Making the magazine review

In preparation for writing the film review I analysed a film review from the Empire magazine. I chose their review of "Bridge of Spies" as I thought that the layout would be most like the layout of our own film review. In my analysis I stuck post-it notes to the different sections of the review explaining the information that was given in each section and so showing the layout. Below are a number of photos that I took of each post-it note with the magazine:

The film review begins with the title of the film and some key points about it such as the release date, the name of some actors and the director. Then there will be an intro in which the basic plot summary is stated. This summary is only a few lines long and gets straight to the point.

After the plot summary is stated there is the main review. This is the section which writes about all of the different aspects of the film and the critic will tell the reader what they thought of each individual aspect. The aspects that are mentioned tend to be; writing, acting, cinematography, editing, muse-en-scène and soundtrack. The reader can make their own judgement on whether or not to watch the film based on what the critic has to say. In this sense, the main review is quite useful as it encourages people to go and see the types of films that they should hopefully like and it will also make it clearer to the reader whether or not it is a film that they would enjoy watching.

At the end of a review the critic will often write one last line or a few last lines to sum up their overall review of the film. It is by reading this part of the review that readers can tell whether or not this film is a good quality film to watch or not. The summary of the review will often be what make people decide to watch a film or turns them against the idea of watching a film. The rating may also be placed here although it can also be placed at the start of the review as well. The rating is normally out of 5 stars and so any film that receives 4 or 5 stars is normally a film that people will want to go and see.