Groucho

Two words: underaged nudity

DealMan

Didn't Ebert recently change his Brown Bunny review from "worst movie ever" to "really good film" or something similar?

scott shelton

He ended up seeing two cuts of the film.

Breakfast with Girls

I would trust someone who occasionally changed their mind much more than someone who never did. There have been albums I've hated after one play but gradually grew to love -- why should it be different for movies?

Cygnet74

it is an error to presume that our sensitivity to the art of cinematic aesthetics remains more or less constant. accumulated insight changes our perceptivity, sometimes drastically.

PopcornTreeCt

I have to agree with you. I knew Hulk, Attack of the Clones, and Matrix Reloaded were crap films before they were even over. Sometimes, a discussion of a movie will make me appreciate it more but never make me dislike it. You can tell me a million and one reasons why Gladiator sucks and I'll still love the movie.

Holysmoker

Ditto.

Terrell

Cygnet, that's a lot of hooey in my opinion. If I loved a film upon my first viewing, my love for that film isn't going to wane. It might alter slightly, at best. But these folks who go from liking a movie to not liking it are full of it my opinion, regardless of any insight into the film. Sorry, I don't buy it. When someone's opinion does a complete 180, then I completely disregard that person's opinion from that point forth. Like Harry Knowles for example.

majorjoe23

I loved Batman Forever when I was 16, I watched it this week and thought it was horrible. I don't think I'm full of it, I think my tastes have changed.

WallyOPD

There's several movies that I liked on first viewing and couldn't stand to watch now. What about that don't you buy? Do you think I'm mistaken in changing my opinion? Do you think I secretly disliked the movie when I first saw it but convinced myself that I enjoyed it? Do you think I secretly like the movie still but have convinced myself that I don't anymore? I guess I'm confused about this.

Bugg

Here lies half of the problem with the majority of your posts. Rather than accept that someone else may sincerely feel differently about something than you do, you simply slap your hands over your ears and start repeating to yourself that the person must be full of hooey. I'm sure that with this continued determination of wilful ignorance, Your opinions will probably never change on much of anything.

wendersfan

None of this is surprising to me, given your love for the Star Wars movies. Tastes change and perceptions evolve. Most of us grow as humans, learn and experience new things, and those new experiences shape and modify our opinions. You might try it.

Groucho

I once thought the same way. When I was 10. But somehow, gasp, my opinion has changed over time.

wendersfan

Bedknobs and Broomsticks is the bestest movie ever!

Cygnet74

in that case, speaking as one of "these folks" who has done a few 180s in his lifetime, pleeeaaase.... "completely disregard" my posted opinions from now on.

actually, you lost me at "hooey". so i'll offer a short list of movies that i liked in my early twenties, but do not like almost a decade later.

The Usual Suspects
THEN: I thought the ending was devilishly clever
NOW: I think it is the equivilant of saying "it was all a dream"

The Sweet Hereafter
THEN: a powerful drama
NOW: full of unearned emotion

and one film that i disliked in my early twenties, but came to truly see and understand years later.

Three Colors: Red
THEN: I was confused, is this the young judge in a flashback? no wait, they're different people. At least Irene Jacob is hot.
NOW: Ah-ha! Kieslowksi is using different characters to show the same man at two points in his life. And now i can see what i hadnt before. a film about community, synchronicity, second chances. a gift to the world.

sundog

Hell, my opinion of a movie has changed on the walk from the theater to my car. Example: I absolutely enjoyed watching Amelie but by the time I sat in my car and drove off my thought was "My teeth are rotted out from consuming that pointless, vacuous, cotton candy of a movie".

Sex Fiend

I cannot believe it's reasonable to critique the validity of whether another person (critic or not) can change his/her opinion about something. It is, after all, an opinion - not a matter of fact. Critical opinions are as much based on emotion or mood as they are on the actual subject of evaluation. Emotions and moods change all the time, gradually or quite suddenly - that's an essential element of being human. Hence, it's reasonable to assume that an individual's critical opinion about a work of art (or anything else for that matter) is as equally subject to change if an underlying emotional state that's closely associated with the original evaluation also changes for some reason.

In other words, it is quite ridiculous to argue that one is being somehow intellectually dishonest when he/she changes his/her opinion about something. Accepting this doesn't mean that the critic in question's amended opinion is any more right or wrong than his/her original one, only that his/her change of heart or mind is perfectly legitimate.

RogueScribner

When I first saw Attack of the Clones, it was opening night in a sold out theater with a bunch of Star Wars fans. The vibe in the theater was CRAZY! Everyone ate the film up. The last act with the big battle and the saber fights was mindblowing the first time I saw it. I had such a high walking out of that movie and I spent nearly two hours in the parking lot talking about it with a friend.

That was my most positive experience with the movie. If I reviewed the movie that night, it would have gotten a very high rating indeed. However, I would not give it a very high rating now. Subsequent viewings, especially away from the throngs of Star Wars fanatics whose collective enthusiasm electrified the air on opening night, have allowed me to watch the film with a more sober mind. It's not a horrible movie, but it's not as good as I initially thought. It has some real problems that didn't seem such a big deal at the time, but became more prominent on repeat viewings. Opening night I'd probably give it **** 1/2 out of 5 stars. Now? Probably ** 1/2 out of 5 stars. A full two star drop.

Am I wrong for changing my opinion on the movie? Should I have made it a point to not watch the movie with such a critical eye on subsequent viewings since I enjoyed it so much the first time? I don't think so. Some movies I can watch once and then have the same opinion of it when I see it again (like Batman Begins, a damn good movie both times I've seen it, or Batman and Robin, a damn crappy movie both times I've seen it). Some movies I can watch once and then have a lesser opinion of it when I see it again (like AOTC, or Total Recall, a movie I really loved when I was 15 but is pretty hard to see as anything more than a cartoon nowadays). And some movies I can see once and actually like it more on subsequent viewings (such as The Fellowship of the Ring, which I dug the more I watched it, and Moulin Rouge, which I thought was merely okay when I first saw it but, as I delved into the hyperkinetic energy and the unabashed "power of love" theme more on subsequent viewings, it really grew on me).

Opinions can change. I don't see how anyone can be faulted for it. I'd be suspicious of anyone who NEVER changed their mind than someone who did on occasion.

AudioWizard

For myself I've always just thought that American Beauty was a better than average movie. BUT whenever I stop and think about my life and how I work all day and do shit I don't really like and just plain waste the minutes I have on this Earth I think about it. And for that, maybe that makes it great?

Fincher Fan

But you still think Irene Jacob is hot, right?

Tyler_Durden

Ebert's original four-star review of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome is available on his web site:

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/...507100301/1023

Did he eventually re-review the film or just change the star rating to three stars?


Also, in Ebert's defense, I offer his review of Godard's In Praise of Love:

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/...210180306/1023

ShagMan

I loved this movie, don't understand all the hate for it.

atlantamoi

I actually was quite impressed when I saw Entertainment Weekly rethink an album they reviewed earlier... here's a quip from 1993:

"In November 1991, Reprise Records released Enya's SHEPHERD MOONS, the follow-up to the Irish singer's 1988 album, Watermark. Within the confines of the ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY music department, we did what most critic types did at the time: we gave a quick listen to its pristine, immaculately produced surfaces and then made sarcastic jokes about Celtic New Age stars who resemble Demi Moore. When we begrudgingly realized a review was called for, we relegated Shepherd Moons to a quick paragraph and a B grade and thought that was the end of it.

.....fans don't kid themselves: her music may be escapist, but sorrow, loss, and displacement are lurking around the corner - often just like in life itself. On second thought, Shepherd Moons is an A-."

http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache...rade+and&hl=en

Numanoid

A change from a B to an A- seems more like sarcasm than anything else.

atlantamoi

It's not a drastic change, but I'm fairly certain they weren't joking around with the new rating.