Re: Armond White: The Love Him or Hate Him Thread
 

I saw this quote on RT for Toy Story 3, it seems fitting for here:

Re: Armond White: The Love Him or Hate Him Thread
 

i would have no problem with White if he was just a quirky critic with odd tastes and chose to champion leftovers...there's certainly room for that. What makes him so palpably and purposefully worthless is that he's made a schtick out of it all and clearly is doing it for attention. I saw quite a few people, myself included, who when seeing the 100% rating on RT instantly KNEW he would do this. And not just that he'd pan it, but what he'd actually say about it (product placement)...all the while championing some other piece of shit in the process.

Meanwhile, Saying things like
isn't reviewing, it's provoking. No one with a wit of sanity can say that Jonah Hex "easily overshadows" TS3...you might prefer JH to TS3, but saying it is clearly superior is simply and baldly trying to drive traffic to your 3rd rate paper/site for $$. Which all makes him the exact opposite of what he claims to be. He'll lambaste anyone who dares to question him that he is a singular voice of reason and purity divorced from the Hollywood machine. But it's clear he's even worse than a Hollywood shill - he's a free paper shill! A normal person, who may truly enjoy JH more than TS3 would say something like "don't let this gem of a film get lost in all the hoopla of Toy Story 3 this weekend. The latter is getting all the buzz, but Jonah has some surprises for you" - or something like that....but he HAS to disparage a sacred cow in order to compliment a piece of shit. It's what he does. He is incapable of just saying "you know what? I kind of liked it!" Instead he has to proclaim it the best movie of the summer - until some other piece of shit opens next week and then he'll do it again.

Re: Armond White: The Love Him or Hate Him Thread
 

Never heard of this guy until yesterday. I already don't like him.

Re: Armond White: The Love Him or Hate Him Thread
 

Having a 100% rate on rotten tomatoes doesn't reflect reality. It's wrong to think everyone should love certain movies, as it's all a matter of taste.

Anyway, I find him interesting and thought provoking.

Re: Armond White: The Love Him or Hate Him Thread
 

You're right that there's no movie that everybody is obligated to love. In my opinion, the problem with White is not that he dislikes a lot of movies that a majority of critics (and audiences) like - it's that he combines his contrarian personality with a condescension to all those who don't agree with him. I personally don't find comments like "it’s essentially a bored game that only the brainwashed will buy into" or "The Toy Story franchise isn’t for children and adults, it’s for non-thinking children and adults" or "Toy Story 3 suckers fans to think they can accept this drivel without paying for it politically, aesthetically or spiritually" to be particularly meaningful, interesting, or thought-provoking.

Re: Armond White: The Love Him or Hate Him Thread
 

his combined review for 'The Karate Kid' and 'The Lottery' is a nearly illogical barrage of pretentious smugness from a review who thinks his opinion is superior in every possible way. For all his 'trollness' it's this type of recognition that just fuels him - he doesn't care, At least when the New Yorker reviews movies they consider 'bad' they are funny, White's reviews though, you just want to go up to him on the street and say 'fuck you' into his face.

Re: Armond White: The Love Him or Hate Him Thread
 

Indifferent. His ignorance and intellectual trolling isn't worth my time.

Re: Armond White: The Love Him or Hate Him Thread
 

While I agree that he isn't worth my time, I still hate him.

Re: Armond White: The Love Him or Hate Him Thread
 

you find statements from a critic like "Jonah Hex is clearly the best movie to come out this week, far superior than Toy Story 3" to be thought provoking? Because that's ALL he does. Cast aspersions at good movies and champion shitty ones to get people riled up.

As I said, I enjoy critics who don't pander to the mainstream and offer interesting takes on minor films...but White is nothing but a schtick - a pathetically predictable contrarian schtick. I will be you a million dollars that the next film to come out this summer sporting 90% or better reviews on RT will get a pan from White - while within the next week or two he'll call some piece of shit with less than 25% positives a "work of art" or a classic comedy in the tradition of Chaplin or some other bullshit hyperbole.

that's thought provoking?

Re: Armond White: The Love Him or Hate Him Thread
 

Never heard of him. He's a film critic and not an actual filmmaker therefore he's got nothing on Uwe Boll.

Re: Armond White: The Love Him or Hate Him Thread
 

Armond White is funny and that is his shtick. I dont like Rush Limbaugh or Hannity either but I understand that they have a certain shtick that entertains people. There is always someone like this in all entertainment fields. Would I want Rush Limbaugh shot in the head? Yes, I wouldnt mind if someone took him out. Is he good addition to talk radio? Yes, he is entertaining. Maybe people feel the same towards Armond White.

I wonder if the poll should really be "who is upset that toy story 3 didnt become the most perfect reviewed movie in movie history"

Re: Armond White: The Love Him or Hate Him Thread
 

Armond White is brilliant. You guys could learn something by reading him. He's not a cheerleader for mainstream Hollywood moviemaking like A.O. Scott (New York Times), who can be brilliant at times, but too often sells his soul to be in the majority and keep his job. Being first string critic at the Times is too much of a balancing act. Because White works for a crummy giveaway weekly, he can speak his mind and tell the Emperor he has no clothes. (I remember when New York Press was a great weekly, full of superb writers and far more interesting than the Village Voice. But then Russ Smith sold it and all the good writers left. Now all it's got is White.)

The only critic I'd place above White is the Voice's J. Hoberman. Coincidentally, both of them, along with Kenneth Turan at the...LA Times?...were the only critics to compare TITANIC unfavorably with THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE. I loved them for it.

Re: Armond White: The Love Him or Hate Him Thread
 

Read his review of 'The Hurt Locker' and then his sudden change of heart on his 'Better-Than' list, AFTER it's become a critically acclaimed hit:
"Jim Sheridan finds the emotional substance of our Iraq War years while Kathryn Bigelow hides behind genre skill. By avoiding a moral or political stand, Bigelow’s movie says nothing to anyone—especially liberals."

The man's a fucking idiot.

Re: Armond White: The Love Him or Hate Him Thread
 

He lives under a bridge and eats sheep. Why would anyone care what he spews.

Re: Armond White: The Love Him or Hate Him Thread
 

So you think Transformers 2 is the pinnacle of action cinema as well?

Re: Armond White: The Love Him or Hate Him Thread
 

The better question is....why would anyone like what he spews!? I never said the man was an idiot. Sure he's a great writer, but that's not the point. There's at least one person in every group and he's "that guy". He only pushes buttons to be pushing buttons. And that makes him an asshole. And the only thing worse than an Armond White is someone that agrees with (or defends) him.

Re: Armond White: The Love Him or Hate Him Thread
 

Oh Christ, here we go... :lol:

Re: Armond White: The Love Him or Hate Him Thread
 

He has a point though. People here that think he is a guy that calls it like he sees it are just wrong. Armond criticizes Toy Story 3 for product placement, but doesn't do the same to Transformers 2, which is a commercial masked as a film. People here that like him haven't read his reviews, much like Ebert hadn't when he wrote a piece defending him. When he found out later the way White operates and read more of White's reviews, he did a 180 and completely change his stance, since an asshole like Armond just gives film critics a bad name.

Re: Armond White: The Love Him or Hate Him Thread
 

While the recent discussion stemmed from the Toy Story 3 incident, I couldn't care less if it has a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes. 99% is still an amazing feat for any major modern movie. And if I really was annoyed about TS3, I would have started a thread about the other dude who reviewed it poorly.

Re: Armond White: The Love Him or Hate Him Thread
 

Still doesn't explain his love for Transformers 2 and Jonah Hex.
Also, hating obviously good movies doesn't make him brilliant it just makes him wrong. And no, "It's my opinion" is not always a valid point.

Re: Armond White: The Love Him or Hate Him Thread
 

I agree with you, but I was referring to Ash Ketchum's catastrophic irrational love of Transformers 2. ;)

Re: Armond White: The Love Him or Hate Him Thread
 

:up:

Re: Armond White: The Love Him or Hate Him Thread
 

After reading these, I can't wait for the Eclipse review:

http://www.nypress.com/article-18961...ever-dies.html

http://www.nypress.com/article-20632...-new-moon.html

Re: Armond White: The Love Him or Hate Him Thread
 

It still has 100% from the "top critics"....so who cares what these two idiots have to say.

Re: Armond White: The Love Him or Hate Him Thread
 

White generates more income for his site and more attention for himself with this shtick than he could as a conventional critic. It's the same tactic used by Fred Phelps, who is better-known that pretty much any American religious leader not named Graham.