Roger Ebert is certainly the most well-known film critic in the United States, although I sincerely doubt it is because of his impeccable taste in identifying good and bad movies. Case in point: he gave this year's end-of-the-world travesty, Knowing, a full four stars (did he actually stay through the last 30 minutes?). Likewise to 2005's Flightplan, which he says "delivers a frightening thriller with an airtight plot" (I agree with everything there except "airtight").That said, the man sure can write an entertaining article, as humorously evidenced by his recent skewering of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which you can read in its entirety here. Needless to say, he hated the movie (an opinion he shares with most of the nation's critics). But at least he hates it with flair. My favorite line from his review: "If you want to save yourself the ticket price, go into the kitchen, cue up a male choir singing the music of hell, and get a kid to start banging pots and pans together. Then close your eyes and use your imagination."
The irony here is that I'll still go see the movie, along with the rest of the male population of the world. I'm just too much of a boy at heart to resist the sight of ginormous talking machines crashing and exploding before my very eyes. Director Michael Bay has never been known for subtlety (or anything, really, except for explosions), but when he blows things up, the dude BLOWS THINGS UP! And even though no reputable critic will admit to liking this movie, we'll all still plunk down our money to see it. So if no one actually heeds the advice of movie critics, why do movie critics even exist?
If Roger Ebert is any indication, I think it's because sometimes we just like a good read. And like a good explosion, who doesn't love a good read?
3 comments:
He does write a good review, even if he sometimes gives away a little too much of the movie. I told you about that time I wrote him an email, didn't I? He wrote me back. We're best little friends now.
i saw this movie and it is truly awful, we almost walked out but we were too lazy...and my husband has all 4 seasons of transformers on dvd and he still wanted to walk out. awful. hideous.
Too bad, I was excited to see it (after you purchase the DVD, in the comfort of my home, of course).
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