Being blind since birth hasn’t prevented Tommy Edison from becoming a film critic and writer.

An extensive list of clichés and plot flaws found in movies compiled by US film critic Roger Ebert.

And if you’re taking tips from US film critic Roger Ebert then you’re taking them from the best.

Advise the readers well. This does not involve informing them, “You’ll love this!” If I approached some guy in a restaurant and told him what he would love, I might get a breadbasket in the face. No, we must tell the readers what we ourselves love or hate. If we work for employers who think we should “like more movies like ordinary people like,” we should make a donation in his name to the Anti-Cruelty Society.

The short, sharp, and instant “critiques” of movies by film-goers, which often go along the lines of “it sucks”, and delivered by way of blogs or Twitter, are diminishing the relevance of more formal film reviews.

The transfer of film criticism from its print-based platforms (newspapers, magazines, and academic journals) to ectoplasmic Web-page billboards has rocked the lit-crit screen trade. Whether from the world of journalism (where the pink slips are landing with hurricane force) or academe (which itself is experiencing the worst job market since the Middle Ages), serious writers on film feel under siege, underappreciated, and underemployed.

This is unfortunate because a well written, comprehensive, film review can tell you a lot about a movie that you may not have otherwise been aware of. Far more than an appraisal of “it sucks”, that’s for sure.