filmthreat's blog

As a kid, we hardly ever got “good” movies in our town. As a result, I had to live vicariously through Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. While the two-minute reviews certainly didn’t help my Sesame Street ravaged attention span, I loved seeing the two masters at work.

When I first started watching the show it was called “At the Movies” and it was on channel 9. I didn’t like Ebert, he was mean, Plus, Gene reminded me of a muppet so I sided with him. Also intriguing was the fact that these guys were passionate about film and they were arguing…on T.V.! For reals too! Amazing! I was hooked. While I won’t go so far as to say Siskel and Ebert inspired me to get into film criticism, the show and the guys on the show definitely made me realize films weren’t just loud noisy things you saw in a dark room…with popcorn. Some were good, some were bad.

Over the years Siskel and Ebert became a weekly tradition and I still watch the show today. However, things haven’t been the same since Gene died. I genuinely like Roeper, but the show just isn’t the same. Now that it’s just been Roeper and a cavalcade of guest reviewers, it’s been really tough to watch. Especially since I know my presence on the show as a guest would definitely have been better than John Mellencamps last week. Jesus, that guy liked everything.

But today Roger Ebert has written something! For fans of R.E., awaiting his newest writings is akin to hearing news of a new George Lucas project or a new Christopher Walken role. The even cooler thing is, we got some pictures of Ebert…and he looks surprisingly good, considering all he’s been through.

Perhaps the coolest thing about the new column and accompanying photos are, he’s doing this stuff to promote his “9th Annual Overlooked Film Festival.” Not only is the guy putting himself out there when he should be resting, not only is he posting photos that soulless pricks are dying to make fun of, not only is he still doing one of the coolest film festivals I’ve ever heard of, he’s still in love with movies. That, is bad ass and so is Roger Ebert.

Check out the news and photos of Ebert here:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/355049,cst-nws-ebert24.article

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