# What is your favorite Roger Ebert review? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 15, 2014, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-roger-ebert-review/686202 "2014-04-15T20:15:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-roger-ebert-review/686202/1 "2014-04-15T20:15:39Z")
Roger died just over one year ago and I miss him more than any celebrity. I followed him on twitter and gradually discovered that the reviewer was also an all around brilliant and insightful man and a great guy. He wrote me a brief comment one time regarding something I sent him and I was thrilled. What are your favorite reviews of his? Positive or negative does not matter, it is entirely up to you. I love: [Battlefield Earth](http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/battlefield-earth-2000) - ““Battlefield Earth” is like taking a bus trip with someone who has needed a bath for a long time. It’s not merely bad; it’s unpleasant in a hostile way.” [Jack Frost](http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/jack-frost-1998) - “The snowman gave me the creeps. Never have I disliked a movie character more. They say state-of-the-art special effects can create the illusion of anything on the screen, and now we have proof: It’s possible for the Jim Henson folks and Industrial Light and Magic to put their heads together and come up with the most repulsive single creature in the history of special effects, and I am not forgetting the Chucky doll or the desert intestine from “Star Wars.”” [Knowing](http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/knowing-2009) - ““Knowing” is among the best science-fiction films I’ve seen – frightening, suspenseful, intelligent and, when it needs to be, rather awesome. In its very different way, it is comparable to the great “Dark City,” by the same director, Alex Proyas. That film was about the hidden nature of the world men think they inhabit, and so is this one.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-roger-ebert-review/686202/2 "2014-04-15T20:49:26Z")
He was a very sweet man. Wrote me a reply email once. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-roger-ebert-review/686202/3 "2014-04-15T20:54:19Z")
I forgot which film it was, but it was the one he said should be cut up into free ukulele picks for the poor. I never got a message from him, but he did publish an entry from me in his Little Movie Glossary. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-roger-ebert-review/686202/4 "2014-04-15T20:59:04Z")
> [@Nonsuch](#): > > I forgot which film it was, but it was the one he said should be cut up into free ukulele picks for the poor. [Mad Dog Time](http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/mad-dog-time-1996). He also said this: > [@](#): > > “Mad Dog Time” is the first movie I have seen that does not improve on the sight of a blank screen viewed for the same length of time. Of course there’s [his classic review of North](http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/north-1994), which someone read to Rob Reiner at a roast of Reiner: > [@](#): > > “North” is one of the most unpleasant, contrived, artificial, cloying experiences I’ve had at the movies. To call it manipulative would be inaccurate; it has an ambition to manipulate, but fails. > […] > I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie. Hated it. Hated every simpering stupid vacant audience-insulting moment of it. Hated the sensibility that thought anyone would like it. Hated the implied insult to the audience by its belief that anyone would be entertained by it. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-roger-ebert-review/686202/5 "2014-04-15T21:23:20Z")
I’ll add [The Village](http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-village-2004) "Eventually the secret of Those, etc., is revealed. To call it an anticlimax would be an insult not only to climaxes but to prefixes. It’s a crummy secret, about one step up the ladder of narrative originality from It Was All a Dream. It’s so witless, in fact, that when we do discover the secret, we want to rewind the film so we don’t know the secret anymore. And then keep on rewinding, and rewinding, until we’re back at the beginning, and can get up from our seats and walk backward out of the theater and go down the up escalator and watch the money spring from the cash register into our pockets." ---
**Author:** ![80sMusicfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/8/2acd7d/32.png) [@80sMusicfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/80sMusicfan)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-roger-ebert-review/686202/6 "2014-04-15T21:33:06Z")
I’ve only seen the Siskel and Ebert show a couple of times, if memory serves me right they were on Saturday nights around 7:00, when we all went out. I didn’t see many of his reviews. like I said I saw them together a couple of times. It was a long time ago. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-roger-ebert-review/686202/7 "2014-04-15T21:38:23Z")
> [@80sMusicfan](#): > > I’ve only seen the Siskel and Ebert show a couple of times, if memory serves me right they were on Saturday nights around 7:00, when we all went out. I didn’t see many of his reviews. > like I said I saw them together a couple of times. It was a long time ago. So you decided to reply to this because? Many of Ebert’s reviews were published. You know, in written form? I can’t really name a favorite review (so I guess I should not be replying either!) but I also miss him a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-roger-ebert-review/686202/8 "2014-04-15T21:44:58Z")
I recall enjoying his comments about _[Swamp Thing](http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/swamp-thing-1982)_. ---
**Author:** ![80sMusicfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/8/2acd7d/32.png) [@80sMusicfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/80sMusicfan)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-roger-ebert-review/686202/9 "2014-04-15T21:45:53Z")
to be fair to people who ask questions that I’m able to answer. 1 way or another, when I have the time. ---
**Author:** ![Skara\_Brae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Skara\_Brae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skara_Brae)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-roger-ebert-review/686202/10 "2014-04-15T21:51:07Z")
For some reason, I was just thinking about his review of [Elf](http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/elf-2003), which he liked, the other day… > [@](#): > > If I were to tell you “Elf” stars Will Ferrell as a human named Buddy who thinks he is an elf and Ed Asner as Santa Claus, would you feel an urgent desire to see this film? Neither did I. I thought it would be clunky, stupid and obvious, like “The Santa Clause 2” or “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” It would have grotesque special effects and lumber about in the wreckage of holiday cheer, foisting upon us a chaste romance involving the only girl in America who doesn’t know that a man who thinks he is an elf is by definition a pervert. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-roger-ebert-review/686202/11 "2014-04-15T22:02:16Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Of course there’s [his classic review of North](http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/north-1994), which someone read to Rob Reiner at a roast of Reiner: Not just anyone — Richard Belzer! ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-roger-ebert-review/686202/12 "2014-04-15T22:10:01Z")
Ebert’s death was one of just two celebrity deaths that have genuinely made me sad. Here’s what he wrote about **Saving Silverman** : > [@](#): > > “Saving Silverman is so bad in so many different ways that perhaps you should see it, as an example of the lowest slopes of the bell-shaped curve. This is the kind of movie that gives even its defenders fits of desperation. Consider my friend James Berardinelli, the best of the Web-based critics. No doubt 10 days of oxygen deprivation at the Sundance Film Festival helped inspire his three-star review, in which he reports optimistically, ‘Saving Silverman has its share of pratfalls and slapstick moments, but there’s almost no flatulence.’ Here’s a critical rule of thumb: You know you’re in trouble when you’re reduced to praising a movie for its absence of fart jokes, and have to add ‘almost.’” mmm ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-roger-ebert-review/686202/13 "2014-04-15T22:24:09Z")
I liked a comment Ebert made more than once on his old TV show with Siskel, after Siskel pontificated about how the movie at issue would’ve been better if the director had done X, Y and Z, and Ebert just said something like “Gene, just review the movie they did make, not the one you think they should’ve made.” I also liked a quip Dave Letterman made on his show when some random guest asked Dave why he had two chairs side by side for his guests and Dave pointed at the chairs and said, “Siskel & Ebert.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-roger-ebert-review/686202/14 "2014-04-15T22:57:46Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > [Knowing](http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/knowing-2009) - ““Knowing” is among the best science-fiction films I’ve seen – frightening, suspenseful, intelligent and, when it needs to be, rather awesome. In its very different way, it is comparable to the great “Dark City,” by the same director, Alex Proyas. That film was about the hidden nature of the world men think they inhabit, and so is this one.” He gave a four star review to a Nicolas Cage movie that wasn’t directed by Spike Jonze? My favorite Ebert review is that of Frankenheimer’s _[Ronin](http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/ronin-1998)_, not because it is a good review (it’s not) but because it is both readily apparent that Ebert went to the snack bar at least three times during the film (he was notorious for missing crucial plot points while snacking down or taking a smoke break), misses plot developments that were made absolutely clear in dialogue, and also bashes the screenplay without realizing that it was almost entirely written by his buddy, David Mamet, who he elsewhere fawns over. He also has a reputation–at least, when he was still drinking–of being a tremendous prick and attempting to get Gene Siskel removed from their show because Siskel would mock him for showing up too hammered to speak clearly. Wonderful guy, great critic. In a parallel universe, perhaps. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-roger-ebert-review/686202/15 "2014-04-15T22:58:45Z")
My favorite is most certainly [Jaws: The Revenge](http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/jaws-the-revenge-1987). The whole thing is hilarious, but this is probably my favorite thing he has ever written: > [@](#): > > I believe that the shark wants revenge against Mrs. Brody. I do. I really do believe it. After all, her husband was one of the men who hunted this shark and killed it, blowing it to bits. And what shark wouldn’t want revenge against the survivors of the men who killed it? ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-roger-ebert-review/686202/16 "2014-04-15T23:05:32Z")
Siskel and Ebert’s review of the Jim Jarmusch (sp?) Neil Young and Crazy Horse film “Year Of The Horse” left a memory with me. Poor Roger didn’t get Crazy Horse, and he lamented how the songs went on and on. If my memory dosen’t fail me, he said that the band played the same thing “over and over and over” with an obvious frustration. His outlook was not improved when Gene Siskel (paraphrasing) replied: I don’t know, I kinda like Neil Young and Crazy Horse. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-roger-ebert-review/686202/17 "2014-04-15T23:10:44Z")
Ebert was a man who couldn’t see art when it was right in front of his face, if it happened to be in the form of a video game, and he almost couldn’t even bring himself to admit that someday, somewhere far in the future, a video game may one day approach being art. Good riddance to him. Thus, my favorite review of his was when he tried a few games that were presented as art to him, and he bashed them all cluelessly, putting his bias and irrational opinions out in the open for everyone to see. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-roger-ebert-review/686202/18 "2014-04-15T23:21:42Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > He gave a four star review to a Nicolas Cage movie that wasn’t directed by Spike Jonze? Right. Because a good reviewer always sticks with his preconceptions and knows that bad actors can never make a good film. Your comment is doubly ironic since you castigate Ebert for not watching all of a film. How much of **Knowing** did you watch? In any case, Ebert was clearly the top critic of his time. He was a better writer than anyone else (name another film critic who won a Pulitzer), and his opinions were always sound and well reasoned. If he liked a film, he told you why; if he disliked it, he’d tell you that. And he clearly wouldn’t hate a movie for the sole reason that is had Nicholas Cage and it wasn’t directed by Spike Jonze. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-roger-ebert-review/686202/19 "2014-04-16T00:56:00Z")
Ebert did frustratingly miss plot points, but not as often as some in this thread say. I loved that he reviewed movies “in context”. A horror film might not be better than an Important drama in absolute terms, but with Ebert you knew if it was a four-star horror movie or a two star drama. My favorite comment was his reply to Vincent Gallo calling Ebert a “fat pig with the physique of a slave trader”, which was, “It is true that I am fat, but one day I will be thin, and he will still be the director of The Brown Bunny.” ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-roger-ebert-review/686202/20 "2014-04-16T00:59:42Z")
Everyone loves Ebert’s negative reviews (no surprise) so allow me to present one of his best-written articles for [a 5-star movie, _Lucas_](http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/lucas-1986): > [@Roger Ebert](#): > > \*This is a movie that is as pure and true to the adolescent experience as Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows.” It is true because it assumes all of its characters are intelligent, and do not want to hurt one another, and will refuse to go along with the stupid, painful conformity of high school. > > The film centers on the character of Lucas, a skinny kid with glasses and a shock of unruly hair and a gift for trying to talk himself into situations where he doesn’t belong. Lucas is played by Corey Haim, who was Sally Field’s son in “Murphy’s Romance,” and he does not give one of those cute little boy performances that get on your nerves. He creates one of the most three-dimensional, complicated, interesting characters of any age in any recent movie. But the film’s other two major actors are just as effective. > > Kerri Green, who was in “The Goonies,” is so subtle and sensitive as Maggie that you realize she isn’t just acting; she understands this character in her heart. […] The very name of the loved one becomes a holy name, as you can see in “Lucas,” when the hero says, “Maggie. Is that short for Margaret?” And then hugs himself to find that it is, because he suddenly realizes that Margaret is the most wonderful name in all the world. > > As the football hero, Charlie Sheen in some ways has the most difficult role because we’re primed to see him in terms of cliches – the jock who comes along and wins the heart of the girl. Sheen doesn’t even remotely play the character that way. It is a surprise to find that he loves Lucas, that he protects him from the goons at school, that although he has won Maggie away from Lucas, he cares very deeply about sparing the kid’s feelings. > > In a world where Hollywood has cheapened the teenage years into predictable vulgarity, [director David Seltzer] has remembered how urgent, how innocent and how idealistic those years can be. He has put values into this movie. It is about teenagers who are learning how to be good to each other, to care, and not simply to be filled with egotism, lust and selfishness, which is all most Hollywood movies think teenagers can experience.\* [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-roger-ebert-review/686202.md?page=2)