Fog’s Movie Reviews

Welcome to another edition of Follow Friday where each week I feature and interview a fellow blogger and follow their suggestion to another blog to feature next week. I prefer this over a blogroll because it gives each blog their own time to shine, plus I personally rarely click on blogrolls so why would I expect you to? Not only that, but I get the chance to check out some great blogs I might not have found otherwise found, talk to some great people, and share the conversation with you. Of course, if you would rather see something like a blogroll, I have collected all of my previous Follow Friday sites in list form which you can find right at the top of the page. This week I was directed by Scott over at Front Room Cinema to check out The Velvet Cafe. But since she’s on vacation this week, I decided to feature the site that inspired this column in the first place, Fog’s Movie Reviews.

A little while back, I tried adding a blogroll to this site, but at the same time many of my scheduled posts were missing their schedules. I looked through help threads, and they suggested disabling widgets. I disabled the roll and the next post scheduled correctly. At the same time, one of the articles I enjoy over at Fog’s site was his Follow Friday, where he would talk up the highlights of a different site each week to convince you to follow them. It seemed like a much better way to highlight a blog than just putting the title of their site on your sidebar, and I was enjoying the interviews I was doing for short fan-films. I decided to combine the two into what you see today. But I suppose I should stop talking about me, and talk about the site I’m actually featuring. Fog’s was one of the first blogs I started reading regularly, and I still check it out for any new releases I’m curious about. He does a great job keeping up with each week’s new movies, as well as highlighting the occasional movie showing on cable. He also has a weekly feature where he doesn’t just review, but he celebrates a great movie each week with lots of behind the scenes facts and fun details in his Movies that Everyone Should See. So let’s hear what he has to say, shall we?

Bubbawheat: First off, I have to say that a large part of what inspired my Follow Friday feature, was your Follow Friday. Can you tell me how you started it, and why you chose that route over the more popular blogroll?

Dan Fogarty: FMR was starting to grow pretty quickly, and I realized if I wanted the blog roll to reflect all of the bloggers who were regularly participating, I’d have to be updating it constantly. It would also be a listing that would be pretty large and unsightly. I also was questioning the effectiveness of it. I’m all about sharing traffic and helping each other out, but was a static link the best way to do that?

So I decided to eliminate the blog roll first, and then “Follow Friday” became the answer to “How do I refer traffic now”? The thinking being that on that one particular day I’ll steer more visitors to the featured site than I would if it were sitting passively in a sidebar listing over time. Not sure if it works out that way or not… but that’s the thinking at least.

BW: You just got back from Comic Con, what was your favorite part of the con? The biggest surprise?

DF: The biggest surprise had to be Robert Downey Jr dancing in for the “Iron Man 3” panel down the aisle, right past me. LOL. That was pretty unexpected. Will Ferrell and Zack Galifianakis dropping in for an unannounced “Campaign” panel wasn’t far behind. I still think my favorite part, though, was Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger together promoting “The Expendables 2”. It’s a shame about Sly’s son, but that night was still unforgettable. I grew up watching those guys, and that panel was incredible.

BW: I really enjoy your Movies that Everyone Should See, have you ever picked one that got a lot of flak for its inclusion?

DF: Every couple of weeks or so I wind up choosing a “shaky” one that gets a lot of naysayers, and you’re almost always guaranteed to get one or two people who don’t like a given movie. I actually think the most notable one in that regard was the one that DIDN’T get any backlash. On April Fools Day I wrote up “Robocop”, thinking it was such a cheesy, kitschy flick that people would give me a ton of flak… But no one did. Everyone was really enthused about it actually, so the joke wound up being on me.

BW: I remember that very well, it’s what made me actually watch that movie again. I’m one of those who really enjoyed the movie. Do you have a favorite one?

DF: My favorite one is either “Fight Club” or “Blade Runner“. Still pretty proud that my Blade Runner MTESS is the most viewed page on FMR, in spite of other pages being freshly pressed and receiving all that traffic.

BW: How did you choose which movie posters make up the header for your site?

DF: I dunno, they’re all just movies I like, and after that I just try to get an eclectic mix.

BW: Unlike a lot of sites I visit, you manage to see and review a large number of new releases, what’s the most movies you’ve watched in a weekend, or in a day?

DF: Since I’ve been blogging, I’ve hit three movies in a weekend on multiple occasions. I’ve seen them all in one night (the triple feature) occasionally. I actually prefer that, that way all I have to do Saturday is write. I’m sure I’ve seen more movies than that in a day at one point or another in my day, though. Four or five in one day doesn’t seem like an unreasonable guess.

BW: What is your favorite superhero movie?

DF: The Dark Knight. So awesome.

BW: And while next week’s Follow Friday is already chosen, do you have a blog you’d like to give a shout out to?

DF: How about Eric over at “The Warning Sign“?

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Good choice, that’s a great site. Thanks for talking with me this week, and I hope you get the chance to restart your own Follow Fridays soon, it’s been a while and I miss them. Next week I’ll be reconnecting with Scott’s pick over at The Velvet Cafe. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.