Keep the following factors in mind when looking for film reviews:
- When looking for reviews (especially of older films) it is useful to know the premiere date. Sources that can be helpful in determining the date are IMDb (Internet Movie Database) and the All Movie Guide.
- Movie reviews generally are published when a film premieres nationally or opens locally. Additional reviews may be published once a film moves to a streaming service or is available on DVD.
- Reviews of current films are usually easier to find. For older films (prior to 1980) you may need to check a number of sources including those in print.
- Film reviews may be written by entertainment reporters and published in newspapers & magazines, or may be user-generated and uploaded to websites by film viewers. You may want to take in account who is writing the review.
Reviews of contemporary films (1980-forward)
Offers a large index of online film reviews. Abbreviated MRQE and pronounced "marquee." Searchable by movie title, actor, or director.
Metacritic
Provides an extensive collection of reviews of movies, DVDs, music, TV shows, and video games. Assigns each entity a “metascore” which distills multiple critical ratings into a summary number.
Rotten Tomatoes
Compiles and summarizes movie reviews and other information on films; each film receives a narrative summary of the critics’ consensus opinion, and a “Tomatometer” score summarizing the percentage of favorable ratings from critics and audience reviewers.
Reviews Pre-1980s Films
Offers full text access to the archives of a selection of newspapers available on the ProQuest platform: the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette?, and the major African American newspapers of the 20th century, including the Chicago Defender. Coverage varies.
SEARCH TIP: Limit by "document type" to "review", or "display ad" to find movie advertising. Limit by release date. Enter the title of the film in quotes.
Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 (EBSCO)
Provides indexing of general interest periodicals from the U.S., 1890-1982.
SEARCH TIP: Add "Motion Picture Reviews" or "Television Program Reviews" to SUBJECT. Enter the title of the film in quotes.
Cinefiles (Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive)
Contains scanned images of reviews, press kits, film festival and repertory theater program notes, newspaper articles, and other ephemera from the collections of the BAMPFA Film Library & Study Center at UC Berkeley.
Media History Digital Library
Offers full-text scans of historic magazines and books on film, broadcasting, and recorded sound. Includes extensive runs of Variety, Billboard, Moving Picture World, and Motion Picture News. Contents are out of copyright or licensed to the database for public use. Project is based at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and includes content from the collections of the Library of Congress, the Margaret Herrick Library, and MoMA.
Film Criticism Databases
Film & Television Literature Index (EBSCO)
Indexes academic journals, popular magazines, and books in the fields of film and television. Includes abstracts for scholarly journal articles. Topics range from film & television theory to preservation & restoration, writing, production, cinematography, and technical aspects. Coverage goes back to the early 20th century and includes foreign language publications.
MLA International Bibliography (EBSCO)
Provides citations to journal articles, books, book chapters, and dissertations on all aspects of literature, language and linguistics, literary theory and criticism, dramatic arts, and folklore. International in scope; coverage from 1926 to the present. Includes access to the MLA Directory of Periodicals.
Communication & Mass Media Complete (EBSCO)
Indexes academic journals, magazines, books, and book reviews in the fields of communication, mass media, and other closely-related fields. Includes abstracts and full text for selected journals. Coverage goes back to the early 20th century.
JSTOR
Provides a full text archive of academic journals and books in the humanities, social sciences, and mathematics. The most recent three to five years of a journal are usually not included.
Project Muse
Provides full-text access to books and journals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.
Additional Film Resources
- All Movie Guide FIlm FInder
This database is very similar to the Internet Movie Database (described below). It is an excellent source for historical data about feature films. Two very handy features of their movie databases are the inclusion of four-star rating system and also when a film is to be shown on television in the coming month, it is noted with an icon linked to the air date and channel. The site also includes an interface for searching for people involved with production on a given movie including actors, directors, writer, costume designer, etc. Editor's choice
- British Board of Film Classification Database
This interesting site not only gives a film's British classification but also its running time, distributor, director, and cast information. There are also notes included describing whether there had been cuts made and "decision commentary".
- DocuSeek Film and Video Finder
DocuSeek is a search site for independent documentary, social issue, and educational videos available in the U.S. and Canada. DocuSeek allows you to simultaneously search eight leading film distributors' complete collections of over 3,200 titles of high quality documentary and instructional videos.
- Roger Ebert Reviews
This blog contains current movie news as well as the past reviews by legendary film critic Roger Ebert. The site also contains up to date movie reviews by many other critics.
- Educational Media Reviews Online
Educational Media Reviews Online (EMRO) is a database of video, DVD, audio CD and CD-ROM reviews of materials from major educational and documentary distributors and independent filmmakers. The reviews are written by librarians and teaching faculty in institutions across the United States and Canada. The reviews are aimed at an educational audience, primarily academic librarians. There are some reviews of K-12 titles in the database, but they are not the main focus. Reviews are included in OCLC's Worldcat.org database
- Facets Multi Media
Facets Multi-Media's mission is to preserve, present and distribute independent, world and classic film, and to educate adults and children in the art and legacy of film. Their website is loaded with all kinds of goodies including director top ten lists, films news, a blog, and information about film appreciation classes they host. They also have an enormous video catalog that’s handy for identifying whether a motion picture is in release or no longer available
- Great Directors- A Critical Database
A database of critical essays by film scholars on over 200 internationally-recognized film directors. Each essay is accompanied by a filmography, a bibliography, and a list of web resources.
- Internet Movie Database
This is a master source for conducting film research. It contains production data, awards, user reviews, plot summaries, and whether it is commercially available onvideo or DVD. The database can be searched for titles, personal names, plots, quotes, and character names. Here are some numbers: over 200,000 films and tv shows cited, information on over 400,000 actors and actresses and 40,000 directors. Editor's choice
- Metacritic.com
Metacritic compiles reviews from respected critics and publications for film, video/dvd, books, music, television and games. Their unique Metascores show the crtical consensus at a glance by taking a weighted average of critic grades.
- Movie Review Index
A database of links to over 250,000 online reviews from over 280 websites. A sample search on "Gangs of New York" yielded 137 individual reviews, though the vast majority are from little known sources such as Ross Anthony's Hollywood Report Card and DVD Talk.
- Movie Review Query Engine
This is the best free movie review database currently available. It contains over 140,000 articles of over 20,000 titles. The articles span the history of cinema, for instance, a search on "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1920) yielded 13 articles. Editor's choice
- MPAA Ratings Database
Keyword search this database from the Motion Picture Association of America. Database comntains titles since 1968.
- Rotten Tomatoes
Over 7 million readers each month use Rotten Tomatoes globally as a dependable, objective resource for coverage of movies and DVDs. With more than 250,000 titles and 850,000 review links in its database, Rotten Tomatoes offers a fun and informative way to discover the critical reaction on movies neatly summarized via the Tomatometer.
- They Shoot Pictures, Don't They
This is an amazing website by and for film buffs. Among the best features are a thorough guide to film directors and a giant list of “The 1000 Greatest Films” that the editors compile by crunching rankings by “1,825 critics, filmmakers, reviewers, scholars and other likely film types.”
- Public Moving Image Archives and Research Centers
A master list of links to moving image collections worldwide.
- ScreenSite
The is an outstanding academic site developed and maintained by the University of Alabama - Telecommunication and Film department. The mission of the site is to facilitate the serious study of film and television, unlike the majority of film websites that are targeted primarily to fans rather than scholars. Among its many interesting features are a page of course syllabi, classes worldwide, film program descriptions, open teaching position listings, film textbook reviews, and much more. It is a treasure trove of information and could easily draw one into hours of browsing. Editor's choice