Because I’m very easily entertained and I like writing reviews.
Even before Covid-19, I had been posting random reviews on my personal FB profile. Figured it was as good time as any to learn how to maintain a website, take my reviews off FB, and help me remember what media I’ve consumed.
I thought I had a pretty decent media knowledge. Over the course of the pandemic, I’ve been realizing that for every movie I’ve seen, there are 10 more that I hadn’t even heard of.
I grew up before streaming content was a thing, so instead of watching the latest episode of a TV show, I was usually playing sports or doing homework. Movie theaters didn’t have subtitles, which restricted my options or risk annoying people asking “What’s happening? What did they say?” every five minutes. I was often limited to random movies that I could borrow from neighbors, was able to catch on cable, or bought for myself.
So there’s a lot of gaps in my pop culture knowledge. Either I simply haven’t heard of the film; or I might know of the movie/show but I haven’t seen it for whatever reason; or I might be familiar with an actor/actress, but not their defining body of work.
Having a shitty memory probably doesn’t help either.
So we get idiosyncrasies such as:
- Recognizing Ghost or A Few Good Men because it was on cable all the time, but not being able to confirm having seen the movie in its entirety.
- Knowing about the Arnold Schwarzenegger / Danny Devito comedy pairing from Junior, but having not seen Twins.
- Having seen Sylvester Stallone in Rocky and Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, but not Demolition Man or Rambo.
- Not knowing that Jim Phelps (played by John Voight) in 1996’s Mission Impossible was supposed to be the same character as the TV series, much less that there was a Mission: Impossible show that ran for 7 seasons.
- Being familiar with Bette Midler through films like Hocus Pocus or The First Wives’ Club, but having not heard of The Rose and Ruthless People or having not seen Beaches.
So during the COVID-19 pandemic, my quarantine pod began a weekly crash course trying to get me caught up on movies I “should” have seen. Here’s to reviewing!
BryceReviews 