Roger Ebert, I knew there was a reason I liked that guy.
While I do not always agree with Roger Ebert in his movie reviews, I must say that of any movie critic in the popular press i find his reviews the most useful. Weather or not he liked the movie I can usually determine if I would personally enjoy a film from his review. This speaks volumes, so it was a little concerning a few months back when on Roger Ebert’s website a Q&A about creationism appeared. Something about it didn’t quite sit right with me. Mr. Ebert seemed to intelligent to buy into creationism, so I thought it was either a prank, joke, or someone at the Sun-Times with access pulling a fast one.
It soon slipped out of my mind, I’ve not been into seeing new releases at the theater lately as being a parent of a very young child tends to keep one out of the cinema. Recently, however, Roger Ebert finally posted a review of the Ben Stien propaganda piece that was ‘eXpelled’. The review was one of Ebert’s best, I put it right up there with his review of Rob Reiner’s ‘North’ in my list all time most scathing reviews.
Here’s an excerpt from Roger Ebert’s review of North, just for your amusement:
“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.”
This brought up the thoughts of that creationist Q&A. It was clear from Mr. Ebert’s review that it must have been as I thought earlier. Sure enough, searching through Roger Ebert’s blog posts from around that time came up with this little gem.
Well done Mr. Ebert, bravo.