It's funny. This weekend I was watching Ebert and Roeper, where some woman reviewer from Canada was filling in for Roger who is still Missing In Action.  They did an early review of Clint Eastwood's Flags of our Fathers which Roeper loved. I screen the film on Wednesday, I can;t wait.

The guest co-host only gave the movie a mild thumbs up because she claims that although the movie was as good as it gets, it didn't have the Saving Private Ryan like action she was expecting. I sat there in shock. How can a movie reviewer give a mild review to a great movie based solely on her misconceived expectations? Even Roeper was shocked.

But the truth is, I go into movies with a preconceived opinion more often than not. And sometimes I might even give a movie more credit because it is something more than I expected. But I usually shy away from giving a movie less credit because the final product wasn't what I expect. I usually judge a movie based on the quality of content. If I was entertained, it was a good movie.

That said, I saw the best reviewed film of the year tonight - The Queen. So I went in with extremely high expectations and came out disappointed. Was it a bad film? No, it actually was a pretty good character study. But is it the best film of the year? No Way. Will it be on my Top 10 of the year? Probably not.

Even though I was disappointed, I'm not going to discount the movie. It's a solid 6.5 film. And the point is, it wouldn't have gotten a higher rating if I went in with no expectations.

Anyway, if you head over to FirstShowing.net you can check out the podcast I made a guest appearance on this weekend. We talk about Sex in Cinema, why Shortbus won't be making big bucks at the box office (hint is has something to do with movie ratings and absolutely nothing to do with big cities and blue states), and if people wear raincoats to pornographic movie theaters. Me and Alex also duke it out over Texas Chainsaw. It's not to be missed.

Back tomorrow with more,

Peter Sciretta
/Film Editor and Cheif