One of the reasons I really like Roger Ebert is the guy just loves movies in such a way that if he enjoys himself, he doesn’t really care if the movie doesn’t necessarily make sense or is cliched, or so on.
This makes him unpredictable as a reviewer, which is interesting.
I was inspired to write this after looking at his review of the new film “Knowing”
Knowing (Four stars from Ebert)
First he says….
“”Knowing” is among the best science-fiction films I’ve seen — frightening, suspenseful, intelligent and, when it needs to be, rather awesome. In its very different way, it is comparable to the great “Dark City,” by the same director, Alex Proyas.”
Sounds great right? But then he says…
“By “scientifically sound,” I don’t mean anyone at MIT is going to find the plot other than preposterous. So it is — but not while the movie is playing. It works as science fiction, which often changes one coordinate in an otherwise logical world just to see what might happen.”
So basically he kind of excuses the movie for being ridiculous. That’s pretty unusual in today’s film criticism, which often gleefully mocks movies for not making logical sense or having plot holes (not that that’s necessarily a bad thing).
Roger also liked…
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (3 Stars)
He called it, “the best in the series”
And said, “Now why did I like this movie? It was just plain dumb fun, is why. It is absurd and preposterous, and proud of it. The heroes maintain their ability to think of banal cliches even in the most strenuous situations.”
Again, Roger pretty much excuses the movie for being kind of bad. And again, that’s unusual.
The Happening (3 Stars)
I’m a hard-core Shymalan fan (I even liked The Village), but even I couldn’t defend The Happening. Roger kind of liked it though.
He said it was, “a movie that I find oddly touching. It is no doubt too thoughtful for the summer action season, but I appreciate the quietly realistic way Shyamalan finds to tell a story about the possible death of man.”
Think About This
Sometimes it seems as though certain movies will just get negative reviews, almost as though critics are required to bash them. But Ebert has shown that he doesn’t really give a damn, he is open to liking a movie, even if he himself admits it is deeply flawed. And while we can argue about whether or not that’s legitimate, it is at the very least interesting and different.
That’s why I love Roger Ebert.
All quotes taken from http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/
-Dan Benamor