Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by TA (A) on November 26, 2002 at 00:28:45

In Reply to: In case you're wondering, Ebert's top ten greatest movies of all time...: posted by Harmonia on November 25, 2002 at 17:29:47:

Harmonia, A big thanks for the link to the BFI site.

In his Q&A column, Ebert said that his Sight & Sound list diverges slightly from his true list. The point of the poll was to make a master list of top films off the individual lists. In some cases, Ebert substituted what he knew would be more obvious choices among the other critics rather than 'throw away' the vote. In his books he's usually got a documentary and a couple offbeat picks in his top 10 lists. (I think those alternate choices would make Victor cringe even more - they're bound to be in his third tier!)

I wonder if his choices for the Great Movies feature has changed over time based on the feedback he gets from people. I mean, when he reviews The Apu Trilogy, who the hell is going to say that they checked it out after reading his column? As opposed to writing up Goodfellas. (I once wrote reviews for my school paper highlighting upcoming films at the film society. If I recommended an obscure film, it made no difference. But if I picked something overlooked that was in English and in color, a people would comment that they tried it out based on my suggestion.) Plus Ebert writes for the Sun Times, not the Chicago Tribune. It's a different audience (like the New York Post versus the New York Times).

Having read or seen Ebert for so long, I feel like I understand what he looks for in movies. He's one of the few reviewers whose reviews are archived online, and he seems to write on everthing that comes out. In other words, agree or disagree with his opinion, I have a good sense of whether I'll like a new movie after reading his review - much more than asking a colleague at work whether a movie is good. To me, the value of reading his reviews is that consistency and knowing where the opinion is coming from.

Roeper escapes me. Like Siskel, he'll dismiss films for no principled reason. I remember him talking about The Mexican on their show. Roeper basically said: Since this movie stars Brad and Julia, I expected to see a lot of Brad and Julia onscreen together. The movie puts them in very few scenes together, so it wasn't the movie I expected to see. So I didn't like it. Siskel sometimes reviewed movies like that too.