Tag Archives: retrospective

At The Movies Retrospective Pt. 4: Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert

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We’ve come to the end of my four-part At The Movies recap, which tragically marks the end of Everyview editor-in-chief and highly decorated Vietnam Conflict veteran Zac Pritcher’s bitter and sarcasm-laced plugs on Facebook. You’re the one who made me keep going, dickhole!

But anyway, this capper is dedicated to two individuals who are actually very worthy of being written about, as they were responsible for bringing movie criticism into mainstream America, and had a major role in helping expand the reach of art house cinema.

They were Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, perhaps the two most important media critics of all-time. Continue reading →

At The Movies Retrospective Part 3: Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper

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We’ve now entered the second half of this cockamamie retrospective idea, and I’m pretty sure by the end I will have close to 50 accumulative hits! I would just stop altogether, but for my loyal readers I persevere. After all, we here at Everyview only give up on good ideas.

So here’s my take on Ebert and Roeper.

After original co-host and balcony mainstay Gene Siskel died of a brain tumor in early 1999, there was speculation the show, better known to the public as Siskel and Ebert, would be unable to continue with one-half of the duo deceased.

However, Ebert quickly let it be known he fully intended to keep the series running, continuing it for well over a year-and-a-half with 26 different guest critics.

Then in September 2000, it was announced Chicago Sun Times columnist Richard Roeper would accept nearly impossible task of sitting across the aisle and debating movies with Roger Ebert week after week. But while replacing Siskel wasn’t something he could have ever done, it’s hard to look back on the tenure of Roeper as anything but admirable.

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At The Movies Retrospective Pt. 2: Michael Phillips and A.O. Scott

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One part in and this four-part series has already proven to be a humiliating failure. Oh, well, it’s not like I have anything better to do. After all, you can only watch so many old episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond before you’ve seen them all, and have to say enough, it’s time to do something productive.

So here’s my opinion on Michael Phillips and A.O. Scott.

For their first few weeks on the air, Phillips and Scott (film critics for the Chicago Tribune and New York Times, respectively), were a breath of fresh air. Not that it was difficult outperforming their predecessors, but actually having two legit(imate) critics on the air was a nice change after the year-long piece of wet diarrhea stank produced by the Lyons/Mankiewicz combo.

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