About Me

Hello and welcome to Moviegnome.com, a site owned and ran exclusively by myself with the intent of providing quality film reviews. While not always pleasant, working alone has its advantages. I write all my reviews, which ensures that they should at least sound similar. Often, when movie websites have more than one reviewer opinions clash, viewpoints differ and so on. So it is my goal to provide the best reviews that I personally can. In doing so I hope not only to expand my knowledge of film but to improve my writing abilities as well. I love movies, and I hope to make this site the best it can be for the general public and myself.

Here is a quick guideline to my rating system. I try to grade a film according to what it is trying to accomplish. Granted, there are bonus points for higher aiming goals. One of the hardest things a critic can do is assign a numerical value to a subject so diverse as films in general. Sometimes I find that I don't get it right the first time, so I apply minor changes. Rest assured, this is fairly rare. There are several measures I do take to avoid this in the first place. Any movies I have seen only once (usually those in theaters) are never rated higher than four stars. This is a good fail safe for over praise, which can happen quite easily when seeing a movie in theaters. So without further ado, this is how I tend to rate movies.

The highest rating I give, this is a film I consider a classic of the utmost degree.

A classic of a slightly lesser degree, but a classic nonetheless.

A well made film that has or should stand the test of time.

Usually an average movie that I personally liked. It has a few extra things going for it.

An average film, but in a good way.

An average film, but in a not so good way.

A film that has a few definite things wrong with it. Basically this is a below average movie.

A pretty badly made movie. Only see it if something about it interests you.

A terrible movie that is a chore to get through.

I rarely blight a movie with one of these. You get the picture.

Here's a quick look at what my reviews look like and what they say. I always include one picture from the film, located near the top of the review. I usually try to use one that incorporates the main characters and theme. Right below that is a quote from the movie. This can be a line that I thought was moving, memorable, funny or just basically whatever else I feel like adding. Note that the quote and the picture have no correspondence towards each other. Running along the right side of page I have facts about the movie including the cast and crew, MPAA rating and box office gross. The actual body of the review will vary and no doubt change over time. I usually start it off with an intro paragraph or the plot summary. For the plot summaries themselves I try to keep it keep short and simple without revealing too much besides the main premise. I also include at least a paragraph on the acting and a brief conclusion.

There are three methods of finding a movie I've reviewed. On the homepage I keep a list of links to the recent reviews. Also on the homepage and in all of my reviews is a blue link entitled "Reviews." This will take you to the archives, where you select the first letter of the movie title and follow it from there. I also have a search engine on the front page that allows you to search the site for reviews using any keywords such as the title, actors, etc.

And that's it. As time goes by I will be adding new reviews and updating the site. So stay tuned for more.

-The Gnome