Rex Reed is a visionary. He has seen the future. It didn’t catch his interest, so he turned it off. In doing so Rex Reed is pointing to the future of online criticism. Life’s too short. Why waste any part of it watching something you don’t like. Odds are, the people who read what you have to say also won’t like it. That’s why they read you.
Rex Reed got busted today for giving V/H/S2 a bad review without watching it all the way through. He was accused of lying, but he admitted it right there in the very short, under-150 words, review. Admitting it probably took up about ten words. Good for him. I’m going to do the same thing, I’m not going to read his review and critique it anyway. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say, it was probably a great review, as reviews go, not as in a review of a great film. I’m sure he had very funny lines and cut the film to shreds with wit and candor. He probably took broad shots, like he did with Melissa McCarthy.
This is prophetic. This is where criticism is headed. The millennials are proud of their short attention span and Reed does this up in under 150 words. He only watched one segment out of a seven part film and judged the whole by its part. He probably didn’t even see the section directed by the guy who did Blair Witch. That’s where he went wrong. He should have watched a little bit of each part, that’s why they put fast forward buttons on remote controls.
Or, he should have just watched the trailer. Fuck the movie, watch the trailer. The best bits are usually in there anyway. Screw the details. It’s tempting. Very tempting. And probably another prescient fact of our entertainment evolution. As the population’s attention span shrinks, so will the movies. Full-length movies are just too long. An hour twenty. Two hours some of them. Christ, Once Upon a Time in America had a short version that ran 10 hours and a long version that ran a week. Who has the time? I kid, I preferred the long version of the crime classic, but really they could have answered the phone in the opening sequence in under thirty rings.
It’s more tempting because I was assigned Sharknado tonight. I’m sure it’s some kind of punishment, but I have never said no to an assignment. And the idea that I can watch the first twenty minutes and then fall asleep kinda appeals to me.
Thank you Rex Reed for always being at the forefront of the movement.
SOURCE: NEW YORK OBSERVER
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I think Rex Reed's age gives him more right to fall asleep. He has comparatively little time to continue on the earth so he can't waste it with bad movies. Besides, I'm glad he had the guts to push around that fat chick. Who thinks she's funny anyway. Long live Rex Reed.
It's so true about the trailers. With the economy the way it is we might as well stay home and watch the trailers for movies and save ourselves the nose-bleed prices for tickets and toxic popcorn. I hate paying for a movie only to find that I've already seen and chuckled at every funny part from the trailer. Watching trailers is like having that annoying friend tell you about it and ruin the ending before you can see it.
Students don't read books anymore just notes and cheat sheets- why shouldn't movies be the same way? My attention span is so short I've already lost interest in what I'm saying. ;)
Rex Reed has been phoning in his reviews for years. Are we really surprised he is now phoning in the screenings?
Once again Tony Sokol's insightful review brings it all together.
Rex should have just hired a ghost writer,LOL