Roger Ebert

Started by filmcritic, June 18, 2003, 11:33:11 AM

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Ravi

Quote from: ddiggler6280man, maybe i'm the product of the short attention span generation, but i just can't watch citizen kane anymore. yea, the cinematography is incredible, yes it is a masterpiece.  but it's just so god damn boring. once was enough for me.

criticize me if you want, i wish i'd like it more.  my parents bought me the dvd for christmas and i still haven't watched it at all. just haven't been in the mood.

I couldn't get past the newsreel portion on my first try, but I tried to watch it again a few months later and was blown away by the film.  Watch it again with the commentaries.

Pubrick

Quote from: ddiggler6280man, maybe i'm the product of the short attention span generation, but i just can't watch citizen kane anymore. yea, the cinematography is incredible, yes it is a masterpiece.  but it's just so god damn boring. once was enough for me.

criticize me if you want, i wish i'd like it more.  my parents bought me the dvd for christmas and i still haven't watched it at all. just haven't been in the mood.
too bad, ur loss.

ps. the one thing that can be said about our generation, is that there is enuff diversity within it from all types of media (not just tv, and definitely not just MTV), that it cannot blame itself at all for any shortcomings.
under the paving stones.

NEON MERCURY

Quote from: ddiggler6280man, maybe i'm the product of the short attention span generation, but i just can't watch citizen kane anymore. yea, the cinematography is incredible, yes it is a masterpiece.  but it's just so god damn boring. once was enough for me.

criticize me if you want, i wish i'd like it more.  my parents bought me the dvd for christmas and i still haven't watched it at all. just haven't been in the mood.

...... :? .you might like 'birth of a nation'...try that one... :yabbse-thumbup:

The Perineum Falcon

I've watched CK twice, both times for class, in class. Perhaps it's the atmosphere of the classroom that dulls a cinematic experience for me. I can't seem to concentrate on the film, always [trying to] analyzing it, taking notes, etc. This affected Memento, too, which wasn't as good as it had been in my room months before.
It was also shown on an awful projector. One of those normally used for slides or powerpoint presentations. I've thought about renting it again and watching it outside the classroom, but I've never gotten around to it. There are other movies I'm more concerned with seeing.
I appreciate the film, a lot (and I really can't stress that enough), but it never really grabbed me. There are scenes, shots, and/or sequences that I really love (the sequence at the table of Kane's first marriage, particularly). I've always felt a bit strange about my feelings on the film, especially since it's touted as the "greatest movie ever." And because of the title given to it, I've always felt like I should love it, hold it above all others, but I can't and I don't. I suppose that's where a lot of people find their disappointment with it, I mean how can anything live up to the title "the greatest [title] ever"?
It's a fine film, to be sure, but as of right now it's not one that I can hold in the highest regard that it may (or may not) deserve.
We often went to the cinema, the screen would light up and we would tremble, but also, increasingly often, Madeleine and I were disappointed. The images had dated, they jittered, and Marilyn Monroe had gotten terribly old. We were sad, this wasn't the film we had dreamed of, this wasn't the total film that we all carried around inside us, this film that we would have wanted to make, or, more secretly, no doubt, that we would have wanted to live.

Finn

At the cruiseline back in March, Ebert said he was going to make a rogerebert.com website. Now he finally has and it looks really good. Check it out...

www.rogerebert.suntimes.com
Typical US Mother: "Remember what the MPAA says; Horrific, Deplorable violence is okay, as long as people don't say any naughty words."

diggler

yea ranemaka thats a good point.  having to sit in those desks at school through any movie is brutal.  i've since repented on my discontent for citizen kane. it's just one of those movies you have to be in the right mood for.  there is a lot of new things i notice every time i watch it. but i still stand by my opinion that i don't think it is the greatest of all time. i don't think any movie should receive that label.
I'm not racist, I'm just slutty

matt35mm

It's not the greatest of all time (I also just disagree with any Of All Time lists), but I don't feel like I have to be in any particular mood to watch it or that it's boring.  I feel like it's actually very entertaining and gripping throughout.  I just enjoy watching it, and that's part of what makes it so good--it's very entertaining.  And it benefits from having a very good story behind the making of it, because the more you learn about that, the more interesting the movie becomes.

But I think it's a good movie BECAUSE I personally enjoy it.  I think it's dangerous to create lists that make people feel like they HAVE to like the movie.  If you don't enjoy the movie, then what's so good about it for you?  It's not a bad thing to say that you didn't like Citizen Kane; it's a bad thing to say that you DO think it's brilliant when you really don't.  I try not to be swayed by silly lists, but I do actually enjoy this movie a ton.

cine

Ebert, former paper's CEO trade barbs

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert dueled with Conrad Black, the ousted CEO of the paper's parent company, in a series of sharply worded letters published Wednesday in the newspaper's commentary section.

Ebert said he felt betrayed by reports that the Canadian newspaper mogul used Hollinger profits for personal expenses while the Sun-Times building sat in disrepair and union employees threatened to strike over wages and benefits. Black scoffed at what he called Ebert's "ingratitude," citing the critic's $500,000 salary.

The exchange began earlier this month when Ebert, co-host of "Ebert & Roeper and the Movies," wrote in an open letter to publisher John Cruickshank during contract negotiations that he would not cross a picket line if the paper's staffers went on strike. He complained about reports of "millions of dollars winging away to the (former chief operating officer David) Radler and Black billfolds while we worked in a building where even basic maintenance was ignored."

Black was ousted as CEO of Hollinger International Inc. amid an internal investigation that accused him, Radler and others of systematically looting the newspaper publishing company of more than $400 million -- nearly all its profits from 1997 through 2003.

The report, prepared by a special committee of Hollinger's board, said Black had Hollinger pay for things like $8.9 million worth of Franklin Delano Roosevelt memorabilia while Black was writing a book about FDR. The company also financed nearly $25,000 for "summer drinks" and more than $42,000 for a birthday party for Black's wife, Barbara Amiel Black.

Black and Radler have denied doing anything improper. In his letter, which was also sent to the Chicago Tribune, Black reminded Ebert it was the "generous treatment from David Radler" that was responsible for his $500,000 salary and other compensation.

At the end of his letter, Black wrote that "your proletarian posturing on behalf of those threatening to strike the Sun-Times and your base ingratitude are very tiresome."

Ebert took the last shot.

"Since you have made my salary public, let me say that when I learned that Barbara received $300,000 a year from the paper for duties described as reading the paper and discussing it with you, I did not feel overpaid," he wrote.

The internal investigators reported that Amiel Black was paid "more than $1.1 million a year in annual salary and bonus payments" even though "she performed no meaningful work in return."

Ebert also reminded Black that while he and his associates were allegedly pocketing most of Hollinger's profits, the escalators in the Sun-Times building "were actually turned off to save on electricity and maintenance."

The Sun-Times reached a tentative contract deal with union reporters, copy editors and other news staff last week, about two hours after the union's strike deadline.

1976

I think Ebert wants to bang his sister...cuz his essay on "Donnie Darko" kept mentioning incest...and I didn't get that AT ALL watching this movie. Shame on you Roger...you sick f*ck!

ono

Question on the game show "Greed":
What part of Roger Ebert's anatomy goes up when he likes a movie?

NEON MERCURY

Quote from: wantautopia?Question on the game show "Greed":
What part of Roger Ebert's anatomy goes up when he likes a movie?

thats actaully a trick question ..it depends on the movie..

for example if he's watching citizen kane its his thumb....

if he's watching dark city ..its his penis...

Alethia

Quote from: NEON MERCURY
Quote from: wantautopia?Question on the game show "Greed":
What part of Roger Ebert's anatomy goes up when he likes a movie?

thats actaully a trick question ..it depends on the movie..

for example if he's watching citizen kane its his thumb....

if he's watching dark city ..its his penis...

post of the week

Myxo

Small excerpt from his "Million Dollar Baby" review. He's calling it the best film of the year.

I agree. :-D

Quote from: Roger EbertClint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" is a masterpiece, pure and simple, deep and true. It tells the story of an aging fight trainer and a hillbilly girl who thinks she can be a boxer. It is narrated by a former boxer who is the trainer's best friend. But it's not a boxing movie. It is a movie about a boxer. What else it is, all it is, how deep it goes, what emotional power it contains, I cannot suggest in this review, because I will not spoil the experience of following this story into the deepest secrets of life and death. This is the best film of the year.

matt35mm

Ebert's Best and Worst of 2004

His top 10 make sense, but his worst 10 are inconsistent with his reviews.  I guess some of the movies just left an increasingly bad taste in his mouth.  Dogville in there seems a bit extreme, plus I seem to remember a **1/2 review for it.

I haven't seen all of the movies in his top 10, but so far the only 2 movies I agree with him about is Spider-Man 2 (it's in my top three) and Sideways (probably would rank number 4).  I'm very curious about Million Dollar Baby, and I don't think Kill Bill Vol. 2 is nearly as good as all that.  And I think that his bottom 10 is just a silly list.

Eh, anyway, whatever.  I don't have to agree with him on everything.  But I think our opinions were much more similar 5 years ago or so.  I don't know which one of us is changing, but our opinions are becoming more and more different.  I still regard him as one of the must-read reviewers, though.

Pwaybloe

That reminds me...

Badasss! was a great movie.  I forgot to mention that.