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HOW TO WRITE A MOVIE REVIEW

Movie Review Purpose

The main purpose of a movie review is to inform the reader about the film and its ideas. Seems simple, right? Reporting all events that happen and stating one’s opinion about them is a common mistake that many students make. While movie review allows writers to express their opinions about some film or documentary, there is also the need for the unbiased and objective approach. An ideal review combines both.  The review determines whether someone will want to see the movie. Film review should be detailed enough to provide assistance in making an honest decision i.e. whether the reader wants to see it or if they’d like it.

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Mama Diamond Movie Poster for Promotion

Movie reviews also involve the analysis of events that happened in a documentary or “regular” film, adapting your review to different genres and events they portray, and your capacity to sum up some major work and report it in a cohesive, logical, and interesting manner.

Movie Review Outline
Structuring is extremely useful in any type of paper and a movie review isn’t an exception. A written outline will help you organize your thoughts properly, not to forget anything and to actually end up writing it faster. Here is an example outline you may use:
• Introduction: In this part you need to provide some general information about the picture: title, release date, main actors, filmmakers, film company and filming budget.
• Summary of the story: This is a short exposition of movie plot, characters and their interaction.

Analysis of the movie, that includes:
• Analysis of the plot elements: starting point, rising action, and climax.
• Analysis of creative elements: dialogues, characters, use of colors, camera techniques, mood, tone, symbols, costumes 

or anything that contributes or takes away from the overall plot.
• Analysis of the topic and its implementation:

 viewers’ understanding of the topic, relevance of the topic, and comparison with other resembling works.

• Opinion. Your point of view supported with examples and facts from the story.
• Conclusion. Announce whether the filmmaker was successful in his/her purpose.

Roger Ebert became film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times in 1967. He is the only film critic with a star on Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame and was named honorary life member of the Directors’ Guild of America. He won the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Screenwriters’ Guild, and honorary degrees from the American Film Institute and the University of Colorado at Boulder. Since 1989 he has hosted Ebertfest, a film festival at the Virginia Theater in Champaign-Urbana. From 1975 until 2006 he, Gene Siskel and Richard Roeper co-hosted a weekly movie review program on national TV. He was Lecturer on Film for the University of Chicago extension program from 1970 until 2006, and recorded shot-by-shot commentaries for the DVDs of “Citizen Kane,” “Casablanca,” “Floating Weeds” and “Dark City,” and has written over 20 books