Newspaper Vet Decries the Era of Populist Film Criticism

Former Wall Street Journal reporter and editor Kyle Pope, writing in the Sunday LA Times op-ed section “Currents,” is dismayed to learn that people are going to the movies without checking with the critics. (Imagine – paying good money to watch Johnny Depp swish around in the surf – what were we thinking!):

The gap between the lackluster Pirates [sequel] reviews and its remarkable box office is no different from what we’ve seen with Hollywood’s other popcorn hits this summer: The Da Vinci Code, Mission: Impossible III and X-Men: The Last Stand were all generally dismissed by reviewers, yet they’ve done well enough in theaters to challenge last year’s conventional wisdom – that Hollywood was entering a prolonged slump.

Naturally,

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