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How to Write a Movie Review Online and Earn Money Doing It

Love watching movies and making recommendations? Consider writing movie reviews online and getting paid for it.

Do you love watching movies, picking them apart, and making recommendations to your friends? Then, you may have already wondered about getting paid to write movie reviews. For many people, it's a dream job, which makes it a competitive field to get started in.

But we're here to show you the ropes. We'll start by showing you how to write a decent movie review. Then we'll explain all the ways you can start writing movie reviews for money.

Learning How to Write a Movie Review Online

When it comes to writing and publishing online, movie reviews couldn't be much simpler. There's some general advice you probably want to follow, which we'll get into below. But so long as you approach each review as one friend advising another, it should come out well.

It's good to open with a brief summary of the plot, before outlining what does and doesn't work about the movie. Keep everything vague to avoid spoilers and try to build a strong argument for why that movie is or isn't worth watching

Since you're writing for the web, name-drop any major cast and crew members involved in the production to help your review appear in search results . Just be sure to insert those names and titles as organically as you can.

Tie everything up with a summary of your thoughts and a recommendation to the reader. You might say the movie is a "blast for action-lovers" or "not worth it for anyone who doesn't enjoy the genre." Anything that lets the reader know if you think it's good for them or not.

Finally, give the movie a rating based on the system your website or publisher uses. This might be stars, letters, numbers, or anything else.

Now, let's get stuck into how you become a movie reviewer online and earn some money.

1. Write Movie Reviews for Royalties

One of the easiest ways to get paid writing movie reviews online is to submit to websites that pay royalties for your content. The money you get paid depends on how many people read your review. It might come from subscription fees or ad revenue.

You might also hear these sites referred to as revenue sharing or pay-per-view sites.

There's a range of different sites to which you can submit your movie reviews and earn royalties. They seem to change all the time, but the most popular ones now include:

• Cultured Vultures

All you need to do is sign up and start publishing your reviews. HubPages even has a movie reviews category you can publish to.

We want to highlight Cultured Vultures , a website that specializes in content like movie reviews. Cultured Vultures built its site with amateur writers in mind and strives to pay as much as it can for all its content, offering around $2.50 for every 200 views during the first week of publication.

Once your review is online, other folks can read or comment on it and you should receive royalty payments for the traffic it receives. It won't be a fortune since it's difficult getting noticed on these sites, but it's better than writing for free.

What's more, revenue sharing sites are a great place to start building a portfolio of your work. This is particularly important if you want to go freelance.

2. Become a Freelance Movie Review Writer

Most people can't expect to earn a living off the revenue sharing sites above. But it is possible to build up a full-time income if you find out how to become a freelance movie reviewer online. When you've got a portfolio of high-quality reviews, all you need to do is start answering the calls for writers across the web.

Do a quick Google search for "write movie reviews for us" to turn up all the latest websites looking for a freelance movie reviewer. Of course, these results are bound to change all the time, but we found the following sites looking to hire writers:

• Taste of Cinema
• Cinema Escapist

There are plenty of other useful Google searches to try as well, for instance, "looking for movie writers" or "paid to write movie reviews." Any of these are likely to turn up different writing opportunities. You can also set up Google Alerts with these keywords.

Another approach is to visit the websites and blogs devoted to movies to see if they're hiring writers. Even if there isn't an explicit ad, it's worth your time to send an email of inquiry. Let them know you exist, then keep returning to the site to see if things change in the future.

And finally, don't neglect the plethora of job boards and project sites devoted to helping freelancers find work. We're talking about sites like Upwork and Fiverr or job boards like ProBlogger .

These sites run the entire gamut of subject matter, but there are clients out there looking to hire movie reviewers. Of course, you could always write for yourself instead.

Related: Sites Like Rotten Tomatoes to Find Average Ratings and Reviews for Anything

3. Monetize Your Own Website

There's nothing to stop you from building a new website to host your own movie reviews, then earning money from it through monetization schemes. This has proven to be an effective way for lots of people to earn a living across a range of different subjects.

Although that's not to say it's easy.

In fact, going down this route demands a lot of other skills alongside your writing ability, particularly marketing and research. It isn't always easy finding out how to make money with a movie blog.

You can build a website at little-to-no-cost with services WordPress or Squarespace . Once you get up and running, find a way to drive people to your site through ads, word of mouth, or search engine optimization.

One of the most common approaches to creating revenue from your audience is by converting visitors into sales. This is a popular approach for any kind of review because you can use an Amazon affiliate link to encourage your readers to buy the product you're writing about. All you need to do is sign up for the Amazon Affiliate Program and link your reviews to the Blu-Ray, DVD, or digital download for that movie.

Another great way to get paid for the movie reviews you write is to use Google Adsense on your website. These widgets work with Google's enormous network of advertisers to serve up the most relevant ads to your readers. You can block ads you don't like, choose where they appear, and pick the types of ads that work best with your site.

If you don't want to go down the advertising route, you could always set up a Patreon account and ask readers to support you directly. A lot of writers feel more comfortable with this form of monetization.

Consider Starting a YouTube Channel Instead

Getting paid to write movie reviews is an exciting way to make a living. But remember that written reviews only account for a small part of the market, hundreds of thousands of people watch movie reviews on YouTube instead.

Consider starting your own YouTube channel to share video movie reviews. You could do this alongside the ones you write. YouTube is a great way to build your personal brand, earn some extra money, and find a passionate audience for your work.

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My streaming gem: why you should watch The Selling

The latest in our series of writers highlighting lesser known films to stream is a recommendation for a smart and funny comedy horror about real estate

E ver since the mid-1970s when George and Kathleen Lutz bought the house at 112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville, Long Island, for $80,000 without realising it was haunted, the horror genre and the real estate industry have been in a lucrative relationship. Three years after the The Amityville Horror in 1979 came Poltergeist, in which real-estate developer Steven Freeling finds his family home in a gated California community menaced by malevolent spirits who make themselves known through a hand that emerges from TV static. “They’re here,” announces Freeling’s daughter.

The Selling, a crowd-funded film populated by unknowns that barely made a ripple when it was released in 2011, is a delightful satire of real estate horror movies, 86 minutes of the hybrid genre that’s arguably the hardest to pull off: the comedy horror. It’s populated by films and series that are either too pleased with themselves (Wes Craven’s Scream, Zombieland), get the ratio of horror to comedy wrong (An American Werewolf in London) or don’t realise how funny they are (The Shining, The Others).

All too few horror films quote Nietzsche, but, in the opening of The Selling (AKA The Selling of Scarry Manor), useless estate agent Richard Scarry (Gabriel Diani) can’t think of any good advice to offer a pair of house prospective hunters so he falls back on the quote of the day from his phone. “Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” The couple look at him blankly. “So there’s that to think about,” he counsels idiotically.

The quote proves pertinent, though. This is a film about seeing monsters and becoming monstrous. There be monsters in the latest house on Scarry’s books and he winds up battling them so he can flip the property on to unsuspecting rubes. To be fair, he is in extremis: he needs to make money fast as his mother’s cancer treatment won’t pay for itself. Is it wrong to sell a house without telling prospective purchasers it’s haunted?

This sort of moral conundrum must be playing out, even as we speak, all around the world where estate agents are tasked with selling homes where horrors happened. True, Fred West’s home in Gloucester was bulldozed, but Dennis Nielsen’s in Muswell Hill still stands – I had a friend who was shown around it by an estate agent who only when pressed disclosed its hideous past.

Already his co-worker, the superbly chilly and diabolically manipulative realtor Mary Best has run screaming from the property and palmed it off her books on to Scarry’s without disclosing its appalling secret. The expression on her face as she scarpers down the street unerringly recalls those of guests on the 90s makeover show Changing Rooms after Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen stencilled their living room.

If you were being serious in your analysis of this film, and you really shouldn’t be, The Selling is a metaphor for America. There were already humans living in America before the Europeans arrived but they got squeezed out so that interlopers could monetise the asset from sea to shining sea. Scarry Manor is emblematic of the colonisation of America, serious face.

But it’s also funny. When Scarry shows a couple the property, cabinet doors fly open, water pours unbidden from taps, and the walls start to bleed. He opens one door and nearly gets sucked into a trans-dimensional wormhole. “Sometimes,” he deadpans. “the bedroom closet becomes a portal to the spirit realm.”

After the ghosts drive away all potential buyers, Scarry enlists the help of a priest played by Barry Bostwick. When Father Jimmy turns up to perform an exorcism, he stands on the front path in silhouette like the eponymous exorcist of William Friedkin’s movie (The Selling drips with jokey homages to past horror movies). As soon as he begins his exorcism, Father Jimmy screams and clutches his heart. But it’s a scream of delight: the original features include some excellent stained glass.

When Scarry fails to exorcise the ghosts, a waitress called Ginger Sparks (Etta Devine) with extensive knowledge of the spirit realm offers her services to cleanse the property. She tries everything she knows including goat sacrifice but only makes matters worse. The spirits decide house haunting is fun, but not as much fun as possessing the protagonists in the film’s final reel. This is where The Selling becomes a convincing depiction of the hell we’re living in, a world where estate agents are diabolically possessed. Our heroes have become monsters.

As for Gabriel Diani and Etta Devine, they went on to make Diani & Devine Meet the Apocalypse in 2016. What they should do now is make a sequel of The Selling fit for our Covid age, using found footage, like that from Paranormal Activity or Blair Witch, culled from virtual house tours. Zoom calls that start in the middle of the night. Ghosts that you can’t mute. Spirits that pop up in FaceTime and reach through the computer screen when you start a property slideshow on Zoopla. Now that would be scary.

The Selling is available on Amazon Prime in the US and UK

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The Selling Review (A Second Opinion)

The Selling is a horror/comedy that focuses on a too-honest real estate agent promptly named Richard Scarry (“like the children’s book author”), who is tasked with selling a haunted house. Watching this film reminded me of the older films like The Ghost and Mr. Chicken or The Burbs , delightfully blending some good scares with equally good laughs. The creative story allows the filmmakers to poke fun at both horror films and the real estate business. A fantastic cast, a good sense of humor, and fun direction make this one of the better horror/comedy in the past decade along with Sam Raimi ’s Drag Me to Hell .

Richard Scarry ( Gabriel Diani ) flips and sells houses with his friend Dave ( Jonathan Klein ) while being closely watched by their evil, but sexy, co-worker Mary Best ( Janet Varney ). When Best dumps the haunted house on their lap without warning them of the ghostly inhabitants, it doesn’t take the pair long to realize that there is something is supernaturally wrong. The ghosts do everything they can to keep Richard and Dave out as they try to fix up the place — they rearrange furniture, make the walls bleed, and use a variety of scare tactics to keep potential buyers out. Scarry soon enlists the help of a “ghost blogger” Ginger Sparks ( Etta Devine ) in order to find out why the house is haunted. This is where the film shows its strengths in horror and comedy.

Diani, who also wrote and produced, is really what sells The Selling with his comedic talent and awkward mannerisms. The character of Richard Scarry is truly too nice and honest to be a saleseman as his friends and mother ( Nancy Lenehan ) constantly remind him. The open house Scarry holds features a hilarious montage showcasing both Scarry’s awkwardness and “good ol’ boy” personality clashing with the inhabitants of the haunted house.

Diani’s utter commitment to the goofy antics could have easily gone wrong in another actor’s hands. The character soon becomes less scared of the ghosts and more simploy annoyed with them, making the film a lot more fun and enjoyable. The film had a very Money Pit meets The Amityville Horror vibe going for it, which director Emily Lou pulled off with expert execution. There are a few scenes that are legitimately frightening, even though the film is a comedy at heart.

One highlight of the film is when Scarry enlists the help of his old priest, played by Barry Bostwick . Bostwick gives a hilariously dry-delivery performance as a priest who believes Scarry has become an athiest. The film is very often hilarious as long as you are in a fun and goofy mood. Nothing is too serious or too threatening in this film because the cast and crew smartly decided to keep the tone light and fun to keep the film moving along.

Overall, I had a very good time with this movie. I was looking for a fun and original horror flick that can honestly hit my funny bone. At once it was frightening and supernatural, then smart and goofy. I highly recommend this film to anyone looking to revisit the films that could successfully blend the fun to be had with supernatural horror films in the vein of Ghostbusters . The fully-committed cast, the smart script, the tight direction by Lou, and the hilarious gags make this a film to look for. It is currently showing at a number of film festivals, and you can check out more information over at www.thesellingthemovie.com. Also watch for my interview with star/writer Gabriel Diani.

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Film review: the selling (2011).

Daniel King 12/01/2012 Uncategorized

A real estate agent trying to raise money to pay for his mother’s hospital bills takes on a property that looks too good to be true, and is.

Horror-comedy is one of the most difficult movie tricks to pull off. Nine times out of ten the film isn’t frightening enough to be a horror and not funny enough to be a comedy, thereby failing on both counts. There are some good comedies that use a horror background , such as SHAUN OF THE DEAD, and one or two good horrors that use humour quite well, such as LAKE PLACID. But in all my years of watching movies there’s only one film that I reckon is truly frightening and truly funny and that’s the classic AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON.

THE SELLING, or THE SELLING OF SCARRY MANOR as it’s also known, is very much in the SHAUN OF THE DEAD camp. It tells the story of Richard Scarry (Gabriel Diani) – “like the children’s book author” – a hapless but decent realtor who is passed what looks to be a prime property by his unscrupulous colleague Mary Best (Janet Varney). Desperate to raise money to pay his mother’s hospital bills Scarry takes on the house sight unseen, which proves to be a big mistake because it turns out to be haunted. Not only are the ghosts of victims of a serial killer known as the Nightstalker resident in the attic but the phantom murderer himself is prone to reappear and try to continue his work.

So desperate is he that Scarry even enlists an exorcist (Barry Bostwick) who tries and fails to persuade the ghosts to leave. Lumbered with this potentially unsalable asset, Scarry and his friend Dave Ross (Jonathan Klein) do their best to smarten it up and, in true realtor fashion, try to pull the wool over the eyes of their customers without actually lying. Scarry however is an essentially decent guy and house hunters are soon replaced by ghost hunters as word gets out that this fixer upper comes with en suite spooks. One of the ghoulish voyeurs, Ginger Sparks (Etta Devine), a kooky waitress with an interest in the supernatural, offers to help Scarry and Ross and soon they begin to realise that the ghosts are there for a reason and that the haunting may just be the tip of this phantasmal iceberg.

There’s nothing particularly original about THE SELLING but I have to say that I enjoyed it. It’s funny in a gentle sort of way – no gross out stuff – and it has an amiability about it that probably comes from the fact that it’s basically about good people trying to help each other out. The three central characters are well played and it’s refreshing to watch a film that doesn’t feature a cast who have more looks than talent. That’s a bit of a backwards compliment I know but what I mean is that so many movies these days, especially in the horror field, have casts that seem picked for their looks rather than their acting ability, such as it is. That’s not the case here and it’s good to see.

It does run out of steam about twenty minutes before the end when it gets bogged down in some rather ordinary physical comedy but it’s well written, well performed and put together with a lot more finesse than you might expect. A minor triumph.

The Selling (2011)

Tags Alina Phelan Barry Bostwick Emily Lou Etta Devine Gabriel Diani Janet Varney Jonathan Klein Nancy Lenehan Simon Helberg The Selling The Selling of Scarry Manor

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Or maybe you like leaving reviews to help future customers.

But reviews aren’t just for other consumers. Companies take your feedback seriously and use customer feedback to improve their products. Some will even pay their customers to leave candid feedback about their products, while others provide free product samples in exchange for reviews.

If you want to make a few extra dollars writing reviews for money — be it for movies, restaurants, or something else entirely — this list of resources is a great way to accomplish exactly that. 

10 Places to Write Reviews for Money

It can be difficult to convince a company to pay you directly for reviews. Most companies who choose to do so generally work through an intermediary. There are plenty of websites and services that you can sign up for if you want to get paid to write reviews.

1. LifePoints

LifePoints is a website that pays users to complete surveys. Some of these surveys will be about the products that you’ve bought. Others will be about more general topics.

For each survey that you complete, you’ll earn LifePoints. Some surveys will ask you for demographic information and may disqualify you if enough responses from your demographic have been received. If this happens, you’ll still earn a few LifePoints for your time.

Most surveys take about fifteen minutes to finish, but some are much shorter or much longer. Usually, longer surveys will offer more LifePoints.

You can redeem LifePoints for rewards. Redemption options include gift cards, charitable donations, and cash deposits to your PayPal account.

Related: LifePoints Review: Should You Become a Free Member?

2. InboxDollars

InboxDollars pays its customer for a variety of tasks, including:

• Taking paid surveys
• Watching videos
• Playing games
• Shopping online
• Reading emails

Opportunities to complete surveys and other tasks are emailed directly to you. You’ll earn cash rather than points, and InboxDollars has paid its customers more than $56 million since 2000.

Related: InboxDollars Review: Is it Legit, and How Much Can You Earn?

3. American Consumer Opinion

American Consumer Opinion is another survey-taking site that pays you to share your opinions with companies. The site has paid out more than $30 million to its 7 million members.

Each survey you take rewards you with points. You can redeem points for cash through PayPal, sweepstakes entries, or charitable donations, letting you choose how you want to be rewarded.

4. Start a Review Blog

If you don’t want to deal with another website’s requirements to get paid for reviews, consider starting your own review blog. While it can be difficult, especially in the beginning, it’s a good strategy for making money writing reviews.

Websites like Wirecutter have grown to have millions of readers each month because of their high-quality reviews. With a review website, you can make money with advertising or by working with a service like Amazon Affiliates that allows you to earn a commission when someone makes a purchase based on your review.

Related: How to Start a Profitable Blog (Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners)

5. UserTesting

UserTesting connects tech companies to regular people who want to help them test their websites and apps.

Companies will provide you with a link to their site or app and a set of tasks they’d like you to accomplish. An online retailer, for example, might ask you to go through the process of buying a shirt.

To start an assignment, you’ll need a microphone. While you’re going through your tasks, UserTesting will record your screen and anything you say. You should speak your thoughts clearly and out loud so that the people reviewing your recordings can understand your thought process and update the website accordingly.

You’ll be paid $10 through PayPal for every 20-minute recording you complete.

6. Review Stream

At Review Stream , you’re paid based on what other consumers think about your reviews. This means that it pays to be completely candid and to provide as much detail as possible.

You can review almost anything on the site — products, movies, and books are all fair game. If Review Stream accepts your submitted review, you’ll earn a small payment. Once your review is posted, other users can vote on whether the review is helpful or not. You’ll earn ten cents per helpful vote that you receive. You can also earn ten cents for each answer you provide to other consumers’ questions.

Payment is made through PayPal. The minimum balance to cash out varies based on how much you made for the first review you sold in each payment cycle. The minimum will be ten times the value of the first review you sold, with a minimum of $100. So, if your first review sold for $2 or $10, the minimum is $100. If it sold for $16, the minimum is $160.

Related: 11 Ways to Get Paid to Read Books In Your Spare Time

7. YouTube BrandConnect

YouTube BrandConnect is an invite-only service that connects YouTube creators to brands that want to show their products to a wider audience.

This service is relatively hands-off, connecting you to companies to pitch, but you get to decide how you want to feature products and you can set your own rates. Once you sign up for the service, you’ll be able to see all of the sponsors looking to work with YouTubers. The site advertises nearly 500 companies that pay people to advertise their goods and services .

In exchange for connecting you with brands, YouTube BrandConnect takes a 10% service fee. There are no sign-up or other fees, so you only pay the fees when you get paid. YouTube BrandConnect pays through PayPal or check.

8. Influence Central

Influence Central is another site that connects influencers to brands who want to showcase their products to consumers. You’ll get paid to write reviews and post them directly on your blog, website, or social media accounts.

The pay for each review varies. Some companies will pay you more than others, but this can be a good way to leverage your influence and provide honest reviews to your followers.

If you want to get paid to test products , Tryazon is the website for you. After you sign up, you’ll be able to view a list of available TryaBox and Party opportunities.

For a TryaBox opportunity , a company will send you a single product or item for you to test. If you apply for a Party and Tryazon selects your application, the company will send a box filled with products, party favors, and the like, free of charge. You can host a party with friends, family, and colleagues and everyone gets the chance to try the product.

Once you’re done, your free to share your feedback with the manufacturer, post about the party on your blog or social media, and tell your friends about the things you tried.

10. Write Reviews for Clients

To find possible clients, you can do an online search for websites that focus on product and service reviews. Then, pitch your review writing services to them directly. You will need to have a portfolio and a drive to pitch multiple clients before landing your first gig. Make sure your final submissions to clients are amazing, because it may lead to steady work writing more reviews in the future.

Related: 18 Legit Online Jobs for College Students

Can You Get Paid to Write Reviews for Google and Amazon?

Google and Amazon are two of the most trusted websites on the internet when it comes to reviews. That means that companies are willing to do a lot to make sure their Amazon and Google reviews are good.

You can get paid to write reviews on these websites. However, although providing compensation for a review is allowed, providing compensation with the requirement that you leave a good review violates both websites’ Terms of Service. So if this type of opportunity is presented to you, make sure you think about whether or not you should take it.

For example, your local pizza shop is welcome to give you a free slice when you show that you left a review, but it can’t require that you leave a five-star review on Google. It has to extend the offer to anyone who leaves a review.

3 Tips to Make the Most with Paid Reviews

The truth is that you won’t make a huge amount of money for writing reviews, but it can be a good way to add some extra cash to your wallet. Here are the best ways to make money writing reviews.

Do it in your spare time.

Turn some of your unproductive spare time into productive time by writing reviews. If you commute by bus or train, write a review or two on each trip. After work, rather than focusing on a Netflix show you’ve seen a dozen times, put it on in the background while you write a review.

Because most reviews are short and easy to write, they’re a great way to fill small chunks of time.

Review things you already use.

You’re most familiar with products that you use on a regular basis, so start by reviewing those items.  Your familiarity with them, especially if you’re a long-term user of a specific product, will help you make high-quality reviews that other consumers can use.

Write high-quality reviews.

To make sure your reviews are approved by the company paying you and appreciated by other consumers, take the time to make the reviews as good as they can be. That means checking your spelling and grammar, including photos, and providing specific details about each product.

Are Paid Review Sites Worth Your Time?

Paid review sites are a good way to earn extra cash, but they won’t give you a full-time work from home income.

The best sites will pay a reasonable wage. For example, UserTesting can pay as much as $30 an hour, but you won’t be able to fill a full workweek with the available opportunities. You’re more likely to earn $5 – $10 an hour when writing reviews.

When getting paid to write reviews, be on the lookout for online scams . The most common scams are websites that force you to pay a fee before you can view opportunities to get paid. The companies organizing these opportunities should be earning a commission from the companies that provide the products or surveys, so if you find a company asking reviewers to pay a fee, walk away. That is a major red flag that something is not legit.

You Can Get Paid to Write More Than Reviews

Writing reviews online might be good for pocket money, but you won’t earn a full-time income from it. However, reviews aren’t the only way to make money from online writing.

If you enjoy writing, you may want to try to pick up freelance writing gigs. It can be a good way to earn some money in your spare time and to hone your writing skills. Some clients will pay hundreds of dollars for a single article and many people make a full-time living from freelance writing.

Even people who don’t write can earn a great income online by working as virtual assistants, editors, transcriptionists, or artists. The internet makes it easy to work with and get paid by people across the globe. It’s up to you to showcase your skills and find the people who need your services.

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Movie Review: The Selling (2011)

by StevenHelmer

A review of the 2011 comedy starring Gabriel Diani and Janet Varney.

Synopsis: Honest real estate agent Richard Scarry agrees to purchase a house that is linked to an accused serial killer because he believes he can fix it up and sell it for enough of a profit to pay his mother’s medical expenses. However, shortly after purchasing the home, he and his friend, Dave, discover the house is haunted by the killer’s victims and those restless spirits will make selling the house difficult.

Who's in it?

The movie stars Gabriel Diani , Janet Varney , Jonathan Klein , Etta Devine , Nancy Lenehan and Barry Bostwick .

I came across this film on one of our movie channels a couple nights ago and, while I had never heard of the movie before, it did sound interesting enough to justify recording it. However, when my wife and I ended up watching it last night, I honestly wasn’t really expecting it to be any good. As it turns out, it was a very entertaining movie.

Ghost movies and comedy don’t always work well together but, in this particular case, the film was actually pretty funny. A big part of the reason for this was the way the writers decided not to make the ghosts, themselves, funny (they were actually a little scary) and, instead, focused on the various reactions from Richard (Diani), Dave (Klein) and the people they were trying to sell the house to.

I think the funniest scene in this movie had to be the one with Bostwick’s Father Jimmy trying to perform the exorcism and failing miserably.  I won’t go into too much detail because I don’t want to give out the spoilers. But, when you have a priest running for his life, you know you’re in trouble.

Another thing I found I liked about this movie was the fact there was a bit of mystery. At least from everything they knew about the house, no actual murder had ever taken place there and the killer himself also died elsewhere. In fact, the only real connection the house had to the killer is he lived there for a short period of time. Yet, it was still haunted for reasons Barry, with the help of a waitress/ghost expert (Devine) had to figure out, especially when one of the ghosts starts putting Richard and his friends in danger. That part of the movie did keep the film from becoming predictable.

In fact, my only real complaint about the movie had to be the ending. It was a bit drawn out and, at times, a little confusing. I would have loved to see the filmmakers take a different approach with that or, at very least, shorten it a bit.

Final Opinion

I had doubts about this film but, as I said, it turned out to be funnier than expected and, because of that, is a movie I would recommend watching if you’re looking for something different.

My Grade: B

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Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, move those %#$*ing cars off this lot now.

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‘The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard” is a cheerfully energetically and very vulgar comedy. If you’re okay with that, you may be okay with this film, which contains a lot of laughs and has studied Political Correctness only enough to make a list of groups to offend. It takes place after a failing car dealer calls in a hired gun and his team to move goods off the lot over the Fourth of July.

The hot shot is Don Ready ( Jeremy Piven ), a hard charger who lives on the road and exists only to close deals. On his team: Babs ( Kathryn Hahn ), a lustful slut; Jibby ( Ving Rhames ), a sweet man who has never been in love; and Brent ( David Koechner ), who does not respond well when the failing auto dealer caresses his thigh.

They walk into a seething hotbed of problems in the small town dealership of Ben Selleck ( James Brolin ). Let’s see. His son Brent is 10 years old but because of a hormonal problem looks 30. His daughter Ivy ( Jordana Spiro ) is engaged to the air-headed son ( Ed Helms ) of his hated rival ( Alan Thicke ). His sales team includes Dick Lewiston ( Charles Napier ), who swears at customers and goes after them with a baseball bat, and Teddy Dang ( Ken Jeong ), a Korean-American who is assaulted by Dick, who blames him for Pearl Harbor.

Romantic entanglements and personal crises spring up overnight, including Don Ready’s conviction that he has met the son he fathered with the third runner-up on the local beauty contest 23 years earlier. Babs becomes infatuated by the fully grown, lightly bearded 10-year-old. Jibby experiences love for the first time. Ben pursues the hostile Brent. Flashbacks involve an orgy on an airplane and the tragic death of Don’s best friend (an uncredited Will Ferrell ).

That’s all another way of saying the screenplay moves at a breakneck pace. If a gag doesn’t work, another one is on its heels. There are also countless details about auto sales scams, and a definition of the most awesome possible feat of salesmanship, named in honor of Nigeria, which in this film and “ District 9 ” seems to be taking a place as a world leader in con games.

Jeremy Piven might not seem the obvious choice to play the ringleader of this menagerie, but shows a side of himself I haven’t seen before: The pep-talking, super confident, ultra cynical salesman. With no life of his own, as Ivy correctly informs him, he lives only to sell cars. It isn’t even the money. It’s the imposition of his will on a reluctant customer. His triumph of salesmanship at the end of the film is, at least on its own terms, almost even plausible.

I liked Kathryn Hahn as the potty-mouthed teammate, and Brolin’s work as the deeply-confused but ever-hopeful car dealer. And it was fun to see Chuck Napier, whose career began as a member of the Russ Meyer stock company, in a mad dog role that gets the film off to a rip-roaring start. He still looks like he could fight a wolf for a T-bone.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard (2009)

Jeremy Piven as Don Ready

Ving Rhames as Jibby Newsome

James Brolin as Ben Selleck

David Koechner as Brent Gage

Kathryn Hahn as Babs Merrick

Ed Helms as Paxton Harding

Jordana Spiro as Ivy Selleck

Charles Napier as Dick Lewiston

Tony Hale as Wade Zooha

Ken Jeong as Teddy Dang

Rob Riggle as Peter Selleck

Alan Thicke as Stu Harding

Directed by

• Neal Brennan

Screenplay by

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The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time.

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Sell/Buy/Date Reviews

An unfocused, meandering and cringe-inducing amalgam of mockumentary and documentary.

Full Review | Oct 19, 2022

Sell/Buy/Date tries to do something different with the documentary format, and, for the most part, it works. The film is at its strongest when it allows those who are the most impacted by Jones' one-woman show to speak.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 19, 2022

Sell/Buy/Date plays like a Vice special crossed with an Off-Broadway show. It would be dangerous if it weren’t so ineffective.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Oct 17, 2022

In a world where discourse is flattened into hyperbolic hot takes, it’s a rare and, frankly, beautiful thing to watch the process of someone seeking answers, asking questions and listening to lived experience before coming to her own conclusions.

Full Review | Oct 13, 2022

If you’re hoping to land squarely on an “aye” or a “nay” about the sex-work industry, Sarah Jones’s documentary-narrative feature, “Sell/Buy/Date,” won’t help. And that’s a good thing.

The documentary material is informative and mind-opening. The mockumentary surrounding it is a bit of a drag, and lets the movie down.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 11, 2022

Tony Winner Sarah Jones' Sell/Buy/Date is engaging for its unapologetic manner of storytelling  permeating every nook and cranny of the sex working industry with humor, candor and illuminating facts along the way

Full Review | May 9, 2022

The end result is a touch mixed, but let there be no doubt that little emotional power is removed by the hybrid storytelling.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 28, 2022

A film that probably isn't going to have a broad appeal, but those interested in learning more about and engaging in intellectual discussion on the topic of sex workers will find it educational as well as entertaining.

Full Review | Apr 5, 2022

In this very unique documentary, director Sarah Jones takes viewers on a personal journey exploring diverse perspectives of sex workers in America. The movie's tonal shift from lighthearted to tragic is jarring but necessary.

Full Review | Mar 19, 2022

In this instance, some version of Buy/Sell/Date that was a more standard documentary would have been more interesting and compelling.

Full Review | Mar 14, 2022

Entertaining, honest in Sarah Jones's confusion, SellBuyDate skillfully touches on the main points regarding sex work, sex trafficking, and decriminalization.

One of the most interesting documentaries Ive ever seen, as it uses a creative way to tackle the complex subject of sex work. Its funny, it isnt afraid to confront some hard truths, and its unexpectedly emotional.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Mar 13, 2022

Sarah Jones turns her angst into art by creating a part scripted film part documentary to transform her one-woman show into a moving nuanced deep dive into the complexity of sex work and the debate for and against decriminalizing sex work.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 12, 2022

‘Fallout’ is sweet, sharp pulp — and great post-apocalyptic TV

The adaptation of the bestselling game series depicts a nuclear-ravaged america in arrested development.

“Fallout” layers sharp pulp writing with the nostalgia politics of what “made America great.” There’s no post-apocalypse story quite like this in video games, and now, TV.

“Fallout,” an adaptation of the best-selling game series released Wednesday on Prime Video, echoes many stories about the end of the world — including HBO’s “Westworld,” another creation from executive producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy. “Fallout’s” most distinguishing aspect is how it depicts a nuclear-ravaged America in arrested development, obsessed with 1950s culture and norms. (Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos is the founder of Amazon, which owns Prime Video.)

The Fallout series of games were always ripe for adaptation, but not because of any specific narrative. Rather, the world building, from a team of game creators led by Tim Cain in 1997, rivals that of George Lucas or J.R.R. Tolkien. Wrapping it in 20th-century aesthetics of art deco and Coca-Cola makes it feel all the more relatable and accessible. In “Fallout,” the three global nuclear powers destroy each other. A special class of people (later called Vault Dwellers) were able to hide out in individually numbered fallout shelters. Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell) is our protagonist from Vault 33.

The show wisely understood that the most distinctive and interesting human story in this world is that of the Vault Dwellers. In “Fallout,” each vault has its own purpose. (One famous example from the games, Vault 11, revolved around a twisted democratic experiment in which citizens were annually required to vote on whom to sacrifice.) The binge-worthy mystery box question for the show: What is the purpose of Vault 33? The show tracks the journey of two of its Dwellers: Lucy, who leaves the vault after an invasion by mysterious strangers, and her brother Norm (Moisés Arias), who sticks with the survivors as they search for understanding.

This is the rare video game adaptation that welcomes and embraces the quiet moments. Large chunks of the show resemble the introductory, wordless montages of Pixar’s “WALL-E” and “Up.” The game-accurate soundtrack filled with early-20th-century pop (Bing Crosby, the Ink Spots) adds to this vibe of a modern silent film, where cinematography and sound are their own pleasures.

Purnell (“ Yellowjackets ”) shares top billing with Aaron Moten as Maximus, a soldier training with an isolationist group of supersoldiers called the Brotherhood of Steel. Postwar lunacy is on full display as Maximus navigates peer pressure and fanaticism to survive and maintain a sense of manhood. Video game military machismo is tested and lampooned in laugh-out-loud slapstick violence involving power armor and some mutated wildlife. Moten turns in a convincing performance as a wildly ignorant yet clever survivor, and his story contains the biggest surprises.

Less surprising is our third lead character, the Ghoul, played by Walton Goggins, his granite face carved and mutated into a snarling, black-hat zombie cowboy. It’s a charismatic, scene-stealing performance, but his character relies too much on “Man in Black” tropes that Nolan and Joy thoroughly explored in “Westworld.” It’s far from boring, but a cowboy’s mean spirit isn’t as fearsome when it’s predictable. Luckily, his backstory (told through ample flashbacks throughout the season) contains earnest humanity.

The best part about the world of the Fallout games, and now this show, is that it’s among the most relatable science fiction wastelands. Unlike other geek properties, this ain’t about superheroes or Super Mario. The series is about the human experiment as a literal science project. With “Fallout,” maybe we still won’t like the final result, as high-concept Nolan projects tend to fizzle when they run long. But also typically Nolan, this is a winning, must-see first season.

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Francis ford coppola’s ‘megalopolis’ faces uphill battle for mega deal: “just no way to position this movie”.

The self-funded epic is deemed too “experimental” and “not good” enough for the $100 million marketing spend envisioned by the legendary director.

By Seth Abramovitch , Kim Masters , Pamela McClintock April 8, 2024 3:00pm

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NBCUniversal chief content officer Donna Langley was there. So was Sony head Tom Rothman. Bob Iger was one of the few Hollywood heavyweights who couldn’t make it, but at least he had a good excuse, still in the midst of a vicious proxy battle with investor Nelson Peltz.

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The project, which Coppola first began writing in 1983, cost a reported $120 million to make — funded in part by the sale of a significant portion of his wine empire (the 2021 deal was  reportedly worth over $500 million ). Clocking in at two hours and 15 minutes, the film follows the rebuilding of a metropolis after its accidental destruction, with two competing visions — one from an idealist architect (Adam Driver), the other from its pragmatist mayor (Giancarlo Esposito) — clashing in the process. References to ancient Rome — including Caesar haircuts on the men — abound.

Coppola, 84, had hoped to announce a festival bow once a distribution plan was in place, but on April 9 revealed the film would premiere at Cannes on May 17 . But while there was no shortage of curious suitors there — in addition to Rothman and Sarandos, Warner Bros.’ Pam Abdy, Disney live-action boss David Greenbaum, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and Paramount’s Marc Weinstock were all spotted — multiple sources inside the screening tell  The Hollywood Reporter  that  Megalopolis  will face a steep uphill battle to find a distribution partner. Says one distributor: “There is just no way to position this movie.”

“Everyone is rooting for Francis and feels nostalgic,” adds another attendee. “But then there is the business side of things.”

But a boutique label like A24 or Neon would likely not have the budget for the grand marketing push Coppola has envisioned. One source tells  THR  that Coppola assumed he would make a deal very quickly, and that a studio would happily commit to a massive P&A (prints and advertising, including all marketing) spend in the vicinity of $40 million domestically, and $80 million to $100 million globally.

That kind of big-stakes rollout would make  Megalopolis  a better fit for a studio-backed specialty label like the Disney-owned Searchlight or the Universal-owned Focus. But Universal and Focus have already tapped out of the bidding, sources tell  THR . 

“I find it hard to believe any distributor would put up cash money and stay in first position to recoup the P&A as well as their distribution fee,” says a distribution veteran. “If [Coppola] is willing to put up the P&A or backstop the spend, I think there would be a lot more interested parties.” 

Imax is likely to give the film some support if it gets distribution, sources close to the project say. Like others, however, Imax expected the film to be far more commercial, sources add.

Following the muted response to the March 28 screening, it’s now not even clear if a studio would agree to a negative pickup deal, in which the studio would buy the film outright, or one in which it would distribute the film for a fee. One studio head in attendance described it as “some kind of indie experiment” that might find a home at a streamer.

Most of those who spoke to  THR  describe a film that is an enormously hard sell to a wide audience. Two people say it’s hard to figure out who is the good guy and who is the bad guy. The big exception is LaBeouf, who they say is the best thing about the film (he’s one of the antagonists).

Several have mentioned an especially cringey sequence involving Jon Voight’s character in bed with what looks like a huge erection; the scene evidently takes quite the turn, but we will not spoil it here.

Another studio head, however, was far less charitable in his assessment: “It’s so not good, and it was so sad watching it. Anybody who puts P&A behind it, you’re going to lose money. This is not how Coppola should end his directing career.”

April 9, 2:00 p.m. This story has been updated to include that Megalopolis will premiere in Cannes.

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