Who Is the Next Ebert?

[Acsenray]

@Onomatopoeia

With multiple trailers for just about every movie, and reviews and critiques all over the web at almost the instant a movies’ first showing concludes, and sometimes before, there simply isn’t much of a need to wait 2, 3, and sometimes up to 5 days after a movie opens for someone to tell you whether it’s good or not.

I have never read Roger Ebert to find out “whether it’s good or not.” I always read reviews after watching the movie.

[ftg]

@Siam_Sam

Well, I think we can write off Roger Ebert’s website. The new editor is some clown named Matt Zoller Seitz, who has given After Earth 3-1/2 out of four stars.

I had his website still bookmarked and checked in on it from time to time. But when I saw this, bye-bye bookmark.

[Acsenray]

I often disagreed with Ebert’s star ratings. That didn’t stop me from reading.

[Siam_Sam]

I rarely disagreed with Ebert’s star ratings. We had very similar tastes. But it was his writing that really did it for me. If some Bozo is going to take over the helm and give a reported stinker like After Earth 3-1/2 stars, well, that’s all I need to know. Noting else to see there.

[Acsenray]

@Siam_Sam

I rarely disagreed with Ebert’s star ratings. We had very similar tastes. But it was his writing that really did it for me. If some Bozo is going to take over the helm and give a reported stinker like After Earth 3-1/2 stars, well, that’s all I need to know. Noting else to see there.

Wait, it’s a “reported” stinker? So you don’t actually know if you disagree?

[Siam_Sam]

I’ve read enough about it that I’m not going to waste my time with it.

[Intergalactic_Gladiator]

I like how in the comments section, Matt Zoller Seitz replied to someone complaining about his review with “Maybe we saw 2 different movies.” You know, because we all experience things differently. I may go back to that site just to see if his next review is just as laughable.

[tullsterx]

James Berardinelli

[Siam_Sam]

@Mavic_Chen

I was going to say the same thing, good call. I also like the way James Berardinelli writes, his reviews are pretty accurate IMHO and he seems to know how a good film should be put together.

@tullsterx

James Berardinelli

Thanks. He looks interesting. I believe I’ve heard the name before.

[Mahaloth]

@Siam_Sam

Well, I think we can write off Roger Ebert’s website. The new editor is some clown named Matt Zoller Seitz, who has given After Earth 3-1/2 out of four stars.

I haven’t seen the movie, but Ebert sometimes liked movies that received poor reviews. He called Knowing one of the best science fiction movies of all time(it was 34% on RT) and thought Awake was a great thriller(24% on RT).

[Siam_Sam]

@Mahaloth

I haven’t seen the movie, but Ebert sometimes liked movies that received poor reviews. He called Knowing one of the best science fiction movies of all time(it was 34% on RT) and thought Awake was a great thriller(24% on RT).

Yes, and the wife and I agreed with Ebert on those. We all had similar taste. That’s part of the trick, to find someone whose opinion you can trust for yourself. The new editor of his website seems to have poor taste.

It’s really very scary how close our views were. For example, I love the Coen Brothers. The wife may be the only Thai Coen Brothers fan. The one film of theirs she’d never seen was Raising Arizona. I saw it when it came out and liked it. It was the only one Ebert hated, but he said he was told at least once a week that he was wrong about that. From what I remembered, I thought he was wrong too. A year or two ago, I finally got the DVD and showed it to the wife and was embarrassed at how juvenile it seemed. The wife wondered why I wanted her to see that. He was right once again.

[DaveRaver]

My guess is that The Movie Rat http://themovierat.com/ will pick up where Roger Ebert left off.

[BigT]

What’s this about there being on professional movie reviewers anymore? There are more out there than ever, now that the Internet created the whole indie reviewer scene.

And that’s why I think Ebert will never be replaced. No one has his clout. It’s like how the networks will never be as big as they used to be now that we have cable.