Justin at the Movies

I’ll Shutter At Your Island

// February 25th, 2010 // Random Movie Musings, Recommendations

Justin’s Rating: 4/5

Jesse, my friend Matt, and I went to Shutter Island this past weekend. It was the quality that I expect from Martin Scorsese. The guy is a master filmmaker and knows exactly how to establish mood, tone, and everything else that goes into a great psychological thriller.  This movie has all the makings of a great movie, and even though it isn’t perfect, it is still a great movie. And Jackie Earle Haley, although he is only in the movie for about two minutes, gives a performance to die for. He is such a great actor and is always different and dissolves himself into his characters. I was thoroughly impressed with all the performances in the film, and it was great to see Mark Ruffalo (who is one of my all time favorites) get a big role in a big box office release. My praise was only half of the reason for this post, now for my other reason…

As everybody that knows me knows that I have a very love-hate (mostly hate) relationship with the critics. I will say that for the most part the good critics know what they are talking about, but then we have these schumcks from blackcountertoponthesidewalkcrack.com talking about things that they know nothing about. Usually I don’t care what these idiots have to say but when it plays a pivotal role in people’s perception of a great film it really bothers me. It plays that role through a little sight called rottentomatoes.com, which I have spoken out against in the past and I will do it again. Please don’t put any clout into their tomatometer or whatver it is called, because it can be way off, and it is again in regards to Shutter Island. If you take a look at the two most famous and respected critics on the planet (Roger Ebert and Peter Travers) they both gave the film 3.5/4 which is a great rating. Both praised the movie even though it may not be perfect. Many other respected and notable critics have also praised the film and have given it good marks. So why does it have a 66% on rottentomatoes then? Because of these jackass critics that know nothing of film. If you read their negative reviews on the film, they almost don’t make any sense. These people seem to have no idea what they are talking about. It just sounds like they are talking because they love the sound of their voice, which is kind of what I do, but dammit, I’m better at it. It is a severe injustice that people are looking at this sub-par rating and judging the movie accordingly without deciding for themselves. In my respected opinion, if you find yourself always agreeing with the critics or with the tomatometer, then get an opinion of your own, because clearly you don’t have one. If you can’t get your own opinion, then I will gladly let you borrow mine.