The Moviesite Spotlight: Cinemaniac reviews

It’s time to shine the light on another great movie blog, this week’s choice it’s Cinemaniac Reviews, ran by 14 year old Alexander. Don’t let that age fool you though as he’s seen a lot of movies you still might have not. Time to get to know him better in this week’s Moviesite Spotlight.

What’s the history of your site, why did you start it?
What other reason is there to start a movie blog? I cherish movie as well as writing. When the two are fused, you have a movie blog. I started my blog on July 30, 2011. I remember it because it must have been one of the greatest days of my life. I had just come back from seeing Cowboys and Aliens at the theater. I had been writing reviews on Flixster for quite a while, but I felt I wasn’t getting enough readers, so I designed a blog. It was originally entitled “Moviefreak: the BLOG”, and it was originally on BlogSpot. During that time on BlogSpot, I only got four comments and the search bar was not working. So on October 7th of that same year, I imported all my posts over to WordPress and continued blogging there. It’s a much better blogosphere, with many more bloggers who enjoy reading and commenting, and a much cleaner layout. Within the last month, I also began another blog with a close friend: “The Two Cinemaniacs”.

What makes your movie blog different from the other ones out there?
It has a mobile application optimized for both Android and Apple products. The Apple one is a bit dysfunctional, and the Android one is a bit plain, but I still find it a bragging right.

What do enjoy most about your site and what is the reason you keep doing it?
It’s not that I enjoy my site, per se. It’s more that I enjoy the people who look at it. I always love looking back each day for new comments and hit/follower statistics. It thrills me that so many people don’t care how young I am (I’m fourteen years old), they just enjoy what I write.

In which ways has your blogging changed the way you watch movies?
When I first began my blog on BlogSpot, I claimed I would watch anything, but most of my reviews were for films of either the horror or superhero genres. Now I’ll truly say that I will watch anything. I’ll even sit through films as hopeless as Battlefield Earth or The Last Airbender if you need me to, because at this point, I feel it’s my duty. Or a career that I think about nonstop and don’t get paid a penny for.

What’s your favorite article you have written?
I try not to be narcissistic, but sometimes it just happens. I feel a good amount of pride in my reviews for Prometheus and Titanic 3D. When I write longer reviews like that, it makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something great.

Could you name five of your all time favorite movies?

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Harold and Maude (1971)

Raging Bull (1980)

The Graduate (1967)

Schindler’s List (1993)

How many movies do you watch on average each week?
That’s easy. TOO MANY. My parents seem to have a problem with it, it seems, or at least they heavily notice it. As soon as I wake up in the morning, they ask, “So what movie are you watching today?” I don’t go to the theater that often—unless it’s the summer, in which case I go at least four times a month—but I wolverine through movies I have in my basement. Then a flood of movies comes in for me at the library.

Do you own any movie related items that you are very proud of?
When I was in second grade and an overly obsessive fan of Harry Potter, I wrote a letter to director Mike Newell asking him to change the PG-13 rating given to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire to a PG rating so I could go see it. For some bizarre reason, I thought the directors gave movies their classifications, not the MPAA. Months later, he sent me back a black-and-white still from the preceding film, signed by actors Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint. It’s a symbol of my ignorance as a child, but as I am still somewhat a fan of the series, I have the photograph framed in my bedroom, right in plain sight.

Anything else you want to tell us about yourself?
How about something mostly non-movie-related (for once)? I hate, hate, hate Facebook. It gets on my nerves how everyone is obsessed with it. Personally, I feel that if I used it, it would infest upon my life. So I like to get people just as annoyed. Whenever the website is brought up, I ask, “What’s ‘Facebook’?” and go into long, rambling conversation. I try so hard so that when I go off no one can make sense of what I’m talking about. One time, someone tried to explain it to me by asking me if I had ever seen The Social Network (which I have, and it’s one of my favorite movies). “Oh, yeah…” I replied. “Isn’t that the movie about Mark McZuckerburger? The guy who founded McDonald’s? Never mind, I must be thinking of The Social Fatwork.”