My fingers tremble whenever I consider giving a movie four stars. And that’s how it should be.
Films need to be pretty darn spectacular to earn such a rave.
Revered film critic Roger Ebert just gave four stars to “W.”
Check it out. And the next time someone says a critic’s political leanings don’t influence their reviews, chuckle softly to yourself and change the subject.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
“One might feel sorry for George W. at the end of this film, were it not for his legacy of a fraudulent war and a collapsed economy.” R. Ebert
Legacy. Noun. Something that is handed down or remains from a previous generation or time. Encarta Dictionary
If time must pass for a legacy to be defined, how can this statement be valid – ignoring for the nonce the subject adjective use and the context change from a character in a film-that-is-not-a-documentary and the real world – in what is supposed to be a film review, not an Op-Ed?
Chuckling softly to myself,
~ Dagnabbitt
Ebert has long been willing to dole out thumbs up to any political film that doesn’t offend his delicate sensibilities. Not that he shouldn’t like “W.,” but a four star rating? Yikes.
I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate the fact that you think twice (or more) before giving a film four stars. It is obvious that Ebert (and others) will give a knee-jerk reaction to something just because it supports their opinions and you hold yourself to a higher standard than that, which is valued by your readers.
Also, in respsonse to a post earlier in the week: I love the idea for your halloween costumes and can’t wait to see the pictures!
I just got my own W. review up. Like you, I found the first half to be alright but thought it suffered a serious collapse.
If your fingers really do tremble before giving a four star rating, then do as I do and change the set value of the stars. Why make four the upper limit? Me, I select from an infinite set of stars so I can freely give a merely so-so film tens of thousand of stars, even millions or billions, and keep a clear conscience.
Of course, this creates a problem if you really like a movie and want the world to know. My solution is to switch symbols. I change from stars to basketball-sized hunks of granite. I have only five or six of those, so “four hunks of granite” indicates a darn good talkie.