I know you come here for food and wine related stuff. But in a previous incarnation I was a film reviewer. NOT a critic, I hate that word. I think that tells you a bit about me, too. I couch all of my wine recommendations with the phrase, "If you like this sort of thing…" As in, if you like action movies, Batman Begins delivers the best for your money this summer. If you like rich, buttery Chardonnay, the La Crema Russian River Chard is a screaming good deal.

  I think it’s very important as a reviewer to at least try to overcome her personal tastes to communicate, let them in on your prejudices. Giving them an idea of what to expect is your goal, not prostalitizing. It’s just simple respect for your audience. That’s why I don’t pay any attention to Robert Parker and wish people would realize his view of wine is very myopic. I hate his taste in wine–"the bigger the better, the ighter the sweater," so his reviews are useless. Same way I always preferred Siskel to Ebert.

  So it really jazzed me to see how polarized critics were over Rob Zombie’s new film, The Devil’s Rejects. So many dismissed it for its over the top violence and crude situations. The inevitable comparisons to Texas Chainsaw Massacre abound. It was as if the violence precluded any objective or thoughtful criticism about the film. And I think alot of them missed the point and disserved their readers. I’ll bet they had their review of the film half written before they even saw it.

  This one person’s opinion: I think this film is a masterpiece. Forget the stylized violence of Natural Born Killers, this film is stripped down bare–which probably increases its shock value. It’s shot in the 70’s grainy, dusty style. But the film is also very funny, expertly shot, cleverly edited, and didn’t make me think of Texas Chainsaw… at all. This movie is a love letter to Peckinpah, to me. Gourmet fricking pop culture on a pike.

  I’d say, it is more in the tradition of Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde….Were Killers! (most people forget the full name of that film–very telling) and Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch. This is a "somewhat glorified" version of a family of serial killers. The point of view of the film tries to skew sympathy (just like Bonnie and Clyde…) for the criminals, and it’s a bitch of a college try with these freakies. But in a time when young kids play video games that include cop-killing car thievery and ripping spines out of your opponant, how exactly is this movie over the top? Bonnie and Clyde… got the same flack for it’s themes when it was released. Eerily similar criticism. Penn was vilified. But now Bonnie and Clyde is a classic…

  But somehow this film is different, to the vanilla critics. Even Roger Ebert spent 1/2 a column qualifying the 3 stars he gave to the movie. Whatever. Yeah, it’s a little gory. And 6 people walked out of the movie in the first half hour. But (here comes that phrase) if you own the director’s cut of Natural Born Killers, or if you bought a copy of Chuck Palahniuk’s Haunted, if you dig the Sam Pekinpah style, or if you can sit through Japanese horror films no problemo…chances are you will LOVE this movie.

  And that’s how you review wine, mother fuckers. E }