The INCspotlight
is a blog by Ian Nathaniel Cohen originally hosted on the website Channel Awesome, then migrated over to Channel Awesome. He mostly reviews older movies and obscure newer movies, but he's also reviewed comic books, video games, and novels - and he's indicated he might branch out to even more types of media. He started his blog on October 31, 2013, and he's been posting weekly ever since, with new reviews posted every Monday. As of September 2015, however, he announced that the blog's schedule would be more sporadic from here on out due to time restraints. These days, he averages at least one review a month.
Ian left Channel Awesome at the end of March 2018, and the INCspotlight is now being hosted on his own website. The blog went on hiatus for a few months while he came an editorial writer for The Comics Bolt, returning to INCspotlight reviews when the Comics Bolt shut down.
Ian also maintains a Facebook page (where he posts updates on his in-progress novels as well as links to his reviews) and a Twitter account.
The INCspotlight contains examples of:
- A Day in the Limelight: The reason the blog exists, as he mostly reviews older works he thinks might be unfamiliar to contemporary audiences (although occasionally inverted, as some of what he's reviewed is pretty well-known).
- Author Appeal: While he reviews works from lots of different genres, swashbucklers and martial arts movies show up the most. (No surprise if you look at the books he's working on according to his Facebook page.)
- Berserk Button: Dimension Video's edits to Jackie Chan's Project A royally pissed him off, especially when they messed with the musical score, killing the mood of an otherwise exciting action scene.
- Caustic Critic: Usually averted (which is noteworthy given the blog started off on Channel Awesome). He typically reviews stuff he likes, and if he doesn't like something, he comes off more as disappointed than angry.
- Then again, his Game of Death and Scaramouche reviews were pretty damn caustic.
- Also, he'll still point out flaws in stuff he thinks is good.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: His earlier reviews were much shorter (although he put more detail into plot summaries) and didn't always have background information on what he was reviewing. He also didn't have the standard structure his blogs typically have to them these days.
- Fantastic Racism: Based on his twitter and Channel Awesome forum posts, he really, really, REALLY hates Gungans.
- For the Lulz: He rarely gives negative reviews, but he's obviously enjoying himself when he tears into something he thinks is bad. His review of Uncanny X-Men #36 is one of his favorites he's done so far.
- Hurricane of Puns: Puns rarely show up in his reviews, but he started a pun war on the Channel Awesome forums For the Lulz (or For the Evulz, depending on your point of view).
- Pragmatic Adaptation: He doesn't seem to be bothered by changes to source material, as long as the changes make sense and/or he finds them interesting or entertaining.
- Punny Name: The blog's name is a play on his initials.
- Sarcasm Mode: Does this occasionally in his regular reviews, but especially when he goes negative.
- Shown Their Work: He'll go into detailed background about some aspect of what he's reviewing, such as an actor or writer's background, details of a film's production, or anything else he seems to find noteworthy.
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They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Can be played straight or averted. He thought some of the changes in Troy (2004) were interesting and made for a better film than a faithful adaptation of The Iliad, but slammed Scaramouche (1952) for scrapping everything he enjoyed about the novel and not coming up with anything good in its place. - This Is Gonna Suck: In his overview of the chivalric romances of Don Quixote's library, he cracks his knuckles before discussing Tirant lo Blanc.
- Yiddish as a Second Language: Occasionally combined with Goshdang It To Heck in place of stronger profanity.
