In case you didn’t hear, the seminal movie review program “At the Movies” was canceled last Wednesday, marking an end to nearly 25 years of two pretentious, middle-aged white guys arguing over subjective matters of taste. Good riddance.
Now, before you go on reading this article, I highly suggest that you read Ebert’s latest blog post, in which he discusses the cancellation of his landmark TV series and its implications on the film and film criticism communities. I have no intention of demeaning Roger Ebert as a man, nor do i have any intention of offending any readers for the sake of shock value. I wish for nothing but the best for Roger Ebert as he fights an indefatiguable foe. I do, however, have every intention of tearing apart the out-dated and absolutely pompous viewpoints he shares with readers of his blog. I intend to scrutinize his thoughts on criticism and his narrow and offensive opinions of what it means to be a “real movie lover” the same way he has scrutinized the creative efforts of thousands of writers, directors and actors. And if you haven’t read his blog post, well…you might be likely to misconstrue some of my statements.
Ever the optimist, Ebert openly discusses his belief that “a market still exists for a weekly show where a couple of critics review new movies.” Ebert goes on to describe his plans for a new series, a series which sounds identical to his canceled series except for the fact that Ebert will now “go full-tilt New Media: Television, net streaming, cell phone apps, Facebook, Twitter, iPad, the whole enchilada.”
