Maybe Roger Ebert needs to keep an index card in his pocket that tells him what he gets paid to do for the Chicago Sun-Times.
He seems to have forgotten his own job’s description.
Here’s part of his review of the new Keanu Reeves film, “The Day the Earth Stood Still:”
The message of the 2008 version is that we should have voted for Al Gore. This didn’t require Klaatu and Gort. That’s what I’m here for.
Really? I thought you were here to help the public decide the best way to spend their hard-earned money at their local theater. Maybe that whole “thumb” thing was just a distraction.
UPDATED: Here’s Ebert shoving his politics in the readers’ face with his “Frost/Nixon” review (thanks to WWTW visitor Carlos)
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(Photo: Veteran film critic Roger Ebert)
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The Ebert BDS bit of the week was actually in “Frost/Nixon” or “Nixon/Frost” if that was the order. He didn’t like the TDTESS remake, and his review was quite charming.
Carlos, thanks for the heads up. Just updated this post.
I used to really enjoy and respect Ebert. He’s always been liberal, but not in the snotty, arrogant way he is now.
I can’t stand to read him anymore. The film reviews are all soapbox posturing, and the political commentaries are clumsy, ill-informed and just plain dreadful.
Exactly, Father Caligari. EW’s Owen Gleiberman is one of my favorite film critics. His politics clash with mine, but he’s always readable, smart and informative. Not Ebert .. .not anymore.
I stopped reading Ebert years ago when he wrote a Cannes recap that completely spoiled the ending of the film “Oldboy.” No hint that it was to come, just flat out said “A movie where [TWIST] happens.” One of my favorite films and I still feel cheated that I never got to experience the twist for myself.
As bad as Ebert’s reviews are when he gets political, even worse are when he attempts straightforward political commentary without a film review. Normally, one would have to plumb the comments at a website like Daily Kos to find such dazzling insights into the political zeitgeist.
I, too, learned long ago that if I really have any interest in seeing a film it’s best to avoid Ebert’s reviews, not necessarily because of the political bomb-throwing, which generally only happens in political film reviews, but because he is such a reflexive spoiler! He regularly spills the beans on major plot developments, including film climaxes.
He once flew off the handle at Michael Medved for spoiling the ending of Million Dollar Baby but seems completely oblivious to how many enjoyment-ruining details he routinely includes in his own reviews.
Critics who reveal spoilers are the worst …
What I’ve always admired about Ebert’s reviews is their plainspokenness — is that a word? He doesn’t fussy up his prose. It’s straightforward, as if he were having a conversation with you. But lately it’s a one-sided conversation, the kind you can’t wait to escape from.
Ebert has always been pretty mean-spirited when it comes to politics but I think the election cycle drove him to the brink of utter lunacy, at least at times.
For the past few years, he’ll go a while without saying anything particularly good, but then will churn out several great reviews in a row. At least that’s my perspective.
He is here to tell me to vote for Al Gore? I don’t get it. Maybe old Ebert is going a little senile.