Fuck Ebert

[Doc Holliday]

For the most part I agree, respect, enjoy, and look forward to reading Ebert's reviews. However, there are times when I can not whole-heartedly disagree with him more and can not fathom where he is coming from.

This is one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAOftHEeUjI



Kick Ass was another.

Shall I have feelings, or should I pretend to be cool? Will I seem hopelessly square if I find “Kick-Ass” morally reprehensible and will I appear to have missed the point? Let's say you're a big fan of the original comic book, and you think the movie does it justice. You know what? You inhabit a world I am so very not interested in.

Although, I get that one because he's old, half-dead, and doesn't care to see little girls act violent in an entertaining way.

But Miller's Crossing there is no excuse for.



He also liked Once Upon A Time In Mexico a little too much.

Like Leone's movie, the Rodriguez epic is more interested in the moment, in great shots, in surprises and ironic reversals and closeups of sweaty faces, than in a coherent story. Both movies feed on the music of heroism and lament.

I'm sorry Ebert, but Leone's stories were a lot less convoluted and a lot more coherent than this. Also the music was epically more better. Face it, minus the blind Sands epic shoot out scene, Mexico was a dud compared to either of the first two.

So, there are my big bitches. What are yours?

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

I love Miller's Crossing, but The part when the guys went back into the woods was a bit of a stretch.

I say fuck both Siskel and Ebert.

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

Fuck Ebert

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

FUCK EBERT!

[Mr-K]

I've never really agreed with Ebert on everything, but that's not really the point. He has a great voice and he can be really funny, and he does all this without sounding like a highfalutin shit head. I guess I like his retrospective stuff more than his reviews (The "Great Movies" books are pretty essential reading in my mind, but his collection of negative reviews "Your Movie Sucks" rules too) because he can be a bit old and out of touch some times (Kick Ass, the Video Games can never be art debacle). The dude rules, seriously, there isn't a critic out there that I enjoy reading or respect more.

He also *wrote* this shit, and it's awesome:

[kingoffighters]

Videogames are not art.

[Mr-K]

Can we not do this here? It's not worth arguing over.

[Doc Holliday]

Some good moments.

April 7, 2009

To: Bill O'Reilly
From: Roger Ebert

Dear Bill: Thanks for including the Chicago Sun-Times on your exclusive list of newspapers on your "Hall of Shame." To be in an O'Reilly Hall of Fame would be a cruel blow to any newspaper. It would place us in the favor of a man who turns red and starts screaming when anyone disagrees with him. My grade-school teacher, wise Sister Nathan, would have called in your parents and recommended counseling with Father Hogben.

Yes, the Sun-Times is liberal, having recently endorsed our first Democrat for President since LBJ. We were founded by Marshall Field one week before Pearl Harbor to provide a liberal voice in Chicago to counter the Tribune, which opposed an American war against Hitler. I'm sure you would have sided with the Trib at the time.

I understand you believe one of the Sun-Times misdemeanors was dropping your syndicated column. My editor informs me that "very few" readers complained about the disappearance of your column, adding, "many more complained about Nancy." I know I did. That was the famous Ernie Bushmiller comic strip in which Sluggo explained that "wow" was "mom" spelled upside-down.

Your column ran in our paper while it was owned by the right-wing polemicists Conrad Black (Baron Black of Coldharbour) and David Radler. We dropped it to save a little money after they looted the paper of millions. Now you call for an advertising boycott. It is unusual to observe a journalist cheering for a newspaper to fail. At present the Sun-Times has no bank debt, but labors under the weight of millions of dollars in tax penalties incurred by Lord Black, who is serving an eight-year stretch for mail fraud and obstruction of justice. We also had to pay for his legal expenses.

There is a major difference between Conrad Black and you: Lord Black is a much better writer and thinker, and authored a respected biography about Roosevelt, who we were founded to defend. That newspapers continue to run your column is a mystery to me, since it is composed of knee-jerk frothings and ravings. If I were an editor searching for a conservative, I wouldn't choose a mad dog. My recommendation: The admirable Charles Krauthammer.

Bill, I am concerned that you have been losing touch with reality recently. Did you really say you are more powerful than any politician?

That reminds me of the famous story about Squeaky the Chicago Mouse. It seems that Squeaky was floating on his back along the Chicago River one day. Approaching the Michigan Avenue lift bridge, he called out: Raise the bridge! I have an erection!

[bbobb]

Can we not do this here? It's not worth arguing over.

Actually this seems like the best place to bring up that Ebert wrote an excellent mea culpa apologizing for his videogames are not art blog from before. I highly recommend you guys read it:

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010...n_my_lawn.html

I really like that he admits that it's something he doesn't really understand and that it's his own bullheadedness that makes him hold the view he has. He says he maintains his own belief, but a lot of it is due to his own stubborness.

[Fe 26]

video games CAN BE art about as much as any game or entertainment can be.