Sight and Sound Magazine

A British film magazine published by the BFI. It includes film reviews as well as retrospective articles, features and interviews. It's almost a halfway point between Empire and Cineaste in terms of content- it does review quite big popular films such as it's recent review of Skyfall, but it also covers independant foreign film Five Broken Cameras as well as their use of much more formal language compared to empire.

This is a scan of a page from Sight and Sound. Like the other magazines I've looked at, it again separates it's text into columns. Unlike Empire though, it's center image doesn't seem like such a focal point, as it;s layout is a bit more spaced out. There is a small text box towards the top of most of there articles, similar to the box on Empire which gives some technical information on the film. 

Sight and Sound also uses different colours occasionally in articles, to make certain bold bits of text stand out even more.

As for the actual language used, as I had said before it';s quite formal. However it is also quite descriptive compared to other magazines, using more adjectives and talking a lot about the feelings and emotions the cinematography creates within the audience.

Cineaste Magazine

A film review magazine which mainly focuses on reviewing arthouse or political films. In comparison to Empire, it focuses on films which maybe wouldn't be the most mainstream and in it's reviews it discusses a lot of the themes and ideas behind the film, rather than whether the film was enjoyable or not.

Within it's reviews it looks like it uses large images at the top, and then quite clean, uncrowded layouts. In this particular one, there is a bold extract at the center of the page to draw in people.

It also has a online website where it posts up some reviews. This is an extract from one of it's online exclusive reviews.

Cineaste Language on Prezi

Empire Magazine

A film Magazine that reviews various genres of films, as well as having features, interviews and other types of articles regarding film.

Empire Magazine is a British, monthly film magazine. Empire covers a wide range of film genres, from Fantasy films like The Lord of The Rings trilogy to animated children's films such as Frankenweenie(2012). Although it does review art house films, it mainly focuses on reviewing popular block busters and big budget films.

It also reviews Video games, Books and DVDs.

Empire also has a website which can be found here.

Review style

When starting reviews, there is always a box at the beginning of the article including information about the release date, the director and some other information 

This particular article I looked at starts off with a quote from the film. The language used in this article is standard English  however it's written in a casual manner and in a way that grasps the audience's attention. Furthermore, it frequently compares it to the original film, but mostly focuses on reviewing the plot of the story and whether or not the gags were delivered well.

After the review, there is a verdict which summarizes the reviewers opinion on the film.

Film Threat Magazine

A film magazine that reviews a lot of Indie/cult/alternative films. It originated as a printed magazine in the 80s, reviewing independant films of the time, but was recently remade as the film review website it it now. Like it;s original incarnation, the website also reviews independant films.

The language the reviewers use is very fitting to the sort of films that are featured on the online site, and there is a very quirky tone to the articles. 

Reviews often speak a lot about the actual plot and action in the film as well as the characters. It's style is more similar to a blockbuster reviewing magazine in terms of review content, as it's evident it's main purpose is to entertain readers with the reviews rather than inform them. Although it;s reviews are both good and bad, they are always quite enjoyable to read because of the informal style of writing.