+2
I've written some 500+ film reviews over the last 9 years and I've always followed a few rules:
1) Respect the film, not matter what genre or budget. I've seen plenty of reviews on mainstream websites and media that want to dismiss a film completely because it is a low budget production or a horror film for instance. The reviewer obviously set out with no intention of actually giving the film a fair run, or they just skip over and give it a brief comment as though it doesn't really matter. I treat every film the same, from Kubrick to SyFy Channel Originals.
2) Know a film's cinematic parentage. I watch a lot of Spaghetti Westerns and before I watched the iconic Leone films, I saw a few of the later genre entries that had some great scenes I thought were really clever, later watching 'Fistful of Dollars' and 'Few Dollars More' I realised that these were nothing more than copies of aspects from the Leone film. I have seen plenty of other critics' reviews of films that praise aspects as innovative that have been done plenty of times before but obviously in films they haven't seen. You shouldn't try and review a film in isolation, when I start reviewing films in a particular genre or category I will usually watch a large bundle of them together to pick up the style and theme properly before I can discuss it.
3) Know the historical background/source material. When it comes to historical films or productions adapted from books/TV shows etc. I am actually quite liberal. If a film wants to depart massively from the real history or from a book, it can do, so long as it makes for a good film (which, by the way, I have yet to see actually work). Still to write a good review it is useful to know just how close or distant a film is as it is important to a lot of viewers. If you get a chance to read the book first then this is perfect, but most novels are well summarised on the internet and even a quick scan can give you a lot of information that allows you to discuss this.
4) Know the background to the film itself. This is not always relevant, but there are a lot of films out there that had major changes during production - a change in director, least cast member leaving the shoot, re-editing by the studio in post-production that can make a massive outcome to what is seen on screen. Obviously the purpose of a review is to discuss the film as seen and no end of information about background strife can make a terrible film enjoyable to watch, but it can help you understand some things that seem very odd and again makes for some interesting discussion points in the review.
__________________
@MondoEsoterica - an insight into my world of seriously obscure cinema.