Reading movie reviews

Most of us love to go to the movies — but if there are many movies in town to choose from, the choice can be difficult. Movie reviewers like to help with that choice.

Movie reviews are written, not to tell you what to see, but to help you decide whether or not you would like to see a certain film. Movie critics offer their opinions on the qualities of a particular movie. Sometimes their reviews are positive and other times they are negative. Different reviewers may have very different opinions about the same movie. What one movie reviewer finds entertaining, another may find disappointing.

Besides offering their opinions, movie critics also tell a little about the story line to catch our interest and perhaps encourage us to venture to the theatres to see the movies for themselves.

The Bangkok Post's movie reviewer writes under the pen name of K. Rudeen and his reviews appear in the Friday entertainment section called real.time.

K. Rudeen and most other reviews include certain kinds of information and organise that information in similar ways. Knowing what to expect can help you get the facts you need and understand the writer's opinions. Here's what you can expect in a typical movie review.

Title and deck	The title of the review and the deck (a sentence in special print above the review) suggest the reviewers opinion — whether he or she thinks the movie is worth seeing or not.
Where	At the top of the review, is the name the movie and the places where it can be seen.
Introduction	Here the reviewer tells us why he or she thinks the movie is good or not. There is also often a brief summary of what the movie is about, the story line and what kind of movie it is — adventure, horror, romance, for example.
Actors' Roles	This part gives a short description of the main characters and names the actors who play the parts. Reviews refer to roles the actors have play in other movies.
Story line	In this part you find out more about the story line and also where and when the movie takes place and what the setting or mood is. There may be more information about the roles as the reviewer talks about the story line.
Conclusion	The reviewer may conclude with an interesting or thought-provoking question or statement to tempt you to see the movie for yourself. Our local reviewer sometimes makes a link with a local situation or social attitude.

Here are some excerpts from K. Rudeen's review of The Insider.

No smoking without fire

REVIEW: Heavyweight performances drive this promising Oscar contender

The Insider In English at EGV, UA, UMG,
Siam Square, Cineplex and World Trade Centre

Director Michael Mann and actors Al Pacino and Russell Crowe combine their eclectic talents to make The Insider a powerful suspense drama, a film serious viewers can't afford to miss as the Oscar hopefuls queue up for local screening.

Superficially, the film shows how traditional investigative journalism exposes the shameless lies of greedy businessmen; but at its heart it tells the story of two men's struggle against the mighty forces of the capitalist establishment.

Pacino plays Lowell Bergman, a 60 Minutes producer who persuades Jeffrey Wigand (Crowe), a former executive of a giant tobacco company, to blow the whistle on his former employer's alleged malpractices concerning public health. Bergman finally convinces Wigand to talk, only to find out that his network, CBS, has decided to kill the controversial scoop for fear of ensuing legal troubles. This forces Bergman to go behind his bosses' backs in his crusade to pressure CBS into airing the interview; while Wigand, his sole ally, is left to face the devastating consequences of his disclosures.

More impressive, however, is the Australian-born Russell Crowe. He's perfect for the role of the man who knows too much. Wigand, gagged by the confidentiality agreement he signed with the company, is miserably weighed down by all the secrets he's not supposed to divulge; he speaks in a near whisper, eyes lowered, as if the most crucial parts of his speech get blocked in his throat.

Christopher Plummer plays another key character, Mike Wallace, a veteran correspondent of 60 Minutes and close friend to Bergman.

The Insider is based on the Vanity Fair article The Man Who Knew Too Much, and the film presents a fairly accurate report of this true account which finally led to the $246 billion lawsuits between 49 states and the US tobacco industry. But truth isn't what most concerns us: The movie is engaging, fact-packed, fast-paced, and, in a way, inspires us with mixed feelings of anger and surprise at how little we know about the ethical standpoints of these billionaires.

At the centre of the film are the performances of Pacino and Crowe. Bergman is a seasoned newsman who upholds the liberal ideology of a free press ("Are you a newsman or a businessman?," he barks at a CBS executive); and Pacino simply does what he always does best: slick, ranting, incisive, with a deadpan sense of humour. These are the kind of characters films tend to glamourise.

But despite all the complications, The Insider is simple to follow. Unlike other investigative hits, for example All The President's Men, which tells the story of how two Washington Post reporters uncovered the Watergate scandal, The Insider doesn't drown us in an ocean of information. The strategy is clear: This film focuses on the characters, not the process.

And, alas, that only makes me wish to see characters like Bergman and Wigand in this country — not the self-proclaimed heroes, but people who're at least interested in telling the truth about the cigarettes we smoke, the water we drink, the chickens we eat. If we're talking expos้s, there are plenty of stories to expose in this complacent, mai pen rai Thailand.