Leeper's Three Laws

In the latest issue of MT VOID (volume 31, number 48, whole number 1756*), in the context of a discussion about "spoilers," Mark Leeper offers advice on film reviewing. I love reading Mark's reviews, so this caught my attention.

One can see that Mark has been influenced by a combination of Hippocrates and Isaac Asimov.

And you are right about spoilers. If you say in a review, "I will
not reveal the twist ending," you are already revealing that there
is a twist ending. I would say that the rules of writing film
reviews are:

1) Do not diminish the reader's pleasure when seeing the film.

2) Tell the reader only the truth about the film unless in conflict
with the first rule.

3) Tell the reader what you think about the film unless in conflict
with the first two rules.

These seem like pretty good principles.





*That's right, the Leepers and their friends have been publishing this zine for 1756 issues.