Movie mania

I started watching movies in movie theaters at a very late age, and the excitement of watching anything on the big screen made me incapable of separating good movies from bad ones. I do remember, however, that in the prime of my movie ignorance, a "two thumbs up" from the mysterious "Siskel and Ebert" meant that I ought to be extra enthusiastic about a film, and so I was careful to be extra impressed by it. 

As I grew up, Siskel died, Roeper came and went, Ebert's lone voice remained, and I became more discerning in my choice of movies. But it still mattered a bit to me what Ebert had to say about certain movies, and I would occasionally seek out his review of a film before deciding to watch it. Granted, I started doubting his opinions when he started giving rave reviews to movies like "The Last Song" starring Miley Cyrus and her now fiance Liam Hemsworth, but it was hard to completely abandon someone who was such a force in movie culture as well as my personal experience with the movies. 

Now that Ebert is gone (I miss him already -- who's going to do a serious review of Adam Sandler's next movie??), I'm not sure who I'll turn to next. At least I can tell on my own now that a movie like "Mulan II" is waaaay worse than its predecessor. The ninth-grade (who am I kidding -- probably more like eleventh-grade) version of myself would be very impressed. 

Q 

"Ebert"