I was specifically thinking about Siskel and Ebert while reading this post yeah. I actually loved their reviews.

Funnily enough I very frequently disagreed with their opinions, but between the two of them they explained so well what made the movie appealing or not, that I was able to make up my own mind based on the text of the review even if the "rating" was not one I agreed with.

And then of course the more you read a reviewer and get to know where your opinions line up and where they differ, the more useful their reviews become. Same thing with IRL friends ofc.