Two thumbs down...

[Moliere]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/04/showbi...html?hpt=hp_t1

I liked his reviews. I didn't always agree with them but he was typically very honest.

[Northwestcoug]

I never understood the appeal of his reviews. I know he was lauded as a good writer, but I wasn't particularly impressed. And it seemed liked if he enjoyed a movie, I didn't.
RIP, by the way.

[Northwestcoug]

IIRC, he had both thyroid and salivary gland carcinoma. I wonder which one he died from.
Interesting that Gene Siskel had brain cancer.

[woot]

I was very sad at this news. He was a great author. In addition to being the first review for which I looked when evaluating a new movie, I read his autobiography a while back and loved it.

Check out this excerpt about his relationship with his wife. I copied sections of this and sent it to my fiancee as I was reading it the first time, and it was just as good the second time through.

[Jarid in Cedar]

I posted this on the other Site that shall not be named, but I thought some here would appreciate it as well

. Gotta love The Onion

http://www.theonion.com/articles/rog...triumph,31945/

CHICAGO—Calling the overall human experience “poignant,” “thought-provoking,” and a “complete tour de force,” film critic Roger Ebert praised existence Thursday as “an audacious and thrilling triumph.” “While not without its flaws, life, from birth to death, is a masterwork, and an uplifting journey that both touches the heart and challenges the mind,” said Ebert, adding that while the totality of all humankind is sometimes “a mess in places,” it strives to be a magnum opus and, according to Ebert, largely succeeds at this goal. “At times brutally sad, yet surprisingly funny, and always completely honest, I wholeheartedly recommend existence. If you haven’t experienced it yet, then what are you waiting for? It is not to be missed.” Ebert later said that while human existence’s running time was “a little on the long side,” it could have gone on much, much longer and he would have been perfectly happy

[Katy Lied]

Check out this excerpt about his relationship with his wife.

This was very touching. And his description of Vienna at Christmas was so accurate, the memories came rushing back.

[Green Lantern]

A truly great writer and someone whom it was always fascinating to hear from. I've been reading and watching Ebert's reviews for as long as I can remember. I loved the Onion piece quoted above as well. Some of my favorite Ebert quotes:

"It's not what a movie is about. It's HOW it's about it."

"No great movie is too long and no terrible movie is short enough." And along the same lines, "No good movie is truly depressing but every terrible movie is."

[Walter Sobchak]

Necro'd!

I watched the doc "Life Itself" on Netflix last night. It is both fascinating and tragic. I have not read the memoir.

In the film, this quote is shared. You might empathize with the sentiment. I did.

Today, [people] rent videos, usually not very good ones, and even if they watch a great movie, they do it alone or with a few friends. There is no sense of audience, and yet the single most important factor in learning to be literate about movies is to be part of an audience that is sophisticated about them.

[...]

Anyone my age can remember walking into a movie palace where the ceiling was far overhead, and balconies and mezzanines reached away into the shadows. We remember the sound of 2,000 people laughing all at once. And the screens the size of billboards, so high off the floor that every seat in the house was a good seat. Today you walk into a shoebox and peer around the head of the person in front of you, and in the quiet moments you can hear the sound effects from the movie next door, right through the wall. 'I lost it at the movies,' Pauline Kael said, and we all knew just what she meant. Now we can't even give it away."