A film critic watches movies in the cinema and writes a critical appraisal of them; commonly called a review. As this review is necessarily based upon opinion, film critics are often the center of intense controversy. Apart from print media, film critics may also appear on television, radio and the Internet.
Reviews will normally focus on several different facets of the movie, including the quality of the acting, direction, script, soundtrack, production and originality of content.
It is a stereotype of film critics that they always have very strange art house films as their all time favourites.
Many people will read several reviews of a movie before they decide to go and see it. Hence, in some cases, the opinions of well known film critics can influence the amount of money a film will make at the cinema.
Typically, people respect the opinions of film critics more depending on how long they have been in the industry, how many films they have reviewed, and the different publications in which they receive coverage.
Some famous film critics include Pauline Kael, Roger Ebert, Barry Norman and Gene Siskel. An influential film critic based on the Internet is James Berardinelli.