At the Movies: Revised

Last week saw the premiere episode of At the Movies, the long running review show that Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel started in the 70s, that continued with Roeper, and was eventually passed onto the two Bens, Lyons and Mankiewicz.

Now, the show has returned to its roots: journalists, this time A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips, and what a blessing and relief this return was. When Roeper finally signed off, the two Bens took over, and ushered in what could have been a perpetual dark age of movie criticism. The show was focused more on glamor and sound bite reviews rather then thoughtful discussions on the movies. Ben Lyons, who is the film expert over at E! Entertainment, received the blunt end of the criticism because he was, well, a child.

Ben Lyons had declared the previous winter that I Am Legend was one of the greatest movies ever made, and maybe we were all being a little too mean to him for that claim. Of course, you are asking for it when you are essentially saying something is up there in the league of Citizen Kane or Seven Samurai. His reviews were awful, focusing mainly on deconstructing the plot for the viewer and then offering a surface level take on the movie. Mankiewicz was no better, really, but at least he had the air of knowing film, having hosted segments at Turner Classic Movies.

But somehow there is an invaluable lesson in writing movie reviews rather then quickly throwing out your opinion. You become stronger as a writer and learn to articulate your points better as time goes on, something neither of the Bens could do. With New York Times critic A.O. Scott and Chicago Tribune critic Michael Phillips now helming the show, you know you are at least getting the opinion of someone who can express it thoughtfully.

In viewing the first episode, I was happy to see the two journalists reviewing the films, with A.O. Scott even reviewing the movie The Burning Plain in the jumbled fashion the movie is apparently assembled in. Yet, these guys seem like good acquaintances and not yet at the point where they can spar with each other. They never directly disagreed with each other, with every movie getting two skip its, see its, and a rent it with another of those options. There is a beauty to going back and watching Ebert and Siskel disagree heavily on Baby's Day Out and the way they attack each other. Right now, the show feels like it needs to deconstruct that last layer to get these two really butting heads, and hopefully we'll get some good stuff in the coming year.

But, for the time being, the show At the Movies has been reinstated into its rightful place, and I look forward to watching this show again, as I stopped watching it when the Bens dominated the airwaves.