WHILE they are not necessarily bad, ratings systems are, by definition, reductive. Mine is no exeption. The simplest way for me to get around this problem is to point out that the reviews reveal more than the ratings. Since I haven't reviewed every movie on the list, however, the question remains: why give movies a numerical score and then display them in a table?

The truth is, you're going to get these kinds of lists anywhere you go, and they can be helpful: sometimes you don't have time to read a review; sometimes you want to know how one movie stacks up against another; sometimes you just want things in black and white. And, well, sometimes I don't have time to write all the reviews I want to write.

Of course, the meter represents my opinions, and you are free to disagree with them. I've provided a section, Reaction Shots: Readers Write Back, solely for that purpose.

The Meter does not contain every movie I have ever seen. Because I have been trying to keep the critical eye of the site consistent, the list largely represents movies I have seen since February 1997 (when this site began). If your favorite movie isn't on there, send me feedback, but please have patience.

I began this site as an HTML experiment. I saw it as an opportunity to teach myself about the history of an art form that I had always loved. And perhaps more importantly, it provided a way to write without having to deal with publishers.

Most of the movie review websites out there deal with new movies, because that's where the money and the hits are. But I started this site to help people like me, who spend hours at the video store, aimlessly wandering the rental rows.

I've never allowed advertising on this site, which is something I'm very proud of. In my opinion, the commodification and corporatization of the web is not only tasteless, but also plain ugly (those blinking banner ads make me sick).

Probably the best and worst feature of this site is the "Visionary Masterpieces" category. Most professional reviewers would scoff at such a category (perhaps something called 'the shrine' smacks too much of earlier critical pantheons. Or maybe it's just that in today's politically correct, decentered world, hierarchies seem old-fashioned and oppressive).

Indeed, some of my friends have advised against the category, but I figure that the internet is the home of hyperbole, and a little enthusiasm about a bunch of movies can't hurt anyone.

To me, the movies in the shrine excel by combining formal grace, narrative eloquence, and incisive intelligence. I think of them as movies that extend the possibilities of the medium of film. The first movie I chose for the shrine, and in some sense the prototype of the category, was 2001. I will try to write about each of them in turn, but have patience--sometimes the hardest review to write is the most positive one.

I hope you find this site useful, interesting, and provocative, and I hope you return to it the next time you're about to head off to the video store.

Thanks for coming.