Whenever i finish reading a book, or after watching a movie, or a particular good season of a TV show, i am compelled to go online to read the reviews. Some people like to read reviews before, i like to see what other people, including experts thought, and whether or not they agree with me.
For movies, there are only two review sites i read – Empire Online, and Roger Ebert. There used to be a few more, especially those that used to listed in Yahoo! Movies. For some strange reason, they’ve done away with this critics’ reviews and replaced it with user reviews.
I like Empire’s reviews, but of late they’ve been patchy. And the thing with Empire is that they usually only do a handful of full reviews a month, other movies only get a short 2-3 paragraphs. What’s up with that, Empire? You’re supposed to be a MOVIE magazine.
And as for Roger Ebert, i think i’ve been reading his reviews since i started using the internet back in the 90’s. his style is immediately likeable – he knows his movies and movie-making. He is witty, sarcastic when necessary, and funny. And he is efficient – every major release is reviewed. He puts his best into every review, no phoning it in. You can read the archives of his reviews from the 70’s and 80’s, they still hold up the test of time.
Some years ago i learnt he lost his jaw to cancer, but it didn’t stop him from his work. In recent years i noticed he started slowing down on his work, more and more movies were not reviewed.
And a couple of days ago, i heard the inevitable news, Ebert has died.
Sad day, indeed. One of the obituaries mentioned he was the last of his generation of newspaper columnist that cut their teeth in the bygone era of print newsroom. For he, he was the one movie reviewer. There is no one else.