Review: Listen. Are you Listening?

I recently reviewed a blog that was focused on the movie industry, only it had replaced humans in each movie with cats. For this week’s review I will look at another movie site that provides movie reviews and previews without the cats.

The author of this week’s blog has provided a blog that includes links to some upcoming movies as well as short and sweet reviews

Web Site: Listen. Are you Listening?

Description: A blog consisting of film reviews.

Design 

The design of Listen. Are you Listening? is very simple with the content on the left side and a navigation sidebar on the right. The background is simply white, and the text a dark grey, which provides a nice contrast for reading.

The title of the blog at the top is in green and the tagline is in a very light grey, which does make it hard to read. Choosing a darker green and grey can make it easier to see.

The font size chosen for the blog is very small and can be hard to read for some. Increasing the font size for the content and the fonts in the sidebar would make it easier to read.

The sidebar on the right seems a little jumbled the first time I views the page, and it was hard for me to find the navigational links amongst all of the ads and other site links. Moving the blog’s navigation links near the top would help with this.

I did like how the author provided a brief blurb about the blog. This is always a nice thing to include in any blog.

Focus 

The focus of Listen. Are you Listening? was sent to me as simply “Film Reviews”. There are many reviews on the blog, but in addition to reviews, the author also includes many previews to upcoming movies. I don’t feel that this subtracts from the overall focus of the blog, however, it may change it slightly to expand on it a little more to include the previews.

One nice addition to the blog is the “About” section at the top of the sidebar that explains the blog and the reason the author has created it. This helps establish the focus of the blog.

Content 

I found the content of Listen. Are you Listening? really nicely done. Each review of a movie includes a brief overview and the author’s opinion. At the end of the post, the author rates the movie out of 10, and provides a few quick words as to reason behind the rating.

The posts also include a small image that relates to the movie, such as the movie poster. On some posts the image links to film’s Web site, preview or teaser.

The author has nicely provided a few links to the movie preview at the end of a preview post. Sometimes multiple versions of the preview are included.

The content of the blog is well done with short and sweet posts, and suitable images. The additional links to previews, teasers and a film’s Web site are great to have in each post.

Spelling and Grammar 

With regards to spelling and grammar, there are a few mistakes that may take away from the posts. The posts, however, are still readable and easy to understand the point the author is trying to make.

The one major issue I did have with regards to spelling and grammar is the use of ellipses (…). The author appears to like using them as they appear in almost every sentence at times. This makes the post hard to read. A reduction in the amount of ellipses will go a long way to making the posts more enjoyable to read.

Overall 

Listen. Are you Listening? is a good file review and preview blog. The author obviously enjoys watching movies and it shows in each post. The posts provides good information about the movies and includes links to previews and also the film’s Web site.

The font size used in the blog could be a little larger as it may be hard to read for some. With regards to the writing, less use of ellipses would definitely increase the readability of the blog.