Thumbs Down, Finger Up

Well, isn't that just great. After doing everything they could to destroy the venerable At The Movies franchise, Disney announced on March 24th the cancellation of the long running show that launched the television careers of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert.

The program started way back in 1986, and paired the two critics from competing Chicago newspapers (Siskel--Chicago Tribune, Ebert--Chicago Sun Times), often against one another in a discussion of the week's new movies. They were an odd pair, the balding, lean Siskel and the rumpled, hefty Ebert, and in the early days they didn't get along very well at all. However, despite their lack of TV ready good looks, the often caustic back and forth between the two made for great television. Their terse disagreements over everything from David Lynch's Blue Velvet (Siskel was for, Ebert against) to the otherwise forgettable Burt Reynolds starrer, Cop And A Half (Ebert for--astonishingly, Siskel against), masked the fact that most of the time their thumbs were pointed in the same direction.

Still, they had some great--and frankly hilarious dust ups. Here is a small sample:

[reviewing "Clifford"] Roger Ebert: [surprised] You took... kids to see this? This is the kind of movie where after kids see this, they should see "The Good Son" to cheer themselves up!

Gene Siskel: [criticising Roger's thumbs up for "Gorilla's in the Mist"] You're only saying you like the film because apes and a woman are there, and they look pretty.

Siskel: [responding to Ebert's statement "I enjoyed myself thoroughly"] "I'm sure you did enjoy yourself, it's the movie I'm talking about."

All that stuff is great, but what I will most remember them for is championing movies that, well, needed a champion. Films like Once Upon A Time In America, Do The Right Thing, Vagabond, and Salvador. Perhaps the most memorable recommendation they ever made for me was regarding Cameron Crowe's 1989 classic, Say Anything. During the show, Siskel had stated that earlier in the day he had sat through the awful Tony Danza flick (yes there was a time when Tony Danza could top line a movie and get it a theatrical release), She's Out Of Control. A movie so bad, that he seriously considered quitting his job. Then, as he put it, "I saw Say Anything (later the same day) and all was right with the world." Ebert concurred, and so did I after I saw it later that week.

They were equally entertaining when they brought out the knives to skewer some truly terrible movies. To wit:

Gene Siskel: [reviewing "Stargate"] Do you know that the budget, supposedly, of this picture was fifty-five million dollars? Roger Ebert: Boy, they must've had some great lunches.

Roger Ebert: [reviewing "Poltergeist III"] You always wonder how the tennis committee likes it where the building they own--- a condo--- is trashed in a movie like this. I hope they got free tickets. Gene Siskel: I hope they didn't.

Gene Siskel: [reviewing "Highlander 2: The Quickening"] I read about this picture and do you know that it cost 34 million dollars to make? Roger Ebert: You're kidding me! Gene Siskel: Shot in Argentina... where did the money go? Roger Ebert: 34 million, they must have had a limousine every time they went to the john.

Over the years, the two adversaries became great friends. And when tragedy struck in the form of a brain tumor that eventually took the life of Gene, Ebert penned a lovely goodbye note (http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2009/02/i_remember_gene.html). The show carried on for a year (1999-2000) with a rotating group of guest critics before Ebert settled on fellow Sun Times columnist, Richard Roeper in 2001. While Roeper was not up to the standards of Gene Siskel, the union did have it's moments. For example:

Roger Ebert: You know, I'm giving this one a marginal thumbs-up... Richard Roeper: Who are you, and what have you done with Roger Ebert?

Richard Roeper: At least the thugs from "3000 Miles to Graceland" look like grown-up tough guys, unlike the teeny-bopper idols in "American Outlaws" who couldn't punch their way out of a casting call for a Gap commercial.

Roger Ebert: I have a theoretical question for you, Richard: How far down can a thumb go?

Their union lasted six years (2001-2007) before cancer reared its ugly head again. This time, it would be Roger who was stricken by thyroid cancer. After multiple surgeries robbed Ebert of the ability to speak, the show attempted to move on--respectfully--without him. While still calling the show "Ebert & Roeper At The Movies," Roger's spot in the balcony was taken by a series of rotating guest critics, much like the first post-Siskel year. Eventually, in a bitter contract dispute, Roeper left the show and Ebert took the famous "thumbs up, thumbs down" with him as his own intellectual property.

In a brazen and foolish effort to young the show up, Disney chose Turner Classic television host, Ben Mankiewicz and E Entertainment (for real) correspondent, Ben Lyons as replacements. Of the two Ben's, Mankiewicz clearly knew his stuff and was improving on a weekly basis. However, he was no match for the witless, grinning village idiot that was Ben Lyons. Lyons, the son of noted (if terribly mediocre) film critic Jeffrey Lyons, proved to be both a master of the obvious and a king of overstatement. His critiques of the films on the show were positively Palin-esque. To no wit:

"And it seems like this is going to be the one film we’re gonna see of this franchise." It wasn’t like Zack Snyder was trying to setup the sequel. I really appreciate that.” From the guy who said he was on his second reading of Alan Moore’s Watchmen and thus should have known that it was a self-contained entity with no sequel or spin off.

“It’s really important to tell people to go out and see W. so they can talk about it and have an opinion about it and this freedom of speech of course that allows us to go and talk about a film about a current sitting president.”

“You know what hurts a movie like Max Payne is the success of the Batman franchise. That obviously is about story and character so they think for all films of the genre it’s gotta be about story and character and this whole back story of him losing his wife. I don’t care about that. I wanna see Max Payne shoot people. That’s all I want from a movie like this.”

"I love how this film establishes that it takes place in the real world. It opens in London but then, of course, goes to the world of Hogwarts and Wizards.”

Lyons also called I Am Legend "one of the greatest movies ever made." And once attended the Sundance Film Festival where he stated that he saw a grand total of 5 films, and "some of them were pretty good."

I can only imagine what it was like for Mankiewicz to sit across from this bumbling nincompoop week after week. Finally, after so much damage was done to the At The Movies brand, Disney mercifully fired both Bens after less than one year as hosts in 2009. While Mankiewicz deserved better, I'm sure he was glad to be put out of his misery.

In their first decent move in awhile, Disney replaced the two Bens with Chicago Tribune film critic, Michael Phillips and New York Times Film critic, A.O. Scott. Finally, order was restored. While Scott and Phillips couldn't quite bring back the glory years of Siskel and Ebert, they did mark a notable return to thoughtful, erudite, on camera film criticism. Although they were more respectful and polite than the show's founders, they did have good chemistry and were both clever in a low key way. Plus, they both know movies. Which may seem obvious, but after the reign of non-sensical terror perpetrated by Ben Lyons, it's worth mentioning.

Unfortunately, this return to smart, knowledgeable criticism has not been enough to overcome the unfortunate recent past of the show. Phillips and Scott have not been able to return the show's ratings to an acceptable level for Disney, and will therefore air their last show some time in August of this year. And that will be that for quality televised film criticism. Film critics as a whole are slowly going the way of the buffalo. Major newspapers and magazines all over the country have been firing their film critics in cost cutting moves due to the fiscal pains that print journalism is suffering from.

And that's a damn shame. I know standing up for critics is almost like defending politicians, but I like a thoughtful, intelligent discussion on the art of film. This may sound silly, but Siskel and Ebert are the reason why I started college as a journalism major. Hell, I wanted their jobs. In fact, if I'm really honest with myself, they are a big reason why I write this blog (now you know who to blame). They inspired me as much as Paul Auster or Walter Mosley. Maybe that makes me decidedly middle-brow, but I can't imagine doing this if I had never been exposed to them.

But now, it's all over. Another nail in the coffin of thoughtful journalism. And the disease is spreading. If you look at all print and televised journalism, it seems sensationalism and loud voices rule the day while fact-checking and quality writing come well after. Maybe it's a stretch to pair the end of At The Movies with the decline of quality news journalism, but I don't think so. Today we value quick and pithy over deep and thoughtful. Few seem to want to read past the headlines or give a discerning opinion a second look.

Unfortunately, Disney agrees. So they are canceling At The Movies. A decision I give a thumbs down and a finger up to. I'm sure you can guess which digit is pointing skyward.

Sumo-Pop
April 4, 2010