Roger Ebert
I first discovered Roger Ebert while I was taking my Junior Composition course last summer. Roger Ebert recently passed away last month of cancer. What I enjoyed about Ebert's movie reviews is that he would judge movies based on content and with reason. If he felt like a movie deserved a good rating, he would explain the reasoning. For example, in his review on Cloud Atlas, anyone who has viewed this movie should know that it can be difficult to decipher. What Ebert did to address this is that he took the film as a riddle. It was a great movie and a great opportunity for its actors and directors. He commented on the director's success on breaking the chains of the narrative continuity. Ebert gave Cloud Atlas a pretty good rating. To get the other end of the movie rating spectrum, I read Ebert's review on The Human Centipede. I have never watched this film, but I find iEbert's response to The Human Centipede hilarious.
"I am required to award stars to movies I review. This time, I refuse to
do it. The star rating system is unsuited to this film. Is the movie
good? Is it bad? Does it matter? It is what it is and occupies a world
where the stars don't shine."
Ebert takes it how it is and doesn't give a rating because the movie is certainly "different".
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/cloud-atlas-2012
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-human-centipede-2010
Leonard Maltin
I've read some of Maltin's movie reviews, they are systematic compared to Ebert's articles. This, of course, is not a bad quality. In Maltin's review on Cloud Atlas, Maltin deciphers Cloud Atlas by separating the movie into phases. Phase 1 is to set the environment, phase 2 is to understand the story, and phase 3 is to see the story conclude. Although I disagree with Maltin in his systematic approach concerning Cloud Atlas (not everything can or needs to be answered), I commend Maltin because he tried. In the end, Maltin comments that Cloud Atlas tries to reveal the audience's optimistic or pessimistic view of mankind and that love conquers all. I'm not so sure that I agree with Maltin's conclusion that Cloud Atlas is a story of where love conquers all, but I suppose it is a good thing to see that there are opinions that contrast with mine. It is never a bad thing to hear two ends of the story.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/critic/leonard-maltin/
http://blogs.indiewire.com/leonardmaltin/cloud-atlas
Adam Sessler
Back when I first discovered TechTV and X-Play on television, Adam Sessler became one of the first video game critics that I actively watched. Whenever Sessler would review a game, he would be relentless and tell the audience the hard truth. Whether he loved the game or was just plain outraged, he would always express what he felt. He was recently fired by G4TV last April for some unexplained reason and now is an executive producer at a new revision3.com. There is never a dull moment with Adam Sessler. He definitely is one of the most influential people in the video game industry.
http://revision3.com/host/adam-sessler
http://kotaku.com/5991439/internet-killed-the-video-star-the-extraordinary-journey-of-adam-sessler
I couldn't agree more with your analysis of the movie critiques of Roger Ebert! He certainly is one of the greatest of all time. I love his witty responses to films like The Human Centipede (perfect example!). I would also agree that I personally don't care for the reviews of Leonard Maltin, as, again, they are very systematic and analytical; whereas Ebert's reviews tend to be much more subjective and offer opinions about what Ebert like/disliked about the film, rather than an extremely detailed plot breakdown.
ReplyDeleteI did not know the movie "Cloud Atlas", but after I read your response about how Leonard Maltin review the film, I love the way of his organization. I do love that he separated the movie into phases, because it is easier for readers to review different categories of the movie without messed up the information. Actually, I did not see many critics review movies or TV shows in this way, but I will try to use this method to work on my own TV show reviews in the future.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I've never heard of Sessler or Maltin, I'm sure you and I are not the only two to have written about Ebert. I did not know he reviewed Human Centipede -- it was a hilarious read. It is a shame that he passed, but there are hundreds of articles written by him that you could spend weeks after weeks reading. In my blog I wrote about... his blog. He kept and constantly updated his blog -- and although a lot of it consists of his usual insightful wit towards film, a lot of it shows a different side to his writing; he writes about anything and everything in his blog and it's actually quite interesting to see what else the man had to say.
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