I appreciate the greater depth that the longer format allows. However, it’s still not even close to a substitute for a written review. I hope you’re not spending so much time on video reviews that you’re doing fewer of those.

Let me reiterate everything Steve says about THE KID WITH A BIKE. It’s my favorite film of the year so far and I’ll be surprised if that changes, and Steve’s A+ rating means he thinks it a Best of the Year contender.

When I saw KID WITH BIKE a second time, I thought, I wanna take the Kendricks (the guys who made COURAGEOUS) to this film, slap them upside the head and say, “THIS is how you make a movie about fatherlessness.” And about divine grace, about the mystery of faith, about providence, about “love” as a verb not a feeling. About, to quote another recent film, the way of law and the way of grace. And how to just absolutely wreck a hardened cynic like myself with (I am not kidding) a scene of a boy stirring a saucepan. There is also a late scene that has produced audible audience-wide gasps every time I have seen it. One bud of mine, a devout atheist, put his hand over his mouth at that moment. When I first saw the film, it caught me unprepared that I actually said to myself “no” (as in “no, you can’t do that”).

To mention a couple of things Steve didn’t go into (much)—where do the Dardenne brothers find these actors in film after film? How does an 11-year-old boy like Thomas Doret, who had never acted before (and I’m convinced must have seen very little TV/movies), have so much depth and handle extreme emotions and constant movement with such assurance and naturalness, with not a trace of actorliness. And Doret plays a seemingly different character in the few scenes he’s around his father, going from a feral “Pitbull” to an eager puppy-dog happy just to be given an obvious, get-out-of-my-hair piece of make-work as keeping the chicken sauce warm. And Cecile de France as the beauty-shop owner is a trained professional actress, but her somewhat more actorly performance fits in seamlessly because she comes from outside the boy’s world in some sense.

In direction, these two brothers (the greatest film-makers in the world IMHO) do everything right without ever seeming to do anything at all, and how they tell you so much without seeming to tell you anything. The way Samantha says “I don’t know” to the same “why?” question Olivier Gourmet gets at similar point in THE SON, the unobtrusive use of a tree at the start, two apologies, their economical cutting—e.g. from an “on the ground floor” direction to a elevator.

Looking at their whole ouevre, for film-makers with a working-class sensibility but who are often lauded (ignorantly) for making films about “Occupy Wall Street” types (that was actually said at one festival screening I went to), their two noblest and “best” characters are petit bourgeois small-business owners—Gourmet in THE SON and DeFrance here.

Because it’s a small foreign film with no stars, it’s probably only gonna play a week or so if you’re not living in NY, LA, DC, etc., so keep your eyes peeled.

[/gushing]

OK, now let me not gush.
.
Steve ... why did you give 21 JUMP STREET an F? When I asked you privately last week about that film, MIRROR MIRROR and HUNGER GAMES, and which one (or two as it turned out) was most worth my time, you said they were all at least somewhat entertaining and didn’t call 21 JUMP STREET an F-grade film.
.
I wouldn’t make great claims for 21JS—I graded it a 5/10 (MIRROR was a 7), some big laughs (Ice Cube steals the film), but a lot of tedious cop-movie mechanics that remains only semi-parodic and thus prevents the Olympian comic heights of HOT FUZZ.
.
(In case others wonder, I previously asked Steve if he would mind my referring to our private cyber-conversation in public.)

I personally like the format.  I appreciate the reviews, God bless.

I like them. For people like me, who are not big into reading long reviews, they give me a quick synopsis of the film and a quick rating - perfect! If I want to know more, I’ll seek out a longer written review…

Pachyderminator: Thanks. Don’t worry, the 60s don’t take long to do. The main issue is the trip to NYC to shoot the things. As for writing fewer reviews, hey, I wrote four reviews in the last two weeks (plus other pieces that will appear later), so I’m not skimping on written reviews!
 
Victor: Great thoughts on The Kid with a Bike. You’re right, it’s easily a serious contender for my #1 film of 2012, even though the year is still only beginning.
 
Why did I give 21 Jump Street an F? Because when a movie crosses a threshold of moral offensiveness, no amount of humor can save it for me—and 21 Jump Street is over the line. Probably not as far over the line as Project X or A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas (easily the most offensive comedy I (mostly) saw last year, which is saying something), but at some point shades of unacceptability lose practical meaning. A murderer is a murderer whether he’s killed one person or ten.
 
Chuck & Jennifer: Thanks! My heart belongs to long written reviews, but I understand they’re not everyone’s cup of tea, and I enjoy doing the 60s too, so I don’t plan to stop any time soon.

Though we (several of my friends and I) don’t always comment we rely on these quick and to the point reviews before making our movie choices. 
-
The best gift you give us is that you are the only source for movies we don’t know about because of lack of media coverage - Kid with a Bike or Undefeated, for instance, which don’t seem to have any commercial coverage or toys w/ meals associated w/ them :-).  We’ll be looking for in local theaters near us.
-
IF there is an draw back - I wish the reviews could come out before movie’s release so we could know if we can let our kids achieve ‘first to see the movie’ status.

Rachel W: Thanks, it’s good to hear. With the 60 second reviews, because of our weekly production schedule, at best they go up on opening day, if not a week or two later. It’s easier to get written reviews up by opening day because there’s no commuting to a studio to coordinate with screenings and other commitments. So, we’ll keep trying to get the 60s up in as timely a fashion as possible, but they’ll never be quite as timely as written reviews (though I will continue to do more of the 60s, since they go quicker).

On a totally different note, SDG, I like how the videos are in HD now. No sense in reviewing a good movie with a bad-quality video. :)

Oh, and happy Easter! Christ is truly risen! (Does that count as spam?)

I really appreciate your reviews!  We always look at these before heading to the movies or renting.  However, I can never get the sound to work on your 60-second reviews.  Can you post a final rating on the ones that are spoken rather than written?  I definitely prefer the written reviews but understand your doing spoken reviews for those who prefer.

I like the reviews, but I like the longer written ones best.