The Ten Word Review

January 17, 2007 8:01 AM

The Ten Word ReviewReview anything you like, but in ten words or less. For example:
A Scanner Darkly: Rotoscoping gives Keanu a soul. Shame he opens his mouth.
posted by chrismear (35 comments total)

Seems like overkill when you've got Four Word Film Reviews (which has this terrific summation of Saving Private Ryan: "Boy gets own room.").
posted by dobbs at 8:04 AM on January 17, 2007

I needed a place to review people. Finally it's here!
posted by GuyZero at 8:09 AM on January 17, 2007

Wasn't this a MeFi Project at one point?
posted by Acey at 8:17 AM on January 17, 2007

Silly, but enjoyable. Four and ten words are very different beasts.
posted by cortex at 8:20 AM on January 17, 2007

Hey cortex, that's 11 words!
posted by Luddite at 8:26 AM on January 17, 2007

Overly verbose!
posted by TwoWordReview at 8:26 AM on January 17, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Damn. I wasn't even trying, for the record.
posted by cortex at 8:27 AM on January 17, 2007

You can check out the occasional movie review haiku in Philly's City Paper for more of this sort of thing.
posted by desuetude at 8:27 AM on January 17, 2007

new on ten word reviews--
metafilter.com:
Blue page where all this traffic is suddenly coming from.

good stuff.
posted by mcstayinskool at 8:28 AM on January 17, 2007

Very strange to open MetaFilter and read your own words.
posted by ninebelow at 8:33 AM on January 17, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

I've always had a soft spot for the extremely terse review. Like Book-A-Minute, which gives the most surprisingly cogent sumary of Dune that I've ever seen:

Frank Herbert
I'm lots smarter than you are. I challenge you to understand even one of my paragraphs!

Reader
Gee, Frank Herbert is smart. I can't even find the plot.
posted by Mayor West at 8:33 AM on January 17, 2007

Reminds me of Movie A Minute. Longer, but I like the pseudo-script style they use.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 8:33 AM on January 17, 2007

Ack, borked link. Should read Book-A-Minute
posted by Mayor West at 8:34 AM on January 17, 2007

Also, Jon Mitchell, you owe me a Coke.
posted by Mayor West at 8:34 AM on January 17, 2007

More posters there need to learn:

10 word description != 10 word review
posted by bitdamaged at 8:44 AM on January 17, 2007

bitdamaged: Amen. Was just coming in to make that comment. Not that there's anything wrong with 10-word synopses (and I'd say that all of the four-word "reviews" are synopses), but it says review, dammit.
posted by mendel at 8:53 AM on January 17, 2007

bitdamaged, mendel, I am wrong and I apologize
posted by Meatbomb at 8:55 AM on January 17, 2007

The review for Shark Sandwich was merely a two word review, which simply read "Shit Sandwich."
posted by kirkaracha at 9:02 AM on January 17, 2007

proust - rememberance of things past - man eats cookie, confesses everything in obsessive detail
posted by pyramid termite at 9:03 AM on January 17, 2007

kirkaracha, I hear you.
posted by cortex at 9:04 AM on January 17, 2007

too long didn't read

About 10 years ago, I wrote a review of The Trial, by Franz Kafka. here it is in its entirety:

Utterly inscrutable.

(no worries, I've figured it out, since then)
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:05 AM on January 17, 2007

It's not just the n-word limit; it's the dash o' wit.

My favorite review ever:
The House Beautiful is the play lousy.

Just one more from Dorothy:
"This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force."
posted by Twang at 9:09 AM on January 17, 2007

all-time favorite book review line: "this book fills a much-needed niche."
now, please make your book go away so we can have our much-needed niche back!
posted by bruce at 10:13 AM on January 17, 2007

Rotoscoping gives
Keanu a soul. Shame he
opens his mouth.

Review Haiku.
posted by weston at 10:38 AM on January 17, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

The review for Shark Sandwich was merely a two word review, which simply read "Shit Sandwich."

But expanding it to ten words would make it even stronger:

Shit sandwich. And I'm not so sure about the sandwich.

posted by George_Spiggott at 11:08 AM on January 17, 2007 [2 favorites has favorites]

My favourite review so far:

"Night at the Museum"
- UAGHGUHAUGHAUHGUAHGUAHGUAHGAUHGAUGHGUHAGUHAGUHAGUAHGUAHGAUGHUAG
UAUAUUGHAUGHGUAHGUGHAUGHAUGHAUGHGAUGHAUGHAUGHAGUHAGUHAUH
...
and so on.
posted by tehloki at 11:15 AM on January 17, 2007

Finally, a sluice for my flood of opinionations after one too many cups of coffee. Thanks MeFi. I wooooove you.
posted by SinisterPurpose at 11:18 AM on January 17, 2007

The shortest review I ever saw was one for the film "Volcano." It read simply:

Blows.
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:19 AM on January 17, 2007

Wow, I'm starting to see a lot of reviews that use quite a liberal definition of "word". Maybe they should have some sort of "maximum 20 letters/word rule? It's not too often they make a movie about Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
posted by tehloki at 11:32 AM on January 17, 2007

One of my favorite music reviews was for the band Bad English, which is fronted by eminently forgettable schmaltzster John Waite. The review: "Bad English? That's the least of their problems."
posted by nevercalm at 12:35 PM on January 17, 2007

Brilliant. I admire the way that the site turns an ordinary web chore into a mental challenge.

This isn't the shortest review, but I always liked the last line in David Wild's Rolling Stone review of the Johnny Hates Jazz album Turn Back the Clock: "David hates Johnny Hates Jazz".
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot at 12:59 PM on January 17, 2007

Cornflakes. Cornflakes. Cornflakes. Cornflakes. Cornflakes. Cornflakes. Cornflakes. Cornflakes. Cornflakes. Cornflakes.
posted by BeerFilter at 1:27 PM on January 17, 2007

I wonder if this was an outgrowth of the older Livejournal Ten Word Review community...
posted by klangklangston at 2:59 PM on January 17, 2007

It was indeed, or so attests the site.
posted by cortex at 3:41 PM on January 17, 2007

This one just popped into my head

contact:
woman reconciles religious and scientific beliefs through faulty reasoning.
posted by leibniz at 6:51 AM on January 31, 2007