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I have four words for you (many times)

If brevity is the soul of wit, Polonius would have loved this site. The Four Word Film Review currently includes over 200,000 one-liners for some 15,000 movies. Anyone can author a review, with the caveat that they be no more than four words long.

Here’s some samples from some of the newer films:

Superman Returns

Kal-El Be Back!
Spacey has Lex appeal.
Superman III version 2.0.

The Da Vinci Code

Hanks: You’ve Got Grail.
Something about Mary Magdalene.
The Immaculate Deception.

Snakes On a Plane

Boeing constrictors.
Anaconcorde.
Snakes on a plane.

For more guffaws, this page really is a must read.


By Kevin Makice

A Ph.D student in informatics at Indiana University, Kevin is rich in spirit. He wrestles and reads with his kids, does a hilarious Christian Slater imitation and lights up his wife's days. He thinks deeply about many things, including but not limited to basketball, politics, microblogging, parenting, online communities, complex systems and design theory. He didn't, however, think up this profile.

2 replies on “I have four words for you (many times)”

I’m having second thoughts (and sour grapes) about this site. I registered shortly after this post and started interacting with it. Fearing massive time-suckage, I set down some ground rules:

  1. No more than 1 review per calendar day
  2. No more than 1 entry (accepted or not) per movie

Turns out there is some inner circle (or maybe just the owner of the site) who screens the pending submissions. I don’t know the history of the site, so it’s a bit difficult to judge … but that seems to defeat the purpose of having a site gets its content from its members. It also produces a bottleneck and makes the decisions appear a bit arbitrary (as in, this got in, but mine didn’t???)

I got my first one in — “J Cruella fashion show.” to describe 101 Dalmations — but scuffled since:

  • “J Cruella fashion show.” (101 Dalmations) – Accepted
  • “Doesn’t go to eleven” (10 Things I Hate About You) – Declined twice, as Factually incorrect
  • “Jo’s way? no pay” (The Wages of Fear) – Pending
  • “Couldn’t be my dad” (The 40 Year-Old Virgin) – Declined, not resubmitted
  • “News blurb promotes Ford” (All The Presiden’ts Men) – Pending
  • “Bewitched at birth” (Matilda) – Declined as too generic, resubmitted
  • “Doom buggies” (The Swarm) – Pending
  • “I see Red people” (The Manchurian Candidate) – Pending

While none of those are “reviews” in the strictest sense, even the FAQ on the site says that that is a requirement in name-of-site only. It quickly became apparent that plot descriptions and witty puns were more common. Whether or not my submissions fall into any of those categories, they definitely aren’t out of line with the range of reviews already up on the site.

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