CHRIS REVIEWS is an idea that evolved over a long time. Its genesis can be traced from a life-long love of entertainment, coupled with a love of completing lists, especially checklists (what can I say? I’m a nerd). As I got older (read: graduated high school), my interest in cinema, and its history, became more pronounced. Around this time, I started noticing lists of movies. AFI put out a top 100 list in 2007 (updated from their original 1998 listing). I’d see Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide as I browsed the “Movies/TV” section at my local Barnes and Noble. I began discussing movies with my closest friends. One day, I made a short post on Facebook about a movie I’d seen (memory fails me on whether it was Transcendence or Divergent; in any case, I hated them both), and, in order to correctly describe how much I disliked it, I assigned it a letter grade.
CHRIS REVIEWS was born.
Over those years, there were two lists that cemented themselves into my brain: every film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, and (what were then called) the Disney Animated Classics. I had seen various entries for both lists, but I always said that I wanted, one day, to sit down and watch them all, in order. It was always one of those “I’ll get to it someday” ideas.
In early 2018, a friend of mine, a bigger movie lover than I, passed away unexpectedly. I grieved in my own way, and thought a lot about him in the weeks that followed. I thought about his love of movies, and of all the movies we hadn't discussed. One evening, it hit me. What a way to honor him: to stop saying “someday” and instead say “today”. I immediately began planning which movies to watch, and the idea for this blog sprung up almost immediately.
Which brings us to today. Three years later, I’ve completed the Disney Animated Films and the list of Best Pictures, as well as a few other lists as well. It’s been a long journey, but I am excited to share my love of movies with all of you. I am still in the process of moving reviews from my Facebook to here, so those reviews will be added with regularity (hopefully). Click on the Hamburger Menu (as my husband calls it) to see the various categories I’ve created; as I finish each list, new lists will be added. I’ve got some fun lists planned (well, fun for me, at least), so I hope you’ll enjoy this look inside my brain, and join me as we celebrate the magic of the movies.
Thank you Shaun for inspiring me to start this, and thanks to all of you who follow me on the journey.
Chris