Ebert on the death of film criticism in favor of celebrity gossip.

[Bomby]

As many of you might vaguely remember, I quite like Roger Ebert. He is a serious contender with David Bordwell when it comes to my favorite writer about film (to be fair, Ebert is a better critic and Bordwell is better at analysis). Once again, he has proved to me that he deserves my respect with this little blog entry he wrote:

Death to film critics! Hail to the CelebCult! - Roger Ebert's Journal

What he doesn't go into is how all this celebrity gossip can alter people's preconceived notion about a film itself. For example, I know boatloads of people who are refusing to see Valkyrie because of Tom Cruise's involvement. It's not even that they think that Cruise is necessarily a bad actor, but because he is a crazy, couch-jumping Scientologist freak. God forbid someone in the public eye has his quirks about him!

[Apiary Tazy]

Someone can't go bats**t bonkers without losing credibility?

lame.

[Bomby]

That was quite possibly the most pathetic attempt at a facetious reply I have ever witnessed.

Tom Cruise could stab babies and Magnolia would still be a masterpiece.

[CaptHayfever]

Right, but it's already been made. If Cruise kept making films after stabbing babies, people would wonder why he wasn't in jail.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[Apiary Tazy]

VGF Forums: You usually get the most pathetic attempt at a facetious reply ever seen

He is right about stalking celebraties.

Obviously, if you have 1000 pictures of every star in the last 20 years and all of them seem to be taken at the same beach, it's pretty obvious there some sort of stalking going on.


Either that, or a large waste of film.

[Booyakasha]

The main reason I'm not going to see 'Valkyrie' is that it's rumoured to be terrible. I don't mind seeing dumb movies, but WWII stories tend not to be the fun kind of dumb.

[Bomby]

Yeah, I also haven't heard much good about Valkyrie, but I was just bringing that up as a recent example.

[Calamity Panfan]

Ebert is amazing. I love him. I wish it was possible for him to carry my babies.

[Sean P Kelly]

Something that I wrote many times about in my blog, and I still firmly believe in, is that people should decide for themselves whether or not to see a film and decide whether or not they like it instead of letting some outside source (be it critics or gossip) prevent them from doing so.

[Bomby]

What does that have to do with anything?

[Sean P Kelly]

It just really comes down to the fact that I hate both celebrity gossip and reviews by people, who believe that their opinion is the only opinion.

In fact I try really hard not the force my opinion in the reviews I write on my blog.

[Bomby]

Ah, that makes sense. I will say I know very few people who are that completely swayed by reviews, as a lot of people just get angry when someone writes a bad review of a movie they liked. I personally love to read film criticism as a way of finding out what movies I'd like to see. Like anyone, I agree with some reviews and disagree. One of the reasons I like Ebert so much is that no matter how much I disagree with him, I always find his reasoning behind his opinion well explained and respectable.*

* = Except for his review of David Lynch's Blue Velvet.

[Sean P Kelly]

The difference of opinions is actually what made Siskel and Ebert/Ebert and Roeper so great.

Hopefully, at least one of them would have had the same opinion you do.