I love movies and I love weblogs, so a site like this was definitely one I was looking forward to reviewing. The concept is simple – David Wester watches a movie every day from October 1st, 2005 through January 1st, 2006, then reviews the movie for the entire world – or at least this site’s visitors – to see.
In the days leading up until Day One of this project, David takes some time to tell us who he is, why he’s doing this, and even gives us a spin-off of Citizen Kane’s “Declaration of Principles†version of the rules to this project.
Starting with “A History of Violence†on October 1st, David does faithfully watch a movie a day and within 24 hours posts his review of the movie. Per his own rules, these movies cannot be ones he watches on a regular basis. The “bulk of the movies watched will be completely new to me or only vaguely remembered from the years pastâ€.
As with most Blog*spot-hosted sites, this weblog uses a Blogger template. It’s the standard two-column layout. The reviews and other posts are listed in the main column, with the side column containing the archives, external links, and even the upcoming movies he’ll be reviewing. The monthly archives are also joined by the weekly archives that list each movie out on the day it was watched and reviewed. I found that to be an easy way to read each of the reviews.
The best part of David’s daily movies is the fact that they’re not your average movies. He doesn’t stick to one genre and he doesn’t stick to brand new movies. It’s almost as if he hits the video store, throws a dart, and grabs the first movie off the shelf. When you go from “Robocop 2†on one day to “Female Trouble†on the next, there’s definitely a review or two for anyone.
His reviews are good. He’s a film school graduate and an aspiring film director, so he certainly has the background to write these reviews. Using his review of Passion of the Christ as an example, David does a fine job of explaining his thoughts with comparisons to other movies or even by every day experiences. They’re very every day reviews – he doesn’t judge the acting or the musical editing. He reviews the movie – that’s it.
I like the idea of this site. I can certainly commend David for taking the time to not only watch a movie a day, but also find time to write about each of them. For readers hoping to catch a review about a movie, this is obviously a great choice for a site. What will happen when 2006 rolls around and David’s done with this project? I guess we’ll only find out by continuing to visit this site.
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