Tag Archives: at the movies

Sep 10

Thumbs up

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With the demise of the syndicated, Disney-owned “At The Movies,” Roger Ebert is taking back the title to produce a new movie review series for public television, where Siskel & Ebert started with “Sneak Previews” many, many years ago.

This clip package, with excerpts from a dummy pilot episode, looks extremely promising. As an employee of an AP member newspaper, I’ve enjoyed reading Christy Lemire’s work for years, and I’ve heard Elvis Mitchell on NPR and seen him as a guest on various TV shows. They’re both top-flight film critics. And it’s great to have Roger Ebert presenting and contributing a segment to the program, even if that means a computer-synthesized voice. Roger is such a strong writer – and he’s only gotten better since his illness — that he can overcome the lack of inflection.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOKAhkrcZag

Still, I was sort of hoping for something with Michael Phillips and A.O. Scott, who hosted the syndicated program up until a few weeks ago and who, for me, were beginning to seem a lot like Roger and the late Gene Siskel in their heyday. And I still think Phillips and Scott might find their own berth somewhere, which would give everyone even more options and more reason to celebrate.

May 29

Movie review of the week

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“We’ve certainly never seen a more orange movie than this — it looks like it was lit by heat lamps stolen from Arby’s Roast Beef.”

– Michael Phillips of “At The Movies,” referring to “Prince Of Persia: The Sands of Time.”

I like Michael Phillips and A.O. Scott more and more every week, and so I’m more and more disappointed that “At The Movies” has been canceled. Phillips and Scott are becoming like Siskel and Ebert in their prime. They respect each other, probably like each other, but are not afraid to prickle at each other when they disagree — and they do sometimes disagree. They’re intelligent rather than pompous, and they really care about movies.

Dec 26

Props to WALL-E, Michael and A.O.

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I did not realize that Ben Mankiewicz and Ben Lyons had been replaced as hosts of “At The Movies,” the show formerly known as “Siskel & Ebert” and “Ebert & Roeper” before Roger Ebert’s thyroid cancer surgery left him unable to speak.

I like Ben Mankiewicz as a host on Turner Classic Movies, and I used to enjoy Ben Lyons’ father Jeffrey when he hosted a similar movie review show on public TV. But the Mankiewicz / Lyons version of “At The Movies” just didn’t seem to carry the same weight as Ebert & Roeper, much less Siskel & Ebert. The younger, hipper critics seemed to be performing as much as reviewing.

New hosts Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune and A.O. Scott of the New York Times took over (I now find out) in September, and from the episode I saw tonight they have much the same tone and outlook that Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert brought to the program. They don’t seem to be trying to impress the viewer with how clever they are; they’re just passionate about movies and like talking about them in an intelligent way.

In addition to their regular movie reviews, they’ve apparently spent the past few weeks counting down their top 10 movies of the decade, and they revealed their top picks tonight. Scott’s, much to my delight, was “WALL-E.”

I’ll have to set “At The Movies” up on the DVR.