Top 8 "Go-to" Online Movie Critics

Jay and Mike of Half in the Bag, two of the most popular film reviewers on the Internet. We live in strange, strange times.

A question was posed on reddit,

"Now that Robert Ebert's passed away, who are your "go to" critics before seeing a movie?"

The resulting discussion is a veritable Who's Who of contemporary film critics. The surprising thing is that the most mentioned reviewers are video bloggers on independent sites, a complete departure from the 20th century, where the best film reviewers, like Ebert himself (who worked for the Chicago Sun-Times), had staff positions writing for major media outlets.

Using a combination of upvotes and mentions, here's a list of the active online video (not print) reviewers that reddit movie fans watch the most:

1) Jay and Mike from Half in the Bag - Red Letter Media

2) Jeremy Jahns - YouTube

3) Matt Kermode and Simon Mayo - BBC Radio 4 Live (This is primarily radio, but there are video components as well)

4) Chris Stuckmann - YouTube

5) James Berardinelli- ReelViews

6) Schmoes Know - Schmoes Know

7) Peter Travers - Rolling Stone

8) Richard Roeper - RichardRoeper.com

Again, this list doesn't include print-only writers who were mentioned, only those who have a video component available online.

Call me old school, but I prefer written reviews to video. Video reviews seem to be focused on the reviewer's personality, where written reviews are more about the films themselves. My own answer to the posed question would be print-only New Yorker writers David Denby and Anthony Lane. In my view, all other reviewers pale in comparison to these guys, who frame every film in the perfect societal context, and can illustrate the position of a film in history with a seemingly impossible breadth of knowledge.

The real question is, how does someone become an online video reviewer? What qualifies someone to do this dream job? A post for another time, my friends...

REDDIT - Now that Robert Ebert's passed away, who are your "go to" critics before seeing a movie? - [LINK]

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