 This episode is brought to you by PageGuard. Website maintenance simplified. You can check them out in the video description. Over the course of my time on YouTube as a movie critic or reactor or commentator, whatever you want to label me and I don't really care, I have noticed something. It's something troubling, something sad, it's honestly something pathetic, and I need to bring it to your attention. I'm not sure you're aware of this or not, but movie critics are scared out of their minds. I didn't notice this as much in my first couple years on YouTube, it wasn't until probably about four years back when this really became a thing I was paying attention to, but there is a portion of the YouTube community that is scared out of their mind to give their honest take on a movie. Because they're scared, they're gonna get bullied on Twitter or in the YouTube comments, and for some, that actually happens. And for the large ones that have millions of followers, it's a very easy possibility. I obviously don't have the largest channel, I'm not even sure I'd be considered mid-tier on YouTube at this point, but I also don't have fear that I'm gonna get pitchforked out of existence because of my thoughts on movies, and if that day ever came, just shut it all down. What's the point? I have, however, talked to plenty of large YouTube creators out there, and some of the things they've told me over the years just boggle my mind. The most recent event just came up a couple weeks ago on Rotten Tomatoes, I was invited on their channel to debate the Matrix Resurrections. Yeah, that chestnut. And when I was first making introductions to one of the editors over there, he said straight up, yeah, we were gonna have another guy internally do this movie debate because he absolutely hated Matrix Resurrections, but he didn't out of fear he would lose his Warner Pressor. He didn't want to lose his Warner Press pass. He wanted to continue getting wind and dying, going to the early premieres, the red carpet treatment, getting his swag bag, early access to films. Are you insane? How sad have you become where you're gonna kiss the ass of a studio out of fear? You're gonna lose your in, but I guess I shouldn't be too harsh. That's the game, isn't it? You have to kiss up to the Disney's and the Paramounts and the Warner Brothers in order to stay in their good graces. Otherwise, there are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of other assholes lined up ready to take your spot and kiss the ass of the person up top. And believe me, there are many YouTube critics out there that will do exactly that and are every single week. When he told me that news, I was just floored. I thought, are you kidding me? He's not gonna go on a little podcast episode and talk bad about a movie he didn't like? It's not like he said Warner Brothers should be shut down or none of these people should work again. Like, I hated the Matrix Resurrections and I still want more Matrix movies. There's tons of stuff you can do with the property. Just ignore Resurrections altogether. It's not like we haven't been doing that already with Halloween and Terminator Dark Fate and some of these other films that take place somewhere in the timeline that's not after like the eighth installment. Obviously, if you're working for a large company like Aradan Tomatoes, your job depends on you being able to go see these movies ahead of time, review them, react to them, interview people. So you're kind of handcuffed to what they say and that is such a bad place to be, isn't it? You truly have to almost be acting as a critic. Just saying, okay, it's my job to pretend like I'm interested in this movie property. So when Matrix Resurrections comes out and I have to glow and Lee talk about it, this is gonna be my greatest performance ever. And the Academy Award goes to Adam Olinger for loving the Matrix Resurrections. Thank you. Thank you so much. You have no idea how hard this was for me to do. This is the dream. So we understand why critics on some of these bigger sites are going to be full of shit. It's part of the game. Let's set them aside. The Rod and Tomatoes, the BuzzFeeds, the IGNs and whatnot. Let's now focus on YouTube critics, specifically the larger ones that also get wind and die and go to the red carpet affairs and engage in social media and showing their pick next to a celebrity and saying, I was there. Look, that's me. I'm special and important. Oh, also, this movie was really great. Now, I'm not saying they're all full of shit. Some of them probably genuinely like all the movies they're going to and they really do believe that every Marvel movie that comes out is greater than the next one, a cinematic crowning achievement, rivaled by none other. But I do think there's a good portion of them that are talking out of their ass or being a little bit more lenient than they should be on a movie, which makes my hobby slash job that much more difficult. Because then I look like a dick for criticizing a film, even a film I like, but I still have problems with it. Because, oh, all these big companies and these much larger, more respected YouTube channels with the big subscriber base and the hundreds of thousands of views per video said it was great. You're just a hater. You're an outrage critic. And then we go the other direction and there are outrage critics who hate every movie. And there's this ugly middle ground where I sit and I get compared to that side far more often than the other. Sure, I've been called the shill too for liking a movie that most people did enter. Like, I like Terminator Dark Fate. I wear that as a badge of dishonor. I don't love it, but I think most of the Terminator movies suck. So everything after two, to me, is just a cosplay. It's a bad rendition. So when we got to Dark Fate, I didn't care anymore. I thought it was a fun action movie. I didn't go any deeper into it than that. But I totally get why people hate it. Regardless, I was called the shill for that. I was paid off, blah, blah, blah. It doesn't matter. I'm gonna get that no matter what. I don't have a studio to bend over for. Okay, no one's knocking on my door. They don't care about me. I'm not large enough or influential enough to be noticed. And if it got to that point, because people in the comments in the past have also been concerned about that, they think that someday this channel's just gonna blow up and I'm gonna get my due, I think they're gonna be disappointed, honestly. I really do. But if that magically happened, I can assure you I will not sell out. I have a much higher paying job that I do like doing and the people are great. So if I were ever to quit that for YouTube or movie criticism, it would have to be a sweet deal where I still get full creative control, have my own unique voice, and I'm not afraid to say what I feel. But man, you can see how easy it is for people to be swayed one way or the other. You have studio influence telling you, like this video or step aside and we'll get someone else to do it. You have hungry YouTube critics trying to get to the top, trying to get to the red carpet. And then you have the snake oil peddling bottom feeders who put out daily outrage videos on the same four fucking topics over and over again to rile up hate and outrage over woke Hollywood and the libtards and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's exhausting. It's exhausting. And then their fans will say, well, they are woke and it does need to be pointed out every single day, twice a day. God, why? Why do you people exist? Do you even like movies anymore? Now, I didn't even talk about the mob itself and how that's a whole other issue that needs to be addressed, the cesspool of Twitter assholes and YouTube commenters that go out of their way to hate on you for not liking something they did. I brought up the Sonic fandom a couple times in the past that was so insane. They went after me on Twitter because I pointed out an obvious observation about how the opening shot of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was a little uninspired. It looked just like Into the Spiderverse where he jumps off the building at night and to them that translated to a spit in the face, utter disrespect for the character and for the property. I'm a hater. I don't understand Sonic. It's hilarious and sad at the same time. And again, I'm a smaller channel. The sheer volume of hits that a million subscriber channel would hit would be astronomical compared to me. They'd get thousands of tweets at them. It's telling them to kill themselves over a movie or an opinion, saying they're discredited. All their past body of work is out the window. Hundreds or thousands of videos discredited because they liked a movie you didn't. I remember a movie review by Angry Joe and he gave Suicide Squad like an eight or a nine, I think. He really liked the movie. He's mostly a video game player, but he does a lot of movie stuff too. Anyway, this was years ago. Anyway, he came out with a second video, like kind of backing off his review a little because he did get so much hate and he dropped it down to a seven, I think, or something more, I guess, charitable to the people that didn't like it. Later, he would do something similar for the last Jedi. I can't remember the order of things. I just remember he had a video where he hated it and then he came out with one with some of the pros. It just came off a little bit disingenuous, like he was trying to appease a section of his fan base. And no disrespect. I like Angry Joe. I find him very entertaining when I do watch. I remember another movie critic. I can't remember who this was. I feel like it was like fucking John Campia, who I really can't stand. I'm sorry if you're a fan. I do not think he is honest at all. I think he said a couple years ago, and this could have just been merely an outraged tweet to get people riled up, but I know he got a lot of hate for liking something that most people didn't, and he straight up was like, I'm never reviewing this type of movie again. I can't remember what it was if it was a series. I just remember that getting tweeted out by him or someone like him and thinking, are you serious, dude? You're gonna get that scared of hate that you're gonna stop reviewing a specific type of video. That's sad. So movie criticism over the years. It's a fun, liberating at times experience where you can really excite people by an honest opinion, such as the Matrix Resurrections, which I didn't think was gonna blow up like it did. I was just doing another video rant, not expecting anything from it, just the typical numbers, and seeing it blow up and it's like, wow, okay. That's cool that it touched a nerve for people. It sparked conversation. It got people thinking, damn it, yes. I'm right there with you. I was looking for a video like this where people were just truthful and giving their thoughts, and I love when that happens. But then on the other hand, we can really piss people off with an opinion. People can get so upset that they just give you death threats, that they tell you that you're the worst person on the planet, that you don't know anything about movies, that you should leave and never come back to YouTube. I've heard it all. I've heard everything. But just like most things in the creative space, you have to be able to take those cons with the pros. You've got to take the punches. Otherwise, you're a coward. Otherwise, you're a sellout. You are a shill. You're working for a big company, and you don't really care what your voice is saying, as long as it's saying something that it appeases the masters above. You get your payday, you go home, and then you give your real thoughts to your friends and family. I love talking about movies and appreciate good movies, and I will hate the shit out of bad ones. And although I treat it as a job, it's a job I love. I think that's a long enough rant. It's been a while since I went off on a tangent about something. I hope you enjoyed the video. Comment below if you've had an experience yourself reviewing movies and got a lot of hate or called a shill or something, or if you've just seen other movie critics out there that you thought, yeah, you're full of crap. You don't actually believe the things you're saying. You're just hating because you know it's going to get easy views or you're loving because you know you're going to get paid for it. Either way, I'd love to hear your experiences. Let me know. Like the video if you haven't. Subscribe if you haven't. Hit the notification bell so these show up right in your feed, and hopefully I'll see you soon. Thanks again for watching the video. You know what keeps me honest? And from becoming a corporate sellout is joining me on Patreon at patreon.com slash adam does movies or becoming a YouTube join member right here via the join button. There's a $1 tier on Patreon. There's a $5, a $10. There's a couple perks you get. There's exclusive videos you won't see on YouTube that are only exclusive to those. And the more people I get on Patreon and on YouTube, the further I do get to making this a full-time job. We're a long ways off. I can tell you that, but it's the dream. It's the dream. And you gotta have those.