The Moviesite Spotlight: Dan The Man’s Movie Reviews

Welcome to a new edition of the Moviesite Spotlight. For those who wonder what this is:

Every week I read a lot of great movie related blogs and I thought it was time to give the ones I visit regularly a chance to shine in the spotlight, by interviewing its writers.

This week’s interview is with Dan, writer of Dan The Man’s Movie Reviews.

What’s the history of your site, why did you start it?
I started it way back in the Summer of 2009 because I had so much time on my hands. It was the Summer, it was hot, I was bored, and I liked writing and watching movies so I thought what better way to combine them both and see what I can do with it. I started off with this little, rinky-dinky website from freewebs.com but eventually moved up to WordPress and that’s where my site still stands today.

What makes your movie blog different from the other ones out there?
I don’t necessarily think that my website is any different from the others out there except for the fact that I think I am able to review whatever it is I want to watch regardless of if it’s good or not. I also feel like I like to write like how I would normally speak in real-life, but then again, I think plenty of other websites out there do the same thing so I can’t take too much credit.

What do enjoy most about your site and what is the reason you keep doing it?
The one thing that I enjoy most about my website is being able to share my thoughts and opinions to the web for everybody to see. At first, barely anybody was checking out my website (other than my family, but that doesn’t really count right?) but after awhile, I started attracting more and more viewers out there to check out my website and it just makes me feel great knowing that whatever I think about a movie, it’s all being seen by many people out there who could be thinking just the same exact things as me. Basically, I just enjoy being able to watch movies, and write about them where everybody can see.

In which ways has your blogging changed the way you watch movies?
I definitely watch a lot more movies than I used to and my views on them have changed a whole lot. I look at the finer things in movies like acting, writing, originality, direction, and so many other things whereas in the beginning of my site, all I focused on was whether or not they were fun to watch. I guess I still look at it like that but it’s a lot more detailed than that.

What’s your favorite article you have written?

Oh dear, I have done so many posts, I honestly couldn’t tell you. However, the one that always comes to mind first is my review of ‘Inception’, a movie that absolutely stunned me and a review that was one of my first, really big posts. There was so much feedback on this review and I don’t even think I cared that much about how well-written my review actually was, I was just glad that were a lot of people were reading and commenting on my stuff. It was definitely one of the posts that changed the way I ran my site after that.

Could you name five of your all time favorite movies?
That’s kind of hard but I guess I’ll just go with what comes to my mind first:

Pulp Fiction

Do the Right Thing

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

The Shawshank Redemption

Chasing Amy

How many movies do you watch on average each week?
I would say that I watch about 2 movies a day, on average, so probably about 14. I know that sounds crazy and like I have way too much time on my hands but since it’s my Senior year, I know where I’m going to college, and I have all of these movies to watch, I can watch as many as I want really. Just about every weekday as soon as I get back from school is the time where I watch a movie right then and one more, later on in the night. Most of the time it happens, other times, it doesn’t.

Do you own any movie related items that you are very proud of?
I do not have that much movie memorabilia except for a piece of paper signed by Woody Harrelson. However, I don’t know if you would really consider that a piece of memorabilia but it’s still something I hold near and dear to my heart. Actually, I never even met the dude, my parents did and they say he was high as hell. No surprise there.

Anything else you want to tell us about yourself?
Well, I want to say that I love movies and I love having a great time while learning a couple of new things every time I sit down and watch a movie. I hope that I’m able to continue to do this for the rest of my life because I love it and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else other than watching movies and writing about them. It would definitely be a fun and easy job to have but in the meantime, before all of those dreams can come true, I still have my website: Dan the Man’s Movie Reviews. Go on and give it a look peeps! Hopefully, you won’t be disappointed with what it is that you see.