About Mojodawn

When it was suggested that I was an aspiring reviewer, I responded that I’m just in the audience.  Maybe not the target audience, but I am definitely in the audience.  I  watch movies and sometimes television.  I read books.  I listen to music.  Not usually mainstream, to be sure, but there’s a lot to choose from out there these days and I truly believe that if people have spent the time and effort to create a movie or publish a book then it deserves to be watched or read… at least once.

That being said, what you can expect my viewing choices to be will run strongly to B-Grade, horror, indie, sci-fi, fantasy, action, adventure with the occasional romance or comedy thrown in for good measure.  Don’t expect technical info in my reviews, there are plenty of actual reviewers out there who have film making experience who would do a better job of telling you why a movie is “technically” good.  Also, my reviews are not intended to compare how “good” this film is compared to that film.  You cannot justly compare a film which has a budget of $2,000 to a film that has a budget of $200,000 or $200 million.  My reviews look at each film’s own relative merit, or lack there of.

Here’s the skinny: Maybe someone will find these write ups useful or amusing. Just remember, as my dad always said, “Opinions are like assholes, every body’s got one.”

Speaking of my opinion, and since these are my opinions, I need to create some sort of rating system. Some defined expectations I’m looking to see fulfilled through the course of whatever time I’m dedicating to reading or listening to a book or viewing a movie. One thing I expect is good characters. Are they entertaining, believable, multifaceted, engaging, do they develop or evolve through the story, do they stay true to their basic nature and if not, is there a damn good reason? Another thing I expect is good dialogue/interaction/chemistry. I’m lumping those together for right now because I can and they seem they go together. Whether it’s books or movies characters need to interact well on various levels. In books, this is all in the writing. In movies, it can be affected by the actors or director as well as the writer. Next, I expect coherent, well thought out (not necessarily good) writing. Self explanatory. Well, mostly. Even if I don’t think something is good, I can still appreciate it, unless it’s incoherent or poorly thought out. I’m talking contradicting your own back story/timelines and disregard for continuity within the story. Don’t start the story with a character called “Hannah” then for no reason change her name to “Candy” just because you were too lazy to go back and check your own work, okay? But most important of anything, can I empathize with the story? Does it make me feel something? I don’t care if it’s joy, sadness, amusement, hurt, disgust, fear, horror, love … whatever. If it can’t make me feel something, it’s not doing it’s job.

Now I have a few defined expectations which I intend to follow. Go me.