There's a thread floating around TVTalk that calls "At the Movies..." a red-headed step child; and that's absolutely right. Hell, here, it'll be bumped from it's regular time slot by a freaking infomercial and aired at some ungodly hour like 3 or 4 in the morning!

Anyway, my point is aside from us few movie lovers, nobody seems to care about this show. I'm guessing it'll be around as long as it can be produced on the cheap, i.e. two permanent (semi-no name) hosts, and film clips. I think they'd just as soon can the show before putting any more money towards revamping it.

I like the two critics who are on the show now...Roeper and Phillips fill the gap just fine for me. What the show needs is a more constant time slot. It's treated like crap in most markets it is aired in, if the markets that carry it doesn't pre-empt the show for an infomercial or something else stupid.

I am not sure of the solution...put the show on cable TV and you limit the audience. Put the show in prime time and I am not so sure that would work either. I guess I just wish they would be able to have some leverage with their syndication contract and make it so this is aired after the local evening news on Friday afternoons in markets it is carried in. That would give the show a certain higher profile right there.

I really like him, because he seems to have much more personality than most critics. He sometimes even talks about more than just the movie.

I think Roeper and Philips are great together, and although I haven't completely forgotten Ebert, considering his "issues", I've kinda moved on. I hope that he is able to get back to some semblance of good health and I'd love to have him back, but I think the Siskel and Ebert era is over.

I just wish they'd change the name of the show already. Ebert's never coming back.

I think Ebert owns the rights to the show where they cant change it without his consent or something.

I guess there's a small chance that he'll return.

I hate the "See it" or "Rent it" or "Skip it" value judgments on the films.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/...URED/150028057

Statement from Roger Ebert

// /

After 33 years on the air, 23 of them with Disney, the studio has decided to take the program named "Siskel & Ebert" and then "Ebert & Roeper" in a new direction. I will no longer be associated with it.

The show was a wonderful experience. It was a great loss to me when surgery in July 2006 made it impossible for me to appear on the air any longer. Although I remained active behind the scenes, I feel that Richard Roeper and several co-hosts, notably Michael Phillips and A.O. Scott, have excelled at carrying on the tradition Gene Siskel and I began in 1975 with "Sneak Previews" on PBS.

Gene and I felt the formula was simplicity itself: Two film critics, sitting across the aisle from each other in a movie balcony, debating the new films of the week. We developed an entirely new concept for TV. Few shows have been on the air so long and remained so popular. We made television history, and established the trademarked catch-phrase "Two thumbs up."

The trademark still belongs to me and Marlene Iglitzen, Gene's widow, and the thumbs will return. We are discussing possibilities, and plan to continue the show's tradition.

-- Roger Ebert

I was just looking through his Answer Man section of his site and found this one from back in September:

Q. Yo dude, u missed out on "Disaster Movie," a hardcore laugh-ur-@zz-off movie! Y U not review this movie!? It was funny as #ell! Prolly the funniest movie of the summer! U never review these, wat up wit dat?

S.J. Stanczak, Chicago


A. Hey, bro, I wuz buzier than $#i+, @d they never shoed it b4 hand. I peeped in the IMDb and saw it zoomed to #1 as the low$ie$t flic of all time, wit @ lame-@zz UZer Rating of 1.3. U liked it? Wat up wit dat?

^^^ LOL. Roger is hilarious.

I'm REALLY enjoying his blog, it's one of my favorite reads. The one where he talked about his cancer was just amazing: http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008...e_jugular.html

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/

I enjoy his reviews and his up-front, no BS writing style.... While I do admire his battles over his health and continued work, I don't care for his personal views on politics, religion, etc.. I find them incredibly small-minded and the fact that he can't help but interject them into reviews when they seem to have no place is a big drawback. Like a lot of folks in the entertainment industry I admire the work but it doesn't extend much further, if at all.

^^^ That's not a surprise, considering you quote Krauthammer in you sig.

I do not have Krauthammer in my sig, nor do I agree with the sentiment expressed in the quote in Artman's sig, but that doesn't mean that Artman is wrong. Ebert does get fairly political in his reviews from time to time and that is probably a legitimate knock on his work. Fortunately, he doesn't try and be sneaky about it so the offending sentences are easily identified and dismissed.

why should it.

I don't need to know what his political ideals are, I just want to read his opinions on movies.

Of course, and in Ebert's defense, the topic is often unavoidable. Many modern films can be pretty overtly political and it could be considered a mistake for a reviewer to sidestep the issue(s) altogether.

Did I imply what he was saying was wrong? I was just noting the obviousness of his point of view.

You implied that his point of view was based on a personal bias. That could have been (and was, in my case) interpreted as dismissive disagreement. I'm sorry I was wrong.

rotfl

I advise you to never read Steve Emerson -- the man could shoehorn a Bush jab into a review of a Cheech and Chong movie.

Why? Isn't it better for a reviewer to let his/her audience know their biases rather than have the reader guess about them? It makes Ebert's reviews better, not worse, in my opinion.

He listed his top 20 of 2008. Technically, it's his top 26.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/...812059997/1023


In Alphabetical Order:
Ballast
The Band's Visit
Che
Chop Shop
The Dark Knight
Doubt
The Fall
Frost/Nixon
Frozen River
Happy-Go-Lucky
Iron Man
Milk
Rachel Getting Married
The Reader
Revolutionary Road
Shotgun Stories
Slumdog Millionaire
Synecdoche, NY
W.
Wall-E

Special Mention: My Winnipeg

Documentaries:
Encounters at the End of the World
IOUSA
Man on Wire
Standard Operating Procedure
Trouble The Water

Thats a pretty good top 20 list but surprised Benjamin Button didnt make the list.