple quality selections to choose from for theatrical releases. Granted the mainstream offerings at the multiplex are awful, but between Alien Trespass, 12 and Adventureland you have plenty of quality options to choose from. Though my recommendation is for Adventureland, which is nothing like the baudy sex comedy that it is being marketed as. Rather it is a rich coming of age story that is surprisingly dark, very dense and very rich. I might even say it is the fillet of this weeks offerings.
As for DVD releases, they are almost universally crap, excepot for one lone, rogue film. You might know it as the film I used to launch a totally unprevoked, and ultimately futile, attack of Star Tribune film critic Colin Covert. That’s right, just two weeks after it was released in theaters, Shuttle is being released on DVD. So now is your chance to rent the film, and discover for yourself just how right, or wrong Colin is.
After reading a recent review of the Independent film Shuttle by Star Tribune film critic Colin Covert, I may or may not have challenged his sanity and his sobriety in this post. But in an effort to be fair I decided to attend the film anyways and see if Colin actually knew what he was talking about. The result?
I’m sorry to say that Colin Covert, film critic for the Star Tribune, and self-proclaimed “SANEST MAN ALIVEEEEE!” was right, Shuttle is a decent little thriller that does more with its premise then a certain recent big budget film that had a similar low brow concept and rode it to a $100 million American Box Office take.
It helps that Shuttle takes a truly absurd premise (an airport shuttle driver kidnaps his 5 passengers all while driving) and milks it for all it is worth and that the two primary leads, Tony Curran (Red Road) and Peyton List (Mad Men) are actually talented actors. Curran in particular is someone who really should be better known, and if you haven’t watched Red Road make sure to as soon as possible. It is a masterpiece.
Oh sure the film has plenty of holes and numerous continuity errors, but the plot whips along and the actors totally sell their roles. The film isn’t whip smart by any means, but it is performing at a level far greater then would be expected of such low grade fare. As an added bonus, the ending is fantastic and really helps drive home the film. Shuttle isn’t great art, but it is a pretty nice genre flick.
But make no mistake, even if he was correct in this instance, I’m still not sold on Colin’s sanity.
So I was supposed to attend a press screening of Shuttle last week, only thanks to the wonder of FedEx, the hard drive for the film never arrived and the screening was canceled. Now Shuttle is a low budget horror/torture porn flick, and not exactly a movie I had high expectations to begin with, but after getting word the screening was canceled I also heard from someone who had already seen it that it wasn’t good. To be a bit more fair and accurate, it was far worse then less than good. So imagine my surprise when Colin Covert, the white haired wonder of the Star Tribune, gave Shuttle 3 out of 4 stars!
The death-cab-for-cutie premise gains an added measure of impact as a blue-collar revenge fantasy, but you don’t need a sociological spin to make it work. “Shuttle” will creep the flesh right off your bones.
Now I love reading Colin’s reviews, and I find his video reviews in which he refers to himself as the royal we immensely entertaining, but I’m pretty sure he wrote this review on a dare, or drunk. Probably both. That being said I still haven’t seen the movie, and after being told how terrible the film was I was inclined to see it anyways, but now thanks to Colin I am on a quest.
I don’t have a DVD pick for this week, instead I have a homework assignment for you all. Track down a copy of Shuttle, by hook or by crook, and then respond to Colin himself about what you believe is the current state of his mental health and the quality of the film Shuttle.
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