Mark Steyn On The Passing Of Roger Ebert And The Growing Threat In North Korea

Hugh Hewitt ^ | 5 Apr 2013 | Mark Steyn

[Borges]

It’s funny because Siskel was seen as the snobbier and more pretentious one of the two. Ebert was criticized for being too easy on films that were mere popular entertainment.

[Noob1999]

bump for later

[Rummyfan]

If you want really good movie critics try James Agee, Pauline Kael, Andrew Sarris, Manny Farber, Penelope Gilliat and, for good measure, throw in the New Wave boys.

I really think Stephen Hunter was the best, when he was still doing movie reviews.

And am I the only one who thought he was gay for years and years?

No you're not the only one - I always thought so too and until this reference by Mark Steyn of Ebert's relationship with Oprah, had no idea he was straight.

[Borges]

Hunter was witty but didn’t really have any interest in the medium.

MM you seem to be biased by the very fact that he had a TV show at all. He HAD to review all those crappy films. He wrote for a daily newspaper not a magazine where he could devote one column a week to one movie. His best writing is of a very high level.

[GOPJ]

A few years ago, for example, there was a story in the Canadian papers that said that Kim Jong Il had a plan to nuke Montreal. And those of us who loved Quebec said well, why Montreal? And the reason was apparently that Kim Jong Il had calculated that if he nuked Chicago or Milwaukee, that the Americans might feel obliged to respond. But if he nuked a Canadian city, then the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations would just issue a strongly worded letter of regret. And those kind of, we laugh that those kinds of calculations, but they’re what are dancing through this guy’s head right now.

In a civilized country people like Kim Jong and his son would be running local Chinese restaurants ... and the health department would be trying to shut them down... Their more ethical cousins would be decent citizens here - the same people who in North Korea are the people who starve or are in prisons.

The beauty of the United States for the most part has been that thugs don't make it to the top politically... well usually. In countries like North Korea only they're the only ones who make it to the top.

[kabumpo]

Whomever you are, I am in love with you for writing what I was going to write - only better.

[lentulusgracchus]

Look at his review of ‘North’ for him trashing a film.

Someone ran a clip of his At the Movies review of John Travolta's Scientology cultpiece -- Battlefield Earth or whatever they called it. He was really funny. I can't review his content, since I didn't see the movie, based on his and other reviews. (That was, ummm, about 2001, just before he got cancer. Maybe the Scientologists gave him cancer in revenge? </tinfoil>)

PS: John Travolta shares with Ben Affleck the dis-stink -shun of having starred in two of the worst pieces of excrement that ever got thrown up on a silver screen. Travolta did the Scientology thing, and he also "starred", if you can call it that, in that godawful cougar-kisser with Lily Tomlin, Moment by Moment (1978). Affleck did both Gigli (2003, w/ J Lo) and Bounce (2000, Gwynnie Paltrow and Natasha Henstridge).

[Jack Hydrazine]

It would be great to see FReepers post their movie critiques here on FR.

[DPMD]

Ever hear of Stephen Hunter? Retired film critic for the WaPo, gun enthusiast and expert, novelist of the Bob Lee Swagger books, Pulitzer Prize recipient for his film critique? The movie “The Shooter” (Mark Wahlberg, Ned Beatty) was based on one of his.

Check out his entire body of work, and you’ll find some outstanding books, including nonfiction. “American Gunfight” is almost indescribably indescribable.