My Name is Greg. I Watch Movies.

For those of you who do not know, my name is Greg, and for those of you who missed the title of this blog entry, you may find it surprising to know that I enjoy movies.

I have always attempted to watch a wide variety of movies in both the theater and while at home. Sometimes we want to be challenged by a film which questions the way we look at the world and how we live our lives (The Seventh Seal is one my favorite films in this regard), and sometimes we simply want to sit down and watch something relatively mindless but entertaining which requires little engagement on our behalf (Airplane comes to mind at the moment). Sometimes we want to watch something romantic (Casablanca), and other times we want to watch something which is guaranteed to bring tears to our eyes (Big Fish, please!). Films to me are the most powerful form of media because of the wide range of emotions one can experience during a single viewing.

Watching movies is one thing, but reviewing movies is a completely different animal, altogether. I've always found that good movie reviews written by talented movie critics (Roger Ebert remains the greatest in my opinion) include two important elements: a discussion of the relevance of the film to the lives of audience members (or to the reviewer) and an interpretation of the efficacy of the choices which were made by the crew in the course of creating the movie. I hope to strive for excellence in both these regards in all of my reviews.

Greg