Gene Siskel has been dead a long time and Roger Ebert looks like he has been dead for a long time and At The Movies has finally been canceled. When I was a kid I loved all movies-Earth Vs The Flying Saucers was a favorite film featuring Ray Harryhausen’s stop motion UfOs destroying Washington Dc. I didn’t know about Production Values, Big Name Stars, Special Effects (not even Ray Harryhausen), Sound Tracks, Directors, or well, anything at all. I just knew that I felt really sorry for The Creature From the Black Lagoon and laughed when Abbot and Costello ended up on Venus instead of Mars.
Then I started watching At The Movies. Siskel and Ebert hated most of the movies that I loved-with the occasional exception of a Guilty Pleasure which was a bad movie they liked. They talked about Lighting, Casting, Directing, and what kind of food was available at Craft Services. They pointed out the fact that a chase scene would always feature a car running into a Fruit Cart and talked about how predictable all movies had become.
The result was not that Hollywood started to make better movies, but that more people stopped appreciating the movies they were making. I seem to recall that Siskel &r Ebert really hated Star Trek V and that Ebert really liked Swamp Thing and Siskel was obsessed with Saturday Night Fever. Looking at a few of their old reviews on YouTube they aren’t as bad as I remember.
Most Critics love obscure, weird and downright impossible to find movies, which is one reason Siskel and Ebert were popular-they reviewed films people actually went out and watched. The Two Thumbs Up review became important and the Era of Dueling Movie Critics began. Like Judge Shows, the format is pretty much the same. Two Film Critic talk about Coming Soon films and explain why they love it or hate it and why the person across from them is an idiot for having a different opinion. It’s a format that can be entertaining, but these shows always seen to be aired around three on a Sunday Morning and aren’t really worth tracking down to watch online.
It’s interesting how seriously so many critics take their work, as if they are handing down the Tablets from Ararat to the pagan hordes they know will ignore them. My favorite of the Condescending Film Critics is David Edelstein, who has a regular gig on NPR and The CBS Sunday Morning Show. He talks like a cross between an Evangelist Preacher and Mr Rogers-he’s trying, really trying to get his message across-even if you are too dumb to understand it.
None of the New Critics have ever had the effect and influence that Siskel and Ebert had. I couldn’t tell you the names of any other film critics, past or present, even the ones I sort of like-I don’t even remember the name of the guy that died not too long ago-and I really liked him.
There is a local film critic, Gary Cogill, who is a perfect Anti-Film Critic, everything he hates, I pretty much like and the garbage he loves I do my best to avoid. My most recent strongly disagree with Gary was when he called The Day The Earth Stood Still the worst remake ever. Peter Jackson’s King Kong is not only the worst remake ever, it’s the WORST MOVIE EVER! The Day The Earth Stood Still was not Gone With Wind, but it wasn’t the worst movie ever either.
I don’t think Titanic and Avatar are the greatest movies ever, but the Box Office says that they are-also Siskel and Ebert both liked Titanic. I’m not sure that Citizen Kane and Casablanca are the best movies ever, but a lot of Top Movie Lists have them there. My own personal favorite movie is The Matrix, followed closely by The Music Man, Tootsie, Singing In The Rain, and The Empire Strikes Back. Alice in Wonderland is the best movie I’ve seen recently. District 9 is the worst movie I’ve seen recently.
I miss the old days of Siskel and Ebert-my favorite of their shows was one where they didn’t even review any movies, but told how they bought special popcorn and didn’t speak to each other after a screening so as not to contaminate their reviews. I didn’t always agree with Siskel and Ebert, but watching their old reviews, I think they were mostly right. Well, except for Siskel and Silence of The Lambs-he didn’t like it and I thought it was great stuff.
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