Yeah, for the last few years, Ebert has been just giving hack movies 3-4 stars. Before,a movie actually had to be good to get that. I think it's pretty obvious he's getting kickbacks or something. I don't know how else to explain it.
Eh, the best film critic (widely read) was Kael. After her, everyone is a distant second.
I knew Ebert back in Chicago starting in the early 70s.
A friend of mine also worked for the Sun-Times for the book review. We were young actors (22-23)working in Chicago theater. We would find ourselves hanging out with Roger at the Northside bars, where he would inevitably have one too many Jagermeisters and beer chasers, and climb up on the bar , declaiming about movies, etc. He was a fun guy, and he used to compliment me on my film knowledge whenever we'd discuss films. You are right, he was a better film critic in those days. I knew he had "jumped the shark" considerably longer ago than 10 years, though, when I saw him (with Siskel, then) give an AWFUL review to a movie I liked a lot, "Get Out Your Handkerchiefs". He carried on about this film in such personal terms, I figured the director must have stolen a girlfriend away from him, and at the end of his diatribe, said the celluloid used in this film should have been used to make guitar picks. Lately, he has gone overboard in a most amusing way on the film MILLION DOLLAR BABY, dubbing it a masterpiece, when it was merely a good conventional film (conventional films are NEVER masterpieces). I have no idea what this conflict with Debbie Schlussel is about though , but I think I'll try to find a picture of her.
Something about the name Debbie......