The Ebert post about his biographical doc had me thinking about film reviews.

For a long while, most of the film reviews that I read are from this board or the L&L show.

I really liked Ebert's reviews as he seemed to really enjoy the act of watching movies and didn't seem as professionally upset if a movie wasn't well-made or had a sophisticated intent. Like ZooTown said in the Ebert doc post, he was populist or middle-class while having a respect for art or independent films but presented his ideas in a relateable way, at least for me.

I kind of fell out of movie review reading because I thought I needed to take a film class to really make out what the reviews were trying to convey. Not that it's in a writers best interest to 'dumb down' their message or even for a fan of films, but I got tired of feeling I wasn't in on the joke, so to speak.

Obviously there are other sites that offer reviews, but which are your favorite or review sites that you look for to offer effective criticism for a movie or tv show? Do you read reviews which offer competing views of movies to better judge if you'll watch a movie on your own?