Plug To Be Pulled On 'Ebert Presents...' Without Financial Help

With movies being driven by elaborate marketing schemes and strings being pulled by dark shaded Hollywood agents, it was always nice to see intelligent reviewers standing by their opinions regardless of what the mainstream wanted them to say.  Ebert Presents: At the Movies had a simple thumbs up, thumbs down rating system that allowed a certain simplicity, but also allowed the reviewers; Christy Lemire and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, to elaborate on why they thought the way they did.

Click to read more ...

A Wave of Defending Expectations While Watching 'Mindless Films'

We've all heard the comments, the stories and the arguments that arise between moviegoers and critics: What makes a good film?

Empire Online's Helen O'Hara recently published an interesting article: 'It's Just A Bit Of Fun: Why Defensive Fans Are Bad News For Movies, trying to go about this particular question while trying to not to seem holier-than-thou. Their movies reviews, as they are for any movie entertainment website (even us here at Get The Big Picture), have been getting very negative responses from readers and in particular being accused of over-thinking their movies and being stupid or unable to enjoy films for what they are.

Click to read more ...

Au Revoir, 'At the Movies'

After a quarter-century on the air, one which holistically altered the way we look at and talk about film, At the Movies is closing the balcony. The show dates back much further, of course, about 35 years with Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel hosting Sneak Previews, but after two rounds of hosts in only about two years, Buena Vista Television has said enough's enough.

Ebert wrote extensively about the past and, yes, even the future of At the Movies on his blog:

"At the Movies was one of the last survivors of half-hour syndication. It didn't fail so much as have its format shot out from beneath it. Don't blame Disney. Don't blame Tony Scott and Michael Phillips, the final co-hosts, critics I admire who still have five months left on the air. Don't blame Ben Mankiewicz. Don't blame my pal Richard Roeper, who didn't fancy following the show in a "new direction." Don't blame the cancer that forced me off the show. Don't even blame Ben Lyons. He was the victim of a mistaken hiring decision.

Click to read more ...

Kevin Smith Whines Over 'Cop Out' Criticism

A disturbing stream of Tweets hit the web recently, as Kevin Smith took on movie critics for hating Cop Out, although I think you'll be surprised to read his reasoning. The film took its share of hits, both here and nearly everywhere else, but not because it was Kevin Smith. Cop Out was trashed because it's a bad film. And there are tons of them, so why is he so special?

Smith exhibits some pretty thin skin here, as if he'd either created a masterpiece or that critics aren't particularly engaged when a studio movie with a name director and an A-list star croak out a film that could absolutely be better. The trouble is, Smith not only acknowledges his movie was bad, he doesn't seem to care about that. And it's strange behavior for a filmmaker whom critics have gone out of their way to praise over the years. Here's the rundown. These are all Tweets that we've compiled to arrange them in some sensible order:

Click to read more ...

'The Hurt Locker' Takes Top Critics Choice Awards

You can get awards coverage just about anywhere, but if you get it here occasionally, the results of tonight's Critics Choice Awards won't be a bolt out of the blue to you. We've said for weeks that there are two distinct camps as we head towards the Oscars: Critics love The Hurt Locker, giving it more regional awards than any other film, and if Avatar is to win Best Picture, it will have to do so on the strength of industry love. And, not to be a killjoy, but it's looking more and more like these are the only two movies that can win Best Picture this year.

So, the Critics Choice Awards came and went, and the big winner was...The Hurt Locker. It picked up Best Picture and Best Director for Kathryn Bigelow, so even though Avatar swept the technical awards (not sure about cinematography, but whatever), it has emerged, at least in the minds of critics around the country, as a marvel, but maybe not the year's best movie. This could be a sign of things to come for this weekend's Golden Globes, but I'm not sure. They're always a tricky crowd. Expect our predictions for that glitzfest on Saturday. Beyond Hurt Locker and Avatar, the only major news is a tie in the Best Actress category. I rolled my eyes at it and you might do likewise. Seriously, how can you miss twice and still manage to overlook the two best performances in the field?

Click to read more ...