Re: Life Itself- Documentary On Roger Ebert
 

It opens at the Tivoli in Westport on July 11. I might just have to make the trip there to see it.

Re: Life Itself- Documentary On Roger Ebert
 

Can't embed, but you can watch the very first show of Siskel and Ebert back in 1975:

http://moviecitynews.com/2013/04/tktk/

Re: Life Itself- Documentary On Roger Ebert
 

Cool. Thanks for the heads up.

Re: Life Itself- Documentary On Roger Ebert
 

It's quite remarkable looking back at all the films Siskel and Ebert panned or simply had a ho hum reaction to. Like Cuckoo's Nest in that video. They saw it as a good, but disappointing film. I see it as a film in which I wouldn't put up much of an argument if someone were to call it the greatest American film ever made.

Re: Life Itself- Documentary On Roger Ebert
 

$7.99 in HD on Directv on demand as of today.

Re: Life Itself- Documentary On Roger Ebert
 

$6.99 in HD on Amazon

Re: Life Itself- Documentary On Roger Ebert
 

great, great documentary. I shed some tears. Loved the portrait it painted of the relationship with Gene Siskel. They both seemed like real great guys. Was really touched by some of the words and stories mentioned by Martin Scorsese and Werner Herzog and especially the young director who got the puzzle box passed down to him from a very impressive lineage. I was a little surprised that Richard Roeper wasn't interviewed or even mentioned in the film.

Hope this gets an Oscar nod.

4.5/5

Re: Life Itself- Documentary On Roger Ebert
 

Looks like it got delayed a week and will open on the 18th.

Re: Life Itself- Documentary On Roger Ebert
 

Thanks! Checking it out tomorrow.

Re: Life Itself- Documentary On Roger Ebert
 

I happen to agree with them.:shrug:

Re: Life Itself- Documentary On Roger Ebert
 

i wish you could buy it and not just rent. how long is Amazon rental period anyway?

Re: Life Itself- Documentary On Roger Ebert
 

48 hours

Re: Life Itself- Documentary On Roger Ebert
 

Did they have some sort of a falling out when Ebert was still alive? This is very surprising to me.

Re: Life Itself- Documentary On Roger Ebert
 

Loved it.

Fantastic movie. Sad and moving. I was also surprised that they didn't even interview Richard Roeper considering he had the tough task of replacing Gene after he died.

But, I know they couldn't cover everything otherwise it would be a 4 hour movie. I think they covered the most important parts...his beginnings as a writer, the awkward transition to TV, the rivalry and friendship with Gene Siskel, his marriage to Chaz and the cancer.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Maybe Roeper asked for too much? I doubt it, but it's the only reason I can think of.

Re: Life Itself- Documentary On Roger Ebert
 

Oprah isn't in the movie either, even though Ebert helped start her talk show career, was close friends with her, and even dated her at one point.

I think it was just an issue for time...the movie is more about Roger as a person than Roger as a professional, but obviously they had to include Gene because of the love/hate friendship the two men had.

Re: Life Itself- Documentary On Roger Ebert
 

Roeper isn't missed because he is an idiot with banal taste and almost no insight into film. Probably the only thing negative I could say about the great Roger Ebert is that after auditioning a lot of different critics and filmmakers to fill Siskel's chair, he chose a light weight entertainment reporter to fill the spot permanently. This always struck me as very self serving on Ebert's part. He and Siskel worked well together because they were equals. With Roeper it was so one sided. Ebert picked someone who would rarely disagree with him, and when they did disagree was such a light weight that his dissenting opinion meant nothing.

I also believe there was a squabble over the ownership of the "two thumbs" concept between Ebert, Siskel's estate, and the producers of the show. Roeper probably sided against Ebert in that negotiation.

Can I have his job then :p? Who is Roeper's partner now anyway? Does he have one? I remember it was Ben and Ben for a while, is ATM even on anymore?

Re: Life Itself- Documentary On Roger Ebert
 

Roeper doesn't have a partner, but he does video reviews on his website (and apparently also writes columns for the Sun-Times).

The show briefly came back in 2011, with Ebert and Chaz overseeing. Check out this article from Ignatiy Vishnevetsky (yeah I had to paste that) who was one of the critics, along with Christy Lemire.

http://www.avclub.com/article/i-killed-movies-206668

Re: Life Itself- Documentary On Roger Ebert
 

Thanks for posting.

Re: Life Itself- Documentary On Roger Ebert
 

Finally got around to this today. As much as I loved it, I might've loved it even more if they included the Better Luck Tomorrow clip where Ebert went crazy defending Justin Lin.

I was also pleased to see that the Russ Meyer stuff was handled nicely :thumbsup:

Re: Life Itself- Documentary On Roger Ebert
 

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Re: Life Itself- Documentary On Roger Ebert
 

Gonna try to catch this on the weekend.

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Roeper is a general columnist in the Sun-Times (for decades before the movie review stuff) and co-hosts an afternoon radio talk show that discusses current events and politics.

Movie reviews with Roger were a side gig.

Re: Life Itself- Documentary On Roger Ebert
 

I'd never seen that clip of Roger above...it reminds me of what I loved about him.