The Cinema Snob

The Cinema Snob is an American comedy webseries created, edited, written, and starring filmmaker Brad Jones (born December 20, 1981). It started in 2007 on YouTube before copyright claims caused Jones to move the series to its own personal site, TheCinemaSnob.com, in August 2009. The series later joined Channel Awesome in January 2010.

The series follows the Cinema Snob, a caricature of pretentious film critics, as he reviews obscure exploitation films and pornography from the late '60s through the early '90s. Since 2013, however, the Snob has started to review more recent and widely released films, such as the Friday the 13th series, Mommie Dearest, Debbie Does Dallas, The Babe Ruth Story, Xanadu, God's Not Dead, and Sex and the City.

The series has obtained a large cult following, and has met with a positive reception. A movie adaptation, The Cinema Snob Movie, was made in 2012, directed by frequent Jones collaborator Ryan Mitchelle.

History

Brad Jones was inspired to create The Cinema Snob after watching Roger Ebert's review of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. He said that the review "made me think of how odd it is in general to see film snobs try to review horror or exploitation films...I'm reviewing these movies the same way a pretentious cinema snob would and I'm trying to give some laughs at the expense of the movies to people like me who really do love exploitation films."^[3] Jones based the Snob's appearance and voice on an audience member he saw at a Q&A panel for George A. Romero, who told Romero how he had interpreted Monkey Shines as a metaphor for evolution and the bond between animal and man.^[4] The first episode, a review of Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror, aired on YouTube on June 16, 2007. He ran the show on his channel until he was confronted by a copyright claim from the distributors of Nail Gun Massacre. Then, Jones moved his videos to its own website, TheCinemaSnob.com, in 2009. For this new site, Jones also created several more series, such as Kung Tai Ted, The Big Box, The Bruno Mattei Show, and Brad & Jerrid, and uploaded two of his feature films (Freak Out and Cheap) to the site that same year. "So I built up a back log," Jones says, "so there would be a lot of content, to where I could apply to That Guy With the Glasses when my site had been up for a few months." Jones managed to rise in popularity when Noah Antwiler promoted his website.^[5]

Rob Walker accepted Brad's request to join That Guy with the Glasses in January 2010, and premiered Season 2 on Channel Awesome with his review of E.T.: The Porno. Since joining the site, Jones has done many collaborations with fellow members of the site as The Cinema Snob.

Episode format

The series focuses on a pretentious highbrow art critic, the Cinema Snob. He wears an all-black suit, large vintage glasses and no shoes, and sits in a "comfortable" chair, positioned in the middle of the screen so Snob can talk directly to the audience. In the early days, the setting was in Jones' basement, a couch surrounded by movie posters. Starting with Season 2, Snob moved to a living room with a standard blue chair. When Jones moved to a new home in 2013, the location changed again to the same chair in front of a tan wall, complete with a poster for Caligula (Jones' favorite film) and a poster that changes depending on the reviewed film's subject matter or characters.

The Cinema Snob often reviews a film by stating how inferior or offensive the film is, and proceeds to complain about the film's production quality, content, and/or plot. He frequently makes pop culture references throughout the review, usually to horror films, TV series, his own films, and films Snob has already reviewed. Sometimes he'll review a film considered as being among the worst ever made while satirizing the critical response the film had upon release, such as the case with Maniac, Mommie Dearest or At Long Last Love, and frequently imply that the film did not, in his opinion, deserve the amount of panning it received. On occasion, he will point out there was something good in a terrible film, such as Michael Chiklis's performance as John Belushi in Wired.

Sometimes, the Cinema Snob will say a variation of his catchphrase, "I'll stick with real ______ films, like _______, thank you very much."

Reception

Over time, the series has received a cult following. Many people have praised the series for its humor and characters. Melissa Garza of Scared Stiff Reviews said, "Jones delivers with quick wit, charm, and humorous, cutting observations.^[6]

Reception from review subjects

Several subjects of the films reviewed by The Cinema Snob have responded to their reviews. Gary Cohen, director of Video Violence, appreciated Jones' review of the film.^[7] After the Snob's review of Savage Vengeance, the film's director Don Farmer commented on the video. Jones says it was "basically a plea saying that I was wrong in stating that Porno Holocaust was the worst film ever made, because he made the worst film ever made: Savage Vengeance."^[8] Double Helix Films posted The Cinema Snob's reviews of the Sleepaway Camp films on their site, stating that, "You might find them hit or miss, but the Snob clearly put a lot of work into these reviews."^[9]

Copyright issues

Brad Jones was suspended from YouTube after his review of Nail Gun Massacre.^[10] He eventually returned to the site, this time under Blip/Maker Studios's "League of Super Critics" YouTube channel, where several Channel Awesome members upload their reviews, which are edited to meet YouTube standards for language and copyrighted content.

A few months after Cinema Snob's review of Grizzly II: The Predator, Jones received an angry letter from Suzanne E. Nagy, one of the film's producers.^[11] Jones, reasoning that the film was unfinished and therefore illegal to distribute without permission, took down his review. However, the "lost episode" has since been leaked onto YouTube.

After Maker Studios announced Blip is closing down on August 20, 2015, Brad Jones started a new YouTube Channel called Stoned Gremlin Productions, where he uploads most of his backlog and new content. However, due to YouTube's "copyright policy," some episodes of The Cinema Snob have been flagged, such as the review of Bingo.

Related shows

• Brad & Jerrid (2009–2011): a sketch series featuring Brad Jones and his friend Jerrid Foiles.
• The Big Box (2009–2011): starring Jones as the voice of Vic Dealio, and his then-wife Jillian Zurawski as the silent Big Box Model. In this show, Vic reviews old "big box" VHS horror films.
• Kung Tai Ted (2009–2011): Jones stars as a failed, poorly-dubbed martial artist who reviews classic martial arts films while training outdoors.
• Softly From Cable (2010–2011): a review show hosted by the seductive Shannon Shears (played by Zurawski) which focuses on Cinemax-style softcore adult films from the 1990s.
• The Bruno Mattei Show (2010–2012): Jones and his friends discuss the movies of Italian exploitation filmmaker, Bruno Mattei.
• Brad Tries... (2010–present): Jones samples strange, rare or discontinued foods and drinks from around the world.
• Midnight Screenings (formerly known as Brad's Current Movie Reviews, 2010–present): Jones and his friends review a movie immediately after attending their screening.
• 80's Dan (2011–2013): a parody to fish out of water sitcoms from the 1980s, starring Jones as Dan, an eccentric man who accidentally gets zapped from December 31, 1989 to the present. 80's Dan was first introduced (originally as a one-off throw-away character) in "Caligula (Part II)," the Cinema Snob's 100th review.
• DVD-R Hell (2011–present): Jones reviews some DVDs from his bootleg collection, which includes weird PSAs, Christian propaganda, failed TV pilots, and obscure shows such as Jones' favorite TV series, Tequila and Bonetti.
• Ninja the Mission Force (2012–2013)
• Game Boys (2013): a View Askewniverse-esque animated series based off Jones' 2008 film of the same name.
• The Reviewers (2013–2014): a sitcom about two roommates (played by Brian Lewis and Jake Norvell) who decide to become internet reviewers despite their lack of skills. The Rickhead, a character played by Dave Gobble, would later star in Jesus, Bro! (2017), a spoof of faith-based movies written by Jones.
• Snobcast (formerly known as The Random Button, 2013–2015): a podcast hosted by Jones and Brian Lewis.
• Lloyd (2015–present): an animated series which features Jones' pet cat Lloyd as a hard-boiled, yet clueless, private detective who solves cases based on movies reviewed by the Cinema Snob.
• Binge Watch (2016–present): Jones reviews the full season of a TV show.

The Cinema Snob Movie

In 2011, Jones announced that he was writing a movie adaptation of the series to be directed by Ryan Mitchelle.

The film is about Craig Golightly (Jones), a struggling exploitation writer who, along with director Neil Hall (Jake Norvell), are trying to get their movie Black Angus made but they need the correct permits from pretentious film snob Dan Phillips (Mitchelle). In order to get said permits, he takes on the guise of Vincent Dawn (The Cinema Snob) and infiltrates Phillips' film snob group. While there he gets involved in a murder mystery as well as attracts the interest of Phillips' wife Nancy (Zurawski).^[12]

Reception

The film was released on DVD on September 27, 2012. It has met with mixed to positive reception from both critics, audiences, and the fandom. Stefan Ellison of The Scene Magazine gave the film a B, saying, "Joining the ranks of recent fare like Grindhouse and Corman's World, this film is a fun toast to B-movies with the thesis being that while they won't lift the human spirit, you have to admire the filmmakers' chutzpah in putting all they have into them."^[13] Luke Owen of Flickering Myth gave it two stars as a film and three stars as a movie. "While not a perfect film," Owen wrote, "The Cinema Snob Movie is an enjoyable no-budget affair made with a lot of heart and dedication. You can see the progression Jones has made as a writer and Mitchelle as a director. With some more time and a bigger budget, these two could really make a fantastic exploitation film that would rival a lot of the direct-to-DVD trash I'm used to picking up in the cheap section at ASDA."^[12] Geno McGahee of Scared Stiff Reviews gave the film a 6.5 out of 10, praising the acting, message, and humor, but criticizing the two-hour length.^[14]

See also

• Ninja the Mission Force, another webseries starring Brad Jones
• Nostalgia Critic

References

External links

• Official website
• The Cinema Snob on IMDb
• The Cinema Snob Movie on IMDb