He doesn't think all films have to be great works of art; he judges them based on whether they achieved their own goals.
IMO, the best example of this was his review of The Hidden. He gave it three stars, and mentioned everything that I love about this film in the review.
"The Hidden" takes this situation and makes a surprisingly effective film out of it, a sleeper that talks like a thriller and walks like a thriller, but has more brains than the average thriller. It also has a sense of humor, and some subtle acting by MacLachlan, whose assignment is to play a character who always is just a beat out of step.
Jeff Bridges had a similar challenge in "Starman," in which he played an alien who cloned a human body and then tried to find his way around in it. MacLachlan plays his alien with a certain strange reserve, as if he's trying the controls very lightly, afraid of going into a spin.
I have to agree. I may not agree with Ebert on every movie, but his reviews give me a pretty good idea of whether it's something I'll enjoy or not.
I remember when that abyssmal Tony Danza movie She's Out of Control came out, and Gene Siskel sighed and said "Maybe I'll just retire."
Occasionally, very occasionally, Ebert seems to be deliberately dense about NOT getting the point of a movie, but, for the most part, I love the man's work and his dedication towards film preservation.
Also, the fact that he's still writing weekly reviews, after the botched surgery he had, is a testament to the strength of his love of movies. He could have just retired to writing treatises on movies and gotten paid well for it, but he still wants to be out there seeing what's new. I have a ton of respect for the man.
More remake news: Rob Zombie and The Blob. But he wants to take it in a "crazy direction."
The last one had the blob as a US military experiment gone wrong, complete with screaming half-dissolved victims mired up in it whenever it pressed against a glass barrier. What's Rob Zombie going to do that will be shocking after that?
The last one had the blob as a US military experiment gone wrong, complete with screaming half-dissolved victims mired up in it whenever it pressed against a glass barrier. What's Rob Zombie going to do that will be shocking after that?
Enter it in
So You Think You Can Dance.
Oh, I was confusing
The Blob
with
The Thing.
Which is easy, I suppose.
No it's not! One's a blob and one's a thing. DUH.
Haven't watched Lost Boys in all too long. Checked it out from the library and am having a lovely rewatch. Makes me miss California and Santa Cruz though.
