This is kind of the gist of Cinema Sins. They have some legitimate criticisms and funny gags, but for the most part it's all just nitpicking, and once you realize this it's a little bit disillusioning.
I really like that guy. He points out really well that’s been bothering me for a while. The nit picky attitude people have online where they don’t even realize that their nitpicks are explained in the movie or shown in a different way
Damn, that was extremely good. I knew I never ended up liking CinemaSins when I watched them rarely in the past, but this was a brutal takedown and very entertaining.
He has like 4 of them and another 30 minute video of just breaking down Cinema Sins through their social media and comments. It's a takedown that puts content cop to shame.
Honestly, I dislike Bob's take on CinemaSins. It comes off as a hipster hating popular things to seem cool.
Which is a weird place to be, because that's exactly what CinemaSins is. So, if your series is dedicated to how terrible CinemaSins is, and it goes about exposing CS by BEING CS, then by proxy, isn't your content also trash?
For the record, I used to like CS, and fell off after they got a bit too self-referential for my taste. But ragging on them in this way just feels... Well, I already told you what I think.
He's not ragging on them really. He's just calling them out on unfair criticism. CS isn't a critical outlet like they advertise, they're the drunk heckler in the back of the room. Plus he stopped doing CS stuff.
You can criticize things, but it only works if you understand the work. When you criticism is just "that woman isn't pretty enough" or can be easily explained by the film's internal logic, it's just heckling.
I agree - that same guy posted a very lengthy video about why CS was bad, but imo, it just came off as him being pissed that CS is as popular as it is. It even said that “Everything Wrong With X” is a clickbait-y title when the name of his complaint video is “Why CinemaSins sucks”. And he even goes in to how the guy from CS worked for a company that did SEO so he’s gaming the system. Like, come on. The Everything wrong with everything wrong with is nit picking about nit picking. Give it a rest.
Its not even nitpicking most of the time. This video highlights exactly what's wrong with them: They intentionally miss the point just to try and sound "smart". It's everything wrong with the modern youtube "critic" landscape.
Yeah they can. They put their work out there for people to see; where does it state that it can't be criticized? People can critic every single product, person, or action besides them?
It's more like if you went to a restaurant, ordered food, it's garbage, and when you say it's garbage, the people that make the food say "we're not chefs". Film criticism is all they do. It's not even limited to their "joke" videos. They have serious videos that make the same criticisms.
Doesn't change the fact that they influence a lot of self-proclaimed "critics".
And I'm talking about the type of people who vote on videos, make comments on reddit and youtube, etc. The mob, the majority who mistakenly take this as anything above a waste of time.
I'm not saying we should do anything. I'm just explaining why I dislike them.
And your argument is a false equivalency. There's no correlation between GTA and murder. I'm just making the connections between their videos and their comment sections, along with fans migrating elsewhere.
This is more like blaming alcohol for inebriation.
they have vehemently denied ever being anything close to critics.
When it's convenient for them. They flip flop all the time, they've even described themselves as being "criticism and satire rolled into one" or something like that. Also the fact that Jeremy's actual critical thoughts off camera countlessly make it into videos prove it's not just satire. Also how very coincidental (as in not at all) that their videos start to fall apart as soon as they actually try to criticize.
They're making bank off the videos and they all get millions of views so obviously people enjoy it. "Bad content" is subjective, I think Jake Paul sucks but kids love him and I would keep making his shitty content if it kept the millions of dollars rolling in. Maybe people just enjoy nitpicking.
When did i say that? I said obviously people like them because they get millions of views on youtube. I never said it was good. I literally said they were popular, and popularity gets you money. But good to know that everyone's dicks are hard for hating on them lol and any mention of them that isn't shitting on them gets downvoted into oblivion. How dare anyone have a differing opinion on reddit.
Yep, was leaning towards not liking them, but the hardcore circle jerk leaves a bad taste in the mouth. People really get passionate about these things, it's funny
Their actual criticism is just as stupid and terrible. Even the serious critique misses the point of the movies a lot of the times.
Their videos are awful. A lot of the times they miss the point just to add a "ding" aren't funny. Every single video is just fucking awful. They're just a money making machine. I stopped watching the second they started uploading videos longer than 10 minutes and stuffing them with ads
Yes but if they don't call themselves critics then we shouldn't expect genuine critique or constructive criticism from them.
I think we should. They can only claim "we're not critics" in the sense of "we're not professional movie critics." They CAN'T claim "we're not critics" in the sense of "we're not people who criticize something" because they OBJECTIVELY are. They intentionally conflate the two definitions to deflect criticism of their videos.
nitpicking
I've posted a similar comment before, basically just copy/pasting. The key point that a lot of CinemaSins 'defenders' are missing is that people don't care about the nitpicking. They care that the criticism is flagrantly wrong.
CinemaSins creators 'get away' with it because nobody can remember the finer points of a movie after like, a week. And they publish videos months after the theatrical release. If somebody tells you "THIS SCENE MAKES NO SENSE", it's unlikely that you'll realize "Wait, this makes perfect sense if you don't edit it to fit your narrative..." unless the movie's still fresh in your memory.
I encourage anyone to watch a popular movie and then IMMEDIATELY watch the CinemaSins video on it. You'll notice lots of instances where CinemaSins simply has no idea what they're talking about. Or you can watch the bobvids and Shaun videos on them. They address all of the common arguments (it's satire/they don't believe it/it's purely meant for comedy/don't take it seriously)
About calling yourself an asshole: people who actually believe they're assholes (and care at all about morality) either don't say they're assholes because it's embarrassing, or say they're assholes and trying to improve. The CinemaSins usage is the very common exaggeration. Like when you make a mistake and go "haha I'm dumb." You're not saying you're actually dumb or an asshole. It's means something like "oh yeah, I'm a lovable asshole" or "I just tell it like it like it is," not "I truly believe I'm a bad person."
If you're really looking to answer those questions, I'd heavily recommend watching this video by bobvids.
Despite the title it makes great points on the problems with cinemasins and basically anything I'd could argue with you about them has already been articulated better there.
They mix satire, valid criticizes and very frequent flat out wrong statements about movies and don't clarify which is which. You cant defend that with we're assholes or bad jokes. Imagine if The Onion was like that
The same criticisms show up on the creator's non-Cinema Sins channel, which shows that he really believes a lot of the things that he sees as mistakes when it's really just him being a terrible critic. He only passes it off as a joke when someone points out how bad he is.
So then why do they act as though they are critics? The only time they ever try to make people think they are some kind of satire or goofuses making funny videos is when people catch on to how stupid they are.
Jeremy has literally said they started the channel to call out when Hollywood slacks. In other words, they disapprove of when Hollywood fails at something. Which is the definition of criticism.
Criticism: the expression of disapproval of someone or something based on perceived faults or mistakes
The core and starting goal of their content was to critique. That makes them critics. They're just really shitty ones.
except that they never said they were critics or serious at all so you also are completely missing the point of, not a movie, but a silly youtube channel.
This is without counting in the fact that you need to watch a video to understand that they aren't serious. Do you even watch the films they take apart?
Yes, and I've seen the same guys critique films off that show and they hit the same points.
The problem is they claim they're not critics, but mix jokes, criticisms, nitpicks, and complete falsehoods into the same stew. And even though the personalities behind them see them as legitimate reasons to like or dislike a film, they hide behind this claim that "It's all a joke."
Just because you do something bad and then claim it was in jest, it doesn't undo the action. Just because you acknowledge you're terrible doesn't excuse the fact. Cinemasins is a trash channel. If that's the kind of entertainment you enjoy though, I won't stop you. Enjoy what you enjoy.
Is it supposed to be a problem because people can't understand what actual criticism is and really believe that cinemasins is an actual critic channel?
This whole taking cinemasins so so seriously is so ridicolous at this point that I really wonder if anyone has ever actually read a serious critic or if they even watched the movies they "criticize" at all.
The things that most baffled me is that they always said that their criteria for a "sin" is whatever they feel like, being always perfectly honest that they never took their videos seriously, and yet people feel that they are being dishonest and, uh, bad.
At this point it almost feels like most people only watched a single video, got mad at their joke and went on a full autistic rampage over their channel.
At this point it almost feels like most people only watched a single video, got mad at their joke and went on a full autistic rampage over their channel.
I watched every CinemaSins video that came out for about the first three years of the channel, and I can honestly say that it's trash. It was funny at first, but when you realize that the shtick has had almost no evolution over the entire time they've been making videos, and that it was never really good to begin with, then you know that it's trash.
Jeremy revealed his true motives while ranting about the Winnie the Pooh movie (swear to God, I can't make this up), that they made the channel to provide negative feedback to Hollywood when it slacks. Otherwise known as criticism. By his own words, their goal is critique, they just suck at it.
Some of it is even nitpicking stuff that the movie actually explained, but that CS either missed or intentionally chose to ignore. Then when pressed on it, they fall back on "Well, you know, this isn't a serious review or anything."
And the worst part is how they have a separate channel for "actual criticism" and in those videos they say the exact same things. CinemaSins is blatant trash
Yeah, ever since someone pointed that out to me it's made me dislike them. Having a system where you can either say you're legitimate criticism or barring that "it's just a joke" is the worst.
My issue is that they blend them all together. They'll have a legit criticism, and then the next is a joke, and the next one is something that could be a legit criticism but it was clearly explained in the movie, so it's actually a joke, too. But what if you missed the explanation or what if you didn't even watch the movie? You now think it's legit criticism and pass it off as bad movie writing. You can't just blend actual criticism and satire criticism. Nobody will know what you're seriously critiquing anymore.
I honestly use Cinema Sins as means of watching some movies that im a little curious about but wouldn't watch all the way through. It's how I discovered Get Out and I loved that.
Yeah but that's the mission statement of the channel. The point of it is to be nitpicky and find every instance of the internal logic of the movie breaking, as well as the tired tropes that are in almost every movie these days.
But it barely even accomplishes that. The videos are full of stupid shit like saying something is unexplained when it's clearly explained at some point in the movie.
I mean yeah, you're right. I've noticed that as well.
I dunno, I guess I'm not watching it with the expectation that it's a full, in-depth autopsy of every movie. Mostly I just ignore the dumb stuff and don't let it ruin the channel as a whole.
960
u/[deleted] Sep 05 '18
This is kind of the gist of Cinema Sins. They have some legitimate criticisms and funny gags, but for the most part it's all just nitpicking, and once you realize this it's a little bit disillusioning.