Rollins's rationale for becoming a critic, he says, is, "Everyone is a critic, so why not me? . . . I'm sick and tired of walking out of a theater, being Afflecked and CGI'd to death." And so he shares his feelings about both indie and big-budget movies with the candor that has become his calling card. "Terminator 3," he says, is a "turgid bomb of a film" that "tortured my prefrontal cortex.' "
He also invites real people and special guest stars to share their opinions. Tonight, Rob Zombie talks about the movie "Narc": "I thought it was awesome." Rollins's mailman, Raoul, chats about "The Last Samurai": "I enjoyed it . . . . There was no lull." And a trio of porn stars talk about "Boogie Nights." "It was my whole inspiration," says one of them.
There's little on this show you won't find on any number of website bulletin boards, where people from all backgrounds deliver unedited movie reviews straight from the heart. And that can be an interesting counterbalance to career critics who are getting paid for their point of view. But if you decide to watch "Henry's FilmCorner" for its roots approach to judging film, you have to be disposed to like Rollins's hyperbolic expressiveness and his purple language. There's plenty of it packed into tonight's half-hour.
Also, you might want to take a nausea pill before tuning in. The show has a basement studio feel (shades of "Wayne's World"?), but it makes stabs at slickness by shooting Rollins and his guests from all angles -- front, side, ceiling -- and then shifting quickly among the cameras. The motion can be annoying and disconcerting. After all, a show about sticking it to corporate moviemaking probably shouldn't be borrowing its filming technique from one of the biggest youth corporations of all, MTV.
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com.
