Hi,
It's weird ... but us Film Reviewers, do not usually say bad things about each other, but we don't say good things either. There are times we agree and times we don't ... that simple ... but there are some really nice and wonderful words by many of them ... that are neat.
Ebert was the one that made Martin famous ... even though I still think that Martin is the most over rated director out there, and he is too rich and college professor minded/oriented, to be a good director in my book. What Ebert didn't state is that Martin was almost the cinematographer in all his films, and that made his films a bit different and sometimes interesting and other times ... gawdddd I'm tired of this! ... story or not.
But I like his thumb up and down thing, to add a bit of fun. It was annoying 30 years ago, that you only read Kael or Cocks (Time) for these reviews and they dominated the landscape, and those two had a tendency to dismiss popular fare and stuff, and be really stuck up on many things ... which Siskel and Ebert would consequently trash silly. It made for a good alternative at the time ... specially in the Midwest (Chicago), where the arts tend to be just top ten, and nothing else.
The only problem was ... that they became too much of a syndicate show, and they had to do well known and top ten stuff ... because those studios wanted to quote you ... on their poster. And then, things change a bit ... you no longer see the honest man, but you really get to see someone that loves the movies dearly ... and he has a tendency to fall for the slapshtick and fun stuff that most "serious" folks don't.
All in all, 15 years ago, when I was a member of the club from the Southern California folks, it was an interesting group, and we actually did not "compete" with anyone. And this was an issue for me ... I never did top ten ... because there were too many reviews out there already ... why would you want to know what I said about Jurassic Park, and what for? ... who cares? ... so I would not do those films, though I saw them and such.
For me, I always thought the reviewer as the person that helps you find ... everything you did not see, or didn't know was there ... on anything ... and for me, a film, or music, review, is STRICTLY, a personal experience, and that is what you're going to get from me ... it is not some idea or wording that came from somewhere else ... over the years I have gotten a lot of promotional materials for a lot of things, specially music, and in one case I just said ... sorry ... I have no interest in this, when it came to review music from the Wayside group of folks, which to me were all almost like a Frank Zappa wannabe ZPZ society of musicians, all of them a member of the lounge lizard clubs! In other words, all of them with ability, but the music ... sounds the same! The song remains the same! Boring! (the worst title or song name ever btw!).
So, yeah Roger ... RIP ... we will miss you ... and it was good ... unfortunately today's media glut has made your work and mine almost worthless and no one cares or is interested in it as much as they used to be.
But maybe the movie experience will come back when folks finally get tired of being taken for idiots on blockbusters that are not worth it at all and are poor excuses to what film and the history of the art form has been all about.
And this is the part that is hard to explain to people ... if you never seen that little film from SomewhereElse, how the heck can you get any perspective on what a good film is? ... same with music!
post edited by Moshkiae - 2013/04/06 18:50:07