Alex Bensky
2010-08-22 11:26:34
I have to go with people like Ken Spiker and the others above–Ebert can be quite useful if you look at him as a reviewer, not as a critic. That’s why I read him. If I want to know about film history and theory there are plenty of places to find that.
What I want out of a movie reviewer is basically to know what’s the movie about, who’s in it, and do I want to go see it? (And if I want to see it, do I want to see it now or wait and see if it shows up at the local buck-fifty second run house.) That sort of information Ebert conveys well enough, with the caveat, as mentioned above, that if there is a political slant to the movie you have to discount what he says.
