Critical Dave

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An Australian blogger who pontificates on things (mainly movies) and you read if you want to.

Started out by reviewing "Infamovies" (his term, a portmanteau of Infamous and Movies) - films that had had troubles with Australian censors, but eventually widened his scope to other films. His reviewing style initially seemed to be "summarise the movie and make jokes along the way" but later reviews give a brief plot summary of the film before discussing it in more general terms.

Notable for being a heavy troper, even potholing to the site in his early reviews, and for a heavy emphasis that his reviews are just his opinion, and do not necessarily mean he has an authoritative stance.

His reviews can be found here

Needs More Love

Tropes in Critical Dave's column:

• Accentuate the Negative: He's usually pretty fair, but when something pisses him off, he's quick to emphasise how and why it does.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Reimagined an Angry Birds scenario from the pig's perspective.
• Ambiguously Bi: The article mentioned below lists both male and female singers he seems to find seductive. There's also this article which seems pretty personal.
• Audio Erotica: Wrote an article listing his Top 10 Sexual Songs:

"And I would absolutely have sex with Julian Hamilton's voice in this song."

• Awful Truth: "Oh, and for added fun, Stanley is Damien from Mean Girls" in his discussion of I Spit on Your Grave.
• Bile Fascination: Assumes it to be the sole reason for the existence of The Human Centipede
• Breather Episode: Amazingly, he considered Martyrs one, as it didn't have any rape in it.

Critical Dave: It's a small mercy.

• Broke the Rating Scale: Started his reviews under a blanket statement that he was completely against films being banned in Australia. A Serbian Film made him rethink this. It seems he's still against censorship, but begrudgingly acknowledges that some films go too far.
• Caustic Critic: Though not as bad as some, he can be pretty negative on some things.
• Conversational Troping: Does it a lot.
• Follow the Leader: He even has a page of Acknowledgements, or Better Writers That I Rip Off, and freely admits that he's borrowing from the style of other reviewers, mainly Cracked.com, That Guy With The Glasses and Roger Ebert, even claiming his Infamovies are basically plagiarising the Cracked style.
  • He also felt it prudent to point out that his review of Seven Pounds was written before he'd seen Matthew Buck's similarly scathing attack on the film.
• Deadpan Snarker: In spades through most reviews.
• Heroic BSOD: Had one after watching Salo and has referenced it several times since. There's even a post which is just him flipping the bird to the cover.
  • A Serbian Film also took its toll on him, to the point where he rescinded his previous "100% Anti-Censorship" stance.
• Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Vukmir, from his review of A Serbian Film.

"Vukmir...tell me that's not an evil name..."

• One of Us: Definitely a troper, and even links to the site from his page.
  • Amusingly, he's stopped potholing to the site, which means some of his pages reference Tropes that readers who haven't had their lives ruined mightn't understand.
• Soapbox Sadie: YMMV on this one, but his article discussing the controversy in Australia surrounding a pro-safe-sex advertising campaign featuring two gay men can come across like this.
  • Definitely a YMMV. This (gay) troper thought it was a CMOH to see him supporting the cause.
• Self-Deprecation: Has some in regards to his abilities as a writer.
• So Bad It's Good: Has an article called "Top 10 Great Movies (That Are Actually Kinda Crap)"
• What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Has a particular love for a swimming zombie in Zombie Flesh Eaters
• Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him: Had a major issue with the characters in Scream 4 not arming themselves against Ghostface, given that it's been their saving grace in the past three films.