Because I Said So

Several years ago, for the fun of it, I began a newsletter for my email friends called Because I Said So, or simply BISS. In it, I reviewed movies and TV shows and anything else that caught my fancy. It was not unlike a blog before there were blogs and I'm going to revive it.

As any good review site should have, I had a rating system as to the entertainment's worthiness. Tweaked for the times, here it is:

I'll see it again: So good that I missed some of it with the first viewing. I might even buy a copy.
Full fare: Worthy of dinner and a baby-sitter.
Matinee: Still worthy, but save the extra bucks for that $3.50 bottle of water.
Rent it: Not worthy of PPV in a hotel but solid enough entertainment for when there's nothing on TV.
TV: You've paid for the cable anyhow, and you'll want to get up and stretch during the commercials.
Read a book instead: Self-explanatory.

The selection of movies playing in general--and the selection at my local theater in particular--has been so miserable, that I've not been able to cash in on the locally reduced ticket price afforded me since I had a milestone birthday. For someone who loves movies, that's sad.

But there is hope on the horizon and although it's been out a while, the movie I saw yesterday is sufficient impetus to start BISS again. The Illusionist is fine story-telling. Unfortunately, to explain why you should see it is to give it away, much in the way that friends could only tell you to see "The Sixth Sense" because it was an excellent movie. "The Illusionist" is most assuredly that.

I'll see it again.