I liked Roger Ebert. He wrote some great reviews, and his show with Gene Siskel was fun too. The ‘two thumbs’ rating system was a big cultural thing back in the late 80’s to mid 90’s.
I disagreed with some of his reviews, but even then he was, as usual, insightful and entertaining to read.
I believe the film they are talking about is Better Luck Tomorrow which I haven’t seen in years, but IIRC I liked it a lot and found the rejection of typical Asian-American film stereotypes a pretty important point of the film. To call it empty is to completely miss that.
I go to the Sundance Film Festival every year and there is always this person there. Someone who wants everyone to know how self-important they are and you can literally hear the crowd collectively roll their eyes as the filmmakers politely answer their question.
As a young adult, just discovering movies, when Siskel and Ebert were at their heyday, Roger Ebert was just so important to me.
He has such a way with words, but there are lines from his reviews that I still remember and think of all the time:
(For mighty Morphin Power Rangers): “ Mighty Morphin. Mighty stupid”.
And “Jackass: the Movie —for jackass: the audience”
If you’ve never read his review of “North”, it’s one of his funniest bad reviews ever. It’s the one movie that broke him. A sample:
>I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie. Hated it. Hated every simpering stupid vacant audience-insulting moment of it. Hated the sensibility that thought anyone would like it. Hated the implied insult to the audience by its belief that anyone would be entertained by it.
Loved Roger’s writing and the way he talked about films. Around 2010 I was working on a remote island; we had spotty internet but quite a few old VHS tapes. Every night I’d pop in an old movie then sit out on my porch and read Ebert’s review, it was almost like discussing the movie afterwards.
A little while later, within month of his death, he was very active on social media and actually replied to one of my comments about something Stephen Colbert had done the night before I think. Really cool moment for me as a big fan of his
His criteria, “It’s not what a film is about, but rather how it’s about it” is the key to opening yourself up to watching and appreciating a lot of things you might otherwise not have watched.
Met one of the actors from this. He said because of this scene, the movie got picked up for distribution. The same actor said, agents in Hollywood told him, if you were white – you would be signed by any agency.
You know I think it’s still a problem today. If you aren’t a fan of the genre, then don’t rate it on IMDb or rotten tomatoes. I’m a big fan of horror and I always just add +2 to any IMDB rating. There’s so many good horror movies that are rated 5-6 that are really good. And on the contrary, action movies or superhero movies, I’m not generally a fan of but they all get like 8. I don’t rate them, because I know it’s not my type of movie. And I just mentally subtract like two IMDB stars from those kinds of movies when I decide what to watch. Why people are rating movie genres that they don’t like I don’t know. But that’s what’s going on in this video, dude just doesn’t like sci-fi/fantasy. That’s fine, then don’t bother with judging it if you can’t be objective about it. Maybe that’s why Siskle and Ebert were popular, because they were fans of all sorts of movies and could rate them accordingly.
Growing up, I always assumed Ebert was a huge snob given how many people (especially gamers that I looked up to) hated him.
When I actually started reading him, I was surprised by how natural his writing was to read, and how *not* pretentious he was. He’s very clear about what he does and does not like, and I found a refreshing consistency in his reviews. I haven’t found another reviewer like him.
Fun fact: MC Hammer funded the last $20,000 for them to complete the movie. The movie is Better Luck Tomorrow.
Justin Lin (director) was struggling to find anyone to sign them, probably because the entire cast was East Asian and primarily young Asian men.
Justin Lin had met MC Hammer during his time working at a museum in LA. Out of desperation, Justin contacted Mr. Hammer, and to his surprise, MC Hammer remembered him. Mr. Hammer liked the script and wired them the remaining money within the week.
**TL;DR: MC Hammer saved this movie.**
the movie itself was okay. I did enjoy the rejection of the general stereotypes of Asian Americans, but its not oscar-worthy. Although, it’s mere existence as a Hollywood film is note-worthy because the production issues due to racial biases. and of course MC Hammer then Roger Ebert.
The film is based a real life murder of a 16 year old Asian kid by 5 other Asian kids while they were trying run a crime/scam.
People saying that Ebert didn’t have any right to critique movies because he couldn’t write them need to have their fucking heads checked. The fact that I can’t make video games doesn’t mean I can’t have an opinion on them. To those saying he set himself up as the “master critic” who dictated what opinions people had, the reason he became such a popular film critic is because he was, quite simply, very good at writing about movies. I don’t agree with all of his reviews of course, but the fact is he was a very talented film critic and he got where he was because he was talented. I guess now I have to read a bunch of replies calling him fat and not making any points of their own.
It was always so weird to me when people are like “why would black/Latin/Asian people make such bad examples for their kids?” While literally talking about how the Godfather is one of the best movies all time. It’s ok if white people idolize crime and enjoy movies about it, but if you’re one shade tinted then all sudden it’s a disgrace and you’re doing a bad representation of your people?
The first person would hate Beef and Joy Ride (both great, by the way). It’s been my opinion that when a group gets to play boring, down on their luck, immoral assholes, that means they’ve truly made it in storytelling. Because those are the people we relate to the most.
I loved that man.
Amazing
Roger was the best!
I liked Roger Ebert. He wrote some great reviews, and his show with Gene Siskel was fun too. The ‘two thumbs’ rating system was a big cultural thing back in the late 80’s to mid 90’s.
I disagreed with some of his reviews, but even then he was, as usual, insightful and entertaining to read.
I believe the film they are talking about is Better Luck Tomorrow which I haven’t seen in years, but IIRC I liked it a lot and found the rejection of typical Asian-American film stereotypes a pretty important point of the film. To call it empty is to completely miss that.
BLT was sh*t though.
I go to the Sundance Film Festival every year and there is always this person there. Someone who wants everyone to know how self-important they are and you can literally hear the crowd collectively roll their eyes as the filmmakers politely answer their question.
As a young adult, just discovering movies, when Siskel and Ebert were at their heyday, Roger Ebert was just so important to me.
He has such a way with words, but there are lines from his reviews that I still remember and think of all the time:
(For mighty Morphin Power Rangers): “ Mighty Morphin. Mighty stupid”.
And “Jackass: the Movie —for jackass: the audience”
I don’t mind artsy and symbolic movies at all but Roger’s fav movie of all time is very difficult to get into.
God I miss him
love roger ebert he definitely is someone to listen to as he was wise beyond measure even at a young age
If you’ve never read his review of “North”, it’s one of his funniest bad reviews ever. It’s the one movie that broke him. A sample:
>I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie. Hated it. Hated every simpering stupid vacant audience-insulting moment of it. Hated the sensibility that thought anyone would like it. Hated the implied insult to the audience by its belief that anyone would be entertained by it.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/north-1994
Loved Roger’s writing and the way he talked about films. Around 2010 I was working on a remote island; we had spotty internet but quite a few old VHS tapes. Every night I’d pop in an old movie then sit out on my porch and read Ebert’s review, it was almost like discussing the movie afterwards.
A little while later, within month of his death, he was very active on social media and actually replied to one of my comments about something Stephen Colbert had done the night before I think. Really cool moment for me as a big fan of his
His anger here shows how much he genuinely gave a shit.
His criteria, “It’s not what a film is about, but rather how it’s about it” is the key to opening yourself up to watching and appreciating a lot of things you might otherwise not have watched.
Siskel’s review of Ebert’s awful Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is pretty funny.
good movie. good point. model minority is bs
Still relevant
Met one of the actors from this. He said because of this scene, the movie got picked up for distribution. The same actor said, agents in Hollywood told him, if you were white – you would be signed by any agency.
You know I think it’s still a problem today. If you aren’t a fan of the genre, then don’t rate it on IMDb or rotten tomatoes. I’m a big fan of horror and I always just add +2 to any IMDB rating. There’s so many good horror movies that are rated 5-6 that are really good. And on the contrary, action movies or superhero movies, I’m not generally a fan of but they all get like 8. I don’t rate them, because I know it’s not my type of movie. And I just mentally subtract like two IMDB stars from those kinds of movies when I decide what to watch. Why people are rating movie genres that they don’t like I don’t know. But that’s what’s going on in this video, dude just doesn’t like sci-fi/fantasy. That’s fine, then don’t bother with judging it if you can’t be objective about it. Maybe that’s why Siskle and Ebert were popular, because they were fans of all sorts of movies and could rate them accordingly.
Growing up, I always assumed Ebert was a huge snob given how many people (especially gamers that I looked up to) hated him.
When I actually started reading him, I was surprised by how natural his writing was to read, and how *not* pretentious he was. He’s very clear about what he does and does not like, and I found a refreshing consistency in his reviews. I haven’t found another reviewer like him.
I guess Ill have to give Ebert more credit than I thought he originally deserved. To stand up in a crowd like that is bold.
Fun fact: MC Hammer funded the last $20,000 for them to complete the movie. The movie is Better Luck Tomorrow.
Justin Lin (director) was struggling to find anyone to sign them, probably because the entire cast was East Asian and primarily young Asian men.
Justin Lin had met MC Hammer during his time working at a museum in LA. Out of desperation, Justin contacted Mr. Hammer, and to his surprise, MC Hammer remembered him. Mr. Hammer liked the script and wired them the remaining money within the week.
**TL;DR: MC Hammer saved this movie.**
the movie itself was okay. I did enjoy the rejection of the general stereotypes of Asian Americans, but its not oscar-worthy. Although, it’s mere existence as a Hollywood film is note-worthy because the production issues due to racial biases. and of course MC Hammer then Roger Ebert.
The film is based a real life murder of a 16 year old Asian kid by 5 other Asian kids while they were trying run a crime/scam.
Source: this panel interview with the cast https://youtu.be/U7rumh-7Xrc?si=Ez_NFuCGEsP6aAMz&t=477
Is there a higher quality longer version of this
I miss Siskel & Ebert. Their show opened my mind up to so many I would not have watched if not for their reviews.
People are not synecdoches of the groups they happen to belong to.
We used to know this.
People saying that Ebert didn’t have any right to critique movies because he couldn’t write them need to have their fucking heads checked. The fact that I can’t make video games doesn’t mean I can’t have an opinion on them. To those saying he set himself up as the “master critic” who dictated what opinions people had, the reason he became such a popular film critic is because he was, quite simply, very good at writing about movies. I don’t agree with all of his reviews of course, but the fact is he was a very talented film critic and he got where he was because he was talented. I guess now I have to read a bunch of replies calling him fat and not making any points of their own.
Jaw Dropping Performance from Ebert.
Fuck I miss him. Preach, dude
What an unbelievably stupid comment. Asian Americans are just as normal as other people and don’t need to make a movie with a good moral story
Orange left BTFO
It was always so weird to me when people are like “why would black/Latin/Asian people make such bad examples for their kids?” While literally talking about how the Godfather is one of the best movies all time. It’s ok if white people idolize crime and enjoy movies about it, but if you’re one shade tinted then all sudden it’s a disgrace and you’re doing a bad representation of your people?
[Fun fact this movie is actually cannon and apart of the Fast and the Furious franchise](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4g_hIhwqaI)
So what movie was this? Curious.
It’s hard to compare Ebert with other critics, it is like he was on a level all on his own.
trailer for the movie in question, Better Luck Tomorrow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4g_hIhwqaI
I still can’t believe he walked out on Kick-ass. That movie rules.
The first person would hate Beef and Joy Ride (both great, by the way). It’s been my opinion that when a group gets to play boring, down on their luck, immoral assholes, that means they’ve truly made it in storytelling. Because those are the people we relate to the most.