Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert made me love the art of film more than I already did.

I admired him so much.

I loved his impassioned reviews of movies he loved and hated. I loved his arguments with Siskel (and Roeper). I loved his yearly Movie Home Companion. 

I loved that he championed films like Hoop Dreams, which he and Siskel were outraged wasn't nominated for the Academy Award for Documentary Feature. 

Most critics can be taken with a grain of salt, but when Ebert loved a movie -- when he gave it a "BIG thumbs up!" -- it made me want to see it. I always looked forward to his year end lists of best and worst films. 

I remember specifically 1998. It was a year filled with wonderful, groundbreaking, and critically acclaimed movies such as Out of Sight, Life Is Beautiful, Pleasantville, The Truman Show, Rushmore, Saving Private Ryan, American History X, A Simple Plan, A Bug's Life, Pi, The Big Lebowski, etc. etc. But for his top film of the year, Ebert picked a movie no one had heard of called Dark City. It made me want to see it. And when I did I, not surprisingly, fell in love with it. What's more, he so loved the film that he provided a commentary track for the DVD.

One of the things I admire most about Roger Ebert was that when life handed him lemons...no it handed him manure...he kept on going. He battled cancer with the dignity of a prince. When it took his jaw, he kept making appearances anyway. When it took his voice he found a company that used his DVD commentaries (which also included Citizen Kane and Casablanca) to give his voice to his computer narration system.

Through and through he was a class act. Just yesterday on his blog he wrote "Thank you for being the best readers any film critic could ask for... thank you for going on this journey with me. I'll see you at the movies."

Roger died today at 70. He will be greatly missed.

- Eric Coomer

Movie Trailer of the Week - Inception

This is the third trailer for the Christopher Nolan (Memento, The Dark Knight) film Inception. I posted a teaser earlier this year. This trailer tells us more about the film. And I am still intrigued. I mentioned a couple weeks ago that the trailer for This trailer does all the more.

Movie Trailer of the Week - The Adjustment Bureau

This looks great and reminds me of Dark City (read my thoughts on that film and watch the trailer here). Check out Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in The Adjustment Bureau.

DVD Trailer of the Week - Dark City (1998)

This week I'm still taking it easy and not worrying about having everything up I normally do. But I also want to start a new regular.

I've been posting trailers for upcoming movies I think look good but haven't ever posted trailers for movies I already have seen and think you might like. I'll mostly post trailers for films that aren't well known.

Roger Ebert called Dark City the best film of 1998 and even went on to do a commentary track on the DVD for the movie. He loved it so much, he wrote not one but two reviews of it.

I absolutely love this postmodern film noir masterpiece. At the end of the century, Hollywood was questioning reality, existence and purpose. Between '98 and '99 several films came out with the same questions and many different answers: The Matrix, The Truman Show, Pleasantville, The Thirteenth Floor, Sixth Sense, Fight Club etc. These films were all about someone (Neo, Truman, the citizens of Pleasantville) waking to the understanding that their worlds were not what they had been told their whole lives. Dark City fits squarely into that category as well.

If you haven't seen this movie, you owe it to yourself to check it out.