After 30+ years critiquing the silver screen, Mr. Movie retires from the ‘strange ride’

I’ve loved movies since I was a kid.

I often joke that I’ve seen 10,000 of them. Truthfully, that number isn’t that far off.

I’ve seen at least one a week since I was 10, and as a critic the last 32-years, I’ve probably seen a weekly average of three. Some weeks it was as many as six.

I can remember several times when I screened three in a day.

As wordy as I can get, and as expressive as I often am, for some reason I cannot articulate why I love them so much.

You’d think after seeing that many movies that I’d have a bunch of adjectives, adverbs and clever things at hand to tell you why. If I have them, they’re not with me today.

And today I am calling it quits.

I’ve been reviewing movies in the Tri-Cities since 1990. In February it will be 30 years at the Tri-City Herald. Sadly, I won’t make that milestone.

From February 1992 to July of last year, I had not missed a deadline for a single Friday edition of the Tri-City Herald.

You counted on me for my opinion. That opinion often influenced whether you saw, or didn’t see, a movie.

Every week like the proverbial postman, come snow, rain, high water or whatever, I was there — and to mix metaphors — like clockwork.

Even better, you were there for me each and every week.

A young man came to my house last night. It was a business meeting that turned into a long and fun discussion about movies. We talked and laughed about his favorites and mine, and what we both loved and what we didn’t like about this movie and that.

I’ve had at least 1,000 similar discussions with individuals and groups in the last 32 years.

What I have learned from all that talk is that we’re all movie critics. I always get people pointing fingers at me and ranting at me when I skewer a movie they loved. I always tell them that I’m glad they liked it and that their opinion is as valid as mine.

All that is different between your opinion and mine is that I have the honor of being able to share my thoughts in writing, or on radio and TV.

Being a critic has been a strange ride sometimes.

For years I reported to Rotten Tomatoes. The website used to let people comment on a reviewer’s review. Some of my reviews generated death threats.

I wasn’t worried and usually scratched my head a bit and laughed it off. Other critics — receiving the same treatment — did not, so the site quit letting people comment. I have missed that. As a critic, I could write back and engage people in a discussion about a subject we all love.

And that subject is movies.

It often puzzles me how tweaked people get about a movie review. Hate mail to a critic? Death threats? To me, movies don’t seem important enough for that kind of reaction.

There are hungry people in your community. The older widow next door never gets company. Schools and children need attention. Hundreds of other, more important things, ought to be getting the kind of anger and attention I’ve gotten over a movie review.

That kind of reaction to a movie review is the thing that has shocked me the most about being a critic.

People often envy me, and this job. It’s a nice ego stroke to say you’re a critic, and that you’ve met and interviewed celebrities, and that you get to see movies way before anyone else.

That’s nice, but the real blessing in this job comes from you, the reader, the listener and the viewer.

It is interaction with you that I have enjoyed the most. The in-person conversations, the phone calls, the writing and exchanging of ideas via email, and comments we’ve shared here and on Facebook and other places that has made this job so very satisfying.

No one has the career I’ve had, or has been the places I’ve gone, or met the people I’ve met, without help.

There are so many who’ve helped me, and guided me, that I cannot list them all. I can only say that you probably know who you are and how you helped me, and that I have appreciated what you did for me.

For you the reader, thank you does not seem deep enough. Or even sincere.

We’re back to adjectives, adverbs and all kinds of words I should have on command. I just don’t have them today.

This story was originally published December 5, 2021 at 1:38 PM with the headline "After 30+ years critiquing the silver screen, Mr. Movie retires from the ‘strange ride’."