CinemaSins

CinemaSins' main video series, Everything Wrong With..., explores a certain film's amusing, generally poor writing, acting, direction, production values, deus ex machina examples, cliches, instances that defy logic and physics, factual errors, poor visual effects, derivative premises and other content that they deem "sins." Most transgressions are awarded a single sin, but on occasion more sins (as much as 1 billion, as seen in the Home Alone 2: Lost in New York episode) are awarded for effect, and even "broke" the sin counter on one episode (that occurred on the episode of The Fate of the Furious and 161 sins were instead displayed as R.I.P.; because of the damage, a 2.0 was temporarily replaced until it was fixed again in Scream 2). However, there are times when sins are removed due to the presence of a scene which is considered exceptionally good, which makes up for the original sin (an exception was done during an April Fool's Joke in 2016 for the film Troll 2 by removing a total of 10,000 sins before resetting to zero in the end. On two occasions (The Avengers and Doctor Strange), the sin counter additionally counted sins by mistake or added by the narrator. [lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 2]

CinemaSins has been known to show great disdain for certain directors, such as Michael Bay, Roland Emmerich, McG, Joel Schumacher, Zack Snyder and M. Night Shyamalan (soon to be lauded by modern-day cinephilia as part of the latter-day movement called "vulgar auteurism").

Each video begins with two taglines added on the film's title card ("In x minutes or less" (X was rounded up total minutes of runtime, excluding verdict, intro, bonus round and outtakes), and "Spoilers! (Duh)" (indicating the film's potential spoiler content)[lower-alpha 3]); the video was then played with an on-screen "sin count" and "sin timer" (video runtime) throughout (with common expletives and profanities censored), and ends with a "verdict" for the film. The early videos usually featured generic verdicts like "Hell", though eventually they came to employ words or phrases that refer to the film's content, such as lines of dialogue or settings, accompanied with audio samples or snippets to narrate the verdict. On rare occasions, a film will start with negative sins because of how good it is or because of a good decision early in the film, such as not overexposing the studios' logos. Frequently, the first sin listed is the total length of the logo sequences of the various production companies involved in the film. Usually all of the sins are written by Scott and Atkinson; in one case, Iron Man 3's sins are described by the subscribers instead (Scott still did the video's narration and the bonus round).

Some videos feature a "bonus round", in which additional sins are added (removed, in the case of Deadpool and Deadpool 2) to the count for repetitive occurrences in the film[lower-alpha 4][lower-alpha 5][2][22][23][24] The sin count rarely reflects the reviewer's relative overall opinion of the film,[10] so their true opinion is usually made clear in the video descriptions. These videos are almost exclusively narrated by Scott, with the following videos being exceptions, which usually featured special guest narrators:

• Atkinson narrated Prometheus on behalf of Scott;
• Canadian YouTuber Matthew Santoro narrated Underworld: Evolution;
• Nostalgia Critic's host Doug Walker narrated How the Grinch Stole Christmas!;
• Screen Junkies host Jon Bailey narrated Iron Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (the latter was a crossover, with Bailey did a "Everything Wrong With" video, while Scott did a Honest Trailers video);
• Astrophysicist and author Neil deGrasse Tyson narrated Gravity, Interstellar and The Martian;[2][6]
• Couch Tomato narrated the bonus round for Finding Dory ("20 Reasons Why Finding Nemo and Finding Dory are the Same Movie")

Each episode consist of one video playing about 15-20 minutes or more, but four episodes (Transformers: Age of Extinction, and the first three episodes of Star Wars) were split into two parts due to video overruns; Furious 7 episode was also split into two videos but had the audio outtakes separated into another video.

Certain stock criticisms are used as running gags, a number of which are ironic references to certain films, such as someone/something having "gone to the Prometheus School Of Running Away From Things" (used when a character runs from a fast-moving or falling object in a straight line ahead of it instead of to the side to avoid it completely), and "[Insert Character] would be excellent at CinemaSins" (used when a character says something in a scene that would have been counted as a sin by Scott had he said it instead), or "No one will be seated during the..." suggesting that a given scene is excessively boring or drawn out. Sometimes these criticisms are used in a doubly-ironic fashion within the very films that they reference, such as the alien characters in Signs being sinned for having "the same weakness as the aliens in Signs".[25] Sometimes they allow Scott to be self-referential. For example, one stock criticism known as the "my college girlfriend" sin involves Scott making a reference to a sexual encounter he claims he had with a girlfriend while in college by commenting that a line said by a character in a particular scene was said by either himself or his girlfriend during that encounter.[26] During every movie made by a Comcast company, like Universal or DreamWorks, a "Comcast" sin is always played first. Whenever a film title is mentioned in a movie, "Roll Credits" (or its similar text) sin is played.

Movies made for children tend to be less harshly criticized. For example, Megamind receives its share of sins, but they are delivered in a more lighthearted manner. However, one notable exception to this rule is films in the Despicable Me franchise, which have been sinned heavily due to the Minions characters featured in them, whom Scott perceives as highly irritating and thus a negative influence on the films' overall quality. [27][28][29]

"Everything Wrong With" videos are typically added every Tuesday and Thursday of the week (with exception of mid-September 2014 (and every September since), which only uploads on Tuesdays). Videos are selected and sinned, most commonly chosen by popular demand, though usually by at least one of the following reasons:

• A prequel film (or a series) to promote an upcoming film, usually sequels, and sometimes film reboots or remakes;
• An actor or director's prior film role in relation to the upcoming film;
• A seasonal-themed film to celebrate holidays; or any Academy Award-accolade film to promote the annual Academy Awards;
• A particular theme, genre or company in relation to an upcoming film;
• In rare cases, anniversaries for the film or a particular director/actor;
• Other reasons, through special cases if the aforementioned reasons do not fit in the criteria.[lower-alpha 6]

When doing sins videos that are based on other media, such as books, television series or video games, CinemaSins normally never refers to the source materials on which the films are based, instead believing that the feature should stand or fall on its own merit.[lower-alpha 7]

Usually, at the end of a sins video, audio from other TV shows, films or songs with similar themes or motifs will be played over clips from the film. At times, they will also advertise other sponsored products like Audible, Nature Box, Crunchyroll, Squarespace and Scott's book The Ables, released on May 1, 2015.

Since September 2018, re-uploads of older episodes are found on YouTube, with some of the videos done by reworked sins, while the older uploads are removed.

CinemaSins success had led to the production of four other spin-off channels under the "Everything Wrong With..." subtitle. On April 3, 2014, CinemaSins launched their Music Video Sins channel.[13] On October 8, 2014, Brand Sins was launched.[12] On September 4, 2018, a third spin-off channel, TV Sins, featuring reviews of popular drama serials, was launched.[18] On January 8, 2021, Commercial Sins was launched , featuring TV commercials.[19]

In the Conversations With Myself About Movies series, Scott has a conversation with an edited-in version of himself about a movie. The "Conversations" videos also included clues as to the next "Sins" video, as well as a few red herrings.[2]

Movie Recipes is a series that makes food that tastes "exactly like the movie", usually taking elements from the movie and putting it into the recipe in different ways.[2] The videos were put on hiatus with the final of the original entries being Scott's cameo in the Nostalgia Critic's review of A Christmas Story 2. The behind-the-scenes video showcasing the filming of the cameo featured Scott mentioning that the repulsive and possibly hazardous taste of the resultant foods was the reason he stopped making the videos. Scott retooled the series in March 2016, with dishes prepared by professional chefs instead.

What's the Damage is a video series where CinemaSins counts the actual cost of things damaged in a movie, with the prices coinciding with their worth at the time of release.[2][33]

In addition to the regular content consisting of news, rants, recommendations, warnings, and Q&A, some episodes will partially or entirely focus on a theme. These include:

• Theater Stories: Each regular host has experience working in movie theaters and these episodes focus on funny, bizarre, and entertaining stories from their time in the industry.
• Season Previews: Movies from upcoming months are discussed.
• Best Movie from Each Year You've Been Alive: Prompted from a question, this multiple episode series included discussion on the difference movies from the years the hosts have been alive, beginning with 1975.  The hosts would conclude by voting with what they believe to be the best movie of the year to them resulting in a single movie by consensus.
• Movie Bracket: A multiple episode series inspired by the NCAA basketball tournament, the hosts used the winners and solid runners-up from the Best Movie from Each Year You've Been Alive to create a bracket of movies that would be paired with one another and the hosts voting on which movie would advance.  No quantitative evidence was used, rather a simple in-the-moment feel from each host was used in their voting.  This was not intended to be an all-inclusive list of best movies, but rather intended as entertainment and discussion-inducing.
• Mount Rushmore: A multiple episode series intended to identify the top-four of different topics in movies.  The final voting often went beyond four and this series ended.
• Defining the Decade: A short multiple episode series discussing the characteristics and movies of the past decades beginning with the 1970s.
• Cinematic Road Trip: A multiple episode series in which the hosts and guests discuss movies set in and/or filmed in different states of the United States.