When Richard Roeper of “Ebert & Roeper” gave a thumbs-down to “The Lord of the Rings,” I should have known that it was time to call it quits watching that show.
But after last night, I’m definitely packing it in. Gene Siskel, rest in peace. We miss you.
The funny thing is, I can’t point to anything specific. I just sat there listening to Roeper’s banal dronings, and I felt my soul die a little. The show is now evidence that traditional movie criticism should just throw itself off a cliff and let the rest of us alone. Watch the previews, read Premiere or Entertainment Weekly if you must, but otherwise, decide for yourself whether you want to see a movie.
Or even better, swing by Ain’t It Cool News and see what real movie fans, not whiny self-important critics, think of the upcoming releases.
There. I feel better. Go in peace.
I haven’t been able stand either one of those guys ever, and Roeper’s self-important ramblings are just nails on a chalkboard.
Aw, I like Roeper. He’s written some terrific books on urban legends and isn’t a bad newspaper critic — maybe the problem is that television is in some ways growing irrelevant now that we have the internet.
The thing was Ebert and Siskel nearly perfectly balanced each other. Siskel was more the intellectual type who despised popular movies, and Ebert wasn’t afraid of saying a popular movie could be good for what it was, and both of them knew enough about film and the history of cinema to give depth to what they were talking about. Roeper is as bad as Lisa Schwarzbaum in Premiere — just someone who happened to get the job of film critic nattering along.