When reviewers get lazy...

[Tiplodocus]

I'm sure some of the journos among us can share some professional tips here but I really hate it when I see a review that contains any of the following types of phrases:

"If you like this kind of thing then you'll love this"

"Makes X seem like Y"

"It's like Y on acid"

"Z looks like he is acting in an entirelky different movie"

"His art is static"

"You expect Keanu to say "Dude, Excellent" at any moment"

You might notice that the SFX review of Constantine contained at least two of the above.

Some are just lazy nonsense, some are "soundbites" to try and get the newspaper name on the posters and adverts and some are just the reviewer trying to show off that he/she is cleverer than the writer of the source material.

Who else dislikes what?  What's the laziest review you've ever had?

[Trout]

"If you like this kind of thing then you'll love this"

This is a tried and tested "context" move by reviewers and I've used it many times myself.
The idea of a review is, in my opinion, to provide some idea of what the film/book/whatever is going to be like, and a comparison is a good way of doing it.
If this phrase is used a lot, as I suppose it is, I'd suggest that's not laziness, unless it's always worded in exactly the same way. It's good practice.

"Makes X seem like Y"
Yeah, that's rubbish.

"It's like Y on acid"
AGH! I hate that one. Yeah, that's laziness.

And the other stuff's a bit rubbish, too.

I get very annoyed with reviewers who like to swamp the reader with opinion. I'm strongly of the view that a review ought to give information (say 90%) and sneak in a bit of opinion (the remainder), but that is, of course, open to whoever's in charge of the publication.

I don't get worked up about this sort of thing, but then I don't read SFX. :-)

- Trout

[Adrian Bamforth]

"IT'S AN ACTION-PACKED ROLLER-COASTER RIDE!

Ade

[Dan Kelly]

> "It's like Y on acid"

For a great deconsturction of this see one of Bill Bailey's DVDs (can't remember which one) for "Benny and June" on acid...

Dan

[Dunk!]

'It's movie X meets movie Y* with A or B added'

*Movie Y being a movie that is the polar opposite of X

A being another Movie that complements neither X or Y thus adding another wacky twist.

B being testosterone, magic, sparkle, fun and laughs, etc. you get the idea.

Makes me grind my teeth everytime i see a quote like that.

[Banners]

A couple of my buddies were annoyed when their recent bravura production of "A Streetcar Named Desire" was reviewed in the region's biggest evening paper as "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof".

Guess the fella didn't use his complimentary tickets - or even look at them(!)

M@

[Tweak72]

Trout, what kind of ha... erm journalist are you? do you do reviews or investigation type work do you do pieces on local issues or travel round the world? are you freelance?

[Mike Carroll]

A couple of years back one of my books was given a lukewarm review in a daily newspaper. I say "review" but in fact it was the back-of-book blurb quoted verbatim with the words "A mildly amusing tale that lacks depth" added at the end.

Then two weeks later the same newspaper's Sunday edition gave the book a very positive review: "hilarious", "touching", "multi-layered", "deep" and so on, all capped with something along the lines of "One of the funniest, most moving books I've read in a long time."

The best part: It was the same reviewer in both cases.

Mike

[paulvonscott]

Anyone remember 'Lee Evans is like Norman Wisdom on Acid' on the sadly missed sunday spark of originality that was 'This Morning with Richard not Judy'.

Instead of being anarchich and amusing, Norman Wisdom on Acid was just a frightened, cofnused old man who didn't really understand what was happening to him, not like Lee Evans at all.

I also enjoyed the blasphemous lettuce.

[Trout]

Teak, I'm a salaried (not freelance) reporter for a local newspaper, concentrating on local issues.

I have written other stuff, such as reviews and feature pieces, but not for maybe three or four years now.

- Trout

[Roger Godpleton]

"It's even better than (Insert last landmark in the particular genre/ artist's ouvere)."

[Banners]

I don't like it when singers with solo careers that are longer and more productive than any band they started off with, are constantly referred to as "the former lead singer of"... etc..

M@

[Tweak72]

how long have you been doing it? did you have to get a digree in jounoism? was it worth it? what is your opiniion of the way the national press is going?

[longmanshort]

how long have you been doing it? did you have to get a digree in jounoism? was it worth it? what is your opiniion of the way the national press is going?

Too long. No, but an ability to spell is highly prized. Not in the slightest. Down the tubes, with aplomb.

[Trout]

how long have you been doing it? did you have to get a digree in jounoism? was it worth it? what is your opiniion of the way the national press is going?


Ten years; no; not applicable; couldn't care less! :-)

- Trout