The Dollar Movie Reviewer

If you're like me, you love movies. I've definitely spent many, many meaningful hours in movie houses across North America. And I've spent too much time watching duds.

Like Brad Pitt, I'm a dad now and I'm tired of "thinking about myself." With a wife and two little girls, it's harder than ever to justify the time and expense of the duds. That's why I go to 'Dollar Movies.' If the movie's a dud, I don't feel bad about walking out on it. And if it's good? Well then I figure I just saved $6 or $7 a head (or more)!

So in The Dollar Movie Review in most cases I'll be reviewing movies that have demonstrated some staying power. Most of them are hits. A few are movies which my local Dollar Movie theater operator figured might have some staying power in my market.

I review these Dollar Movies on a curve. Elements in movies like sex, violence, profanity and the like (all things that, frankly, didn't bother me as much when I was still single) won't fare as well in my reviews. Moreover, kid-friendly movies will get the benefit of a doubt in my reviews; a kind of 'thanks for trying' attaboy. It's possible to make movies that manage to be engaging and entertaining without being coarse or debasing. Pixar does it all the time. And I want to do my small part to encourage better movies.

That raises one final point. I once heard Gerald Molen talk about his experiences as a Hollywood producer and he mentioned that the only R-rated movie he'd produced was Schindler's List (for which he won the Best Picture Academy Award in 1994). Someone piped up and said, what about Rain Man? He said, when he started the movie, it was a PG or PG-13 movie, not an R movie. The director, Barry Levinson, had made choices during the course of the production that turned it into an R movie.

I believe Hollywood is capable of producing splendid movies. But too often the first sensibility of modern Hollywood screenwriters, directors, producers and actors is to make movies that cheapen and degrade. When filmmakers make those kind of choices, The Dollar Movie Review will say so.