The Sharpened Review consists of product, movie, and music reviews.

These reviews are written by the Sharpened.net editor and are based on personal experience.

Product Reviews:

While other product reviews often include specific information about products, such as a list of features and technical specifications, the Sharpened Review focuses mainly on the functionality and value of each product. Good and bad aspects of each product are highlighted and explained in detail. This allows the reader to get a better idea of the product's value as it relates to him or her.

Products where the pros signficantly outweigh the cons will typically receive the best reviews. Remember, the value of a product is not its price, but instead is the utility (i.e. usefulness and enjoyment) of the product for the price paid.

Movie Reviews:

Like the Sharpened product reviews, the movie reviews describe the good and bad aspects of each film. The reviews cover various aspects of each film, such as the storyline, acting, cinematography, and music. However, the overall rating is based on how all these aspects work together to make an enjoyable film. For example, if a movie has great acting and cinematography but the plot is stale and not engaging, the overall review of the movie will not be very positive.

In other words, the primary focus of each movie review is the overall entertainment value of the movie. This means that movies with creative storylines and amazing acting performances will only receive positive reviews if the movie was truly enjoyable. Furthermore, high reviews are not given to movies based soley on artistic merit, like many newspaper reviews often do. If the artistic aspects of a movie make it engaging and enjoyable, the review will reflect it. In these reviews, the overall entertainment value of a movie is what is most important.

Music Reviews:

Each album is reviewed based on songwriting talent, creativity, and production quality. These aspects receive attention in each review, but like the Sharpened movie reviews, the music reviews focus mainly on how enjoyable an album is. For example, If an album is extremely creative and artisitc, that will be noted in the review, but it will not receive a high rating if the songs are not enjoyable to listen to. Even if an album is full of songs that use generic chord progressions and simple song structures, it may receive a higher rating than a much more artistic CD that is not as memorable.

While catchy songs are key for a good album, if they lack creativity and emotion, the songs will get old fast and therefore the album will not receive a high review. Similarly, a band may be very talented and record some musically incredible songs on an album, but the disc will not receive a high rating unless the songs are also fun to listen to. Albums with the best ratings are those that have memorable and catchy songs, and are also creative and emotional enough to engage the listener.