When Roger Ebert’s name was taken off his long running weekly series At the Movies, he said he left because he didn’t like the direction the network planned to take it. What direction did that end up being? They got pretty. They hired E! television’s Ben Lyons, a young and good looking guy who though he claimed otherwise, clearly knew nothing about movies and was there mainly for his looks. They paired him with Ben Mankiewicz, a man who would later complain about Tom Cruise’s bad German accent in Valkyrie… even though Tom Cruise doesn’t do one. In short they slowly started skewing the show towards the looks first, brains when we have time for it attitude of modern American culture and I think, everyone assumed, it would be a big hit. Sure it was a horrible decision, but horrible decisions like these usually have a way of paying off. For once, it didn’t.
The Chicago Tribune reports that ABC Media Productions is firing the two Bens and putting At the Movies back the way it ought to be. They’re bringing in real film critics and presumably bringing back real film discussion. The Chicago Tribune’s Michael Phillips and NY Times critic A.O. Scott have been chosen to step in and sit in the seats once filled by film criticism’s first and probably last reviewing superstars, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert.
Both Phillips and Scott were regular fill-ins on the show back when Ebert’s name was still on the marquee and Richard Roeper sat in the Siskel chair. They know the format and while neither is as pretty as Ben Lyons, film critics aren’t supposed to be pretty. Why do you think they spend so much time sitting in the dark? And while I personally have never been a big fan of Phillips’ opinions, at least he has some, which makes him a big improvement on Ben Lyons. Love them or hate them, it looks like real film criticism isn’t quite dead. Somewhere Roger Ebert is smiling.
