oohsarracuda's review
3.0
Originally read sometime in 2007, maybe earlier. Originally rated 4 stars.
Re-read 2018-2019. Ebert was in possession of a little sexism/female objectification (his review for Threesome would be better without mentioning Neve Campbell's [inconsequential to the plot] breasts, for example), and reading great clumps of reviews at a time makes this clear, but the way he wrote about a film he hated still brings me joy. Downgraded to 3 stars for mild dude-style grossness. Still fun reading, and great fodder for our Friday Night Bad Movies project.
Re-read 2018-2019. Ebert was in possession of a little sexism/female objectification (his review for Threesome would be better without mentioning Neve Campbell's [inconsequential to the plot] breasts, for example), and reading great clumps of reviews at a time makes this clear, but the way he wrote about a film he hated still brings me joy. Downgraded to 3 stars for mild dude-style grossness. Still fun reading, and great fodder for our Friday Night Bad Movies project.
jobinsonlis's review
4.0
Roger Ebert could be snarky in a really endearing way, the latter of which was invaluable and too often forgotten by his imitators. Even when I strongly disagreed with his review—the first two Hellraisers are great and I won’t hear otherwise—I laughed reading them. He was one-of-a-kind.
ashleylm's review
4.0
Ordinarily I'm not so enthusiastic about collections of essays—I prefer my non-fiction to read like novels, with beginnings, middles, climaxes, conclusions ... but this made for near-perfect bedtime reading, and when Mr. Ebert gets sarcastic, he's particularly funny. (I'm paraphrasing, but one line will stick with me, something like "it seemed like an experiment to find out how far you could slow down a film before it would stop completely.")
I don't think he hated all the movies in this book—some of them he seems to have enjoyed considerably, but for reasons of honour can't give them a good grade—so a more accurate but less lively title would merely be A Collection of My Reviews of Inferior Films.
I have even set out to watch a handful of the ones he recommended (against), and found one or two moderately appealling, but I see what he was getting at. Though the films be bad, though, the reviews are very well-produced indeed.
(5* = amazing, terrific book, one of my all-time favourites, 4* = very good book, 3* = good book, but nothing to particularly rave about, 2* = disappointing book, and 1* = awful, just awful. As a statistician I know most books are 3s, but I am biased in my selection and end up mostly with 4s, thank goodness.)
I don't think he hated all the movies in this book—some of them he seems to have enjoyed considerably, but for reasons of honour can't give them a good grade—so a more accurate but less lively title would merely be A Collection of My Reviews of Inferior Films.
I have even set out to watch a handful of the ones he recommended (against), and found one or two moderately appealling, but I see what he was getting at. Though the films be bad, though, the reviews are very well-produced indeed.
(5* = amazing, terrific book, one of my all-time favourites, 4* = very good book, 3* = good book, but nothing to particularly rave about, 2* = disappointing book, and 1* = awful, just awful. As a statistician I know most books are 3s, but I am biased in my selection and end up mostly with 4s, thank goodness.)
tvrasche's review
3.0
A pretty interesting read of Ebert's most hated movies. But keep in mind, it is a book entirely made of all movie reviews.
cafo6's review
4.0
Ok, so I skimmed. Reading reviews of bad movies one has never seen (and never will), isn’t very interesting. But the reviews for movies I’ve seen were well written and at times really funny. I used to love watching Siskel and Ebert on TV and this showcases that Ebert had and continues to have a way with connecting thoughts that is both fresh and sardonically funny. 1.5 thumbs up :)
munchin's review
4.0
Roger is easily the greatest contemporary film critic and his reviews are both dead-on and venomous but they get kind of tiring to read after a while. Just so much negativity in one book...
crankylibrarian's review
2.0
I love Ebert's reviews, and of course the nasty ones are always the funniest. But these have a tiresome sameness to them; reading a compilation of bad reviews one notices how often the same put-downs reappear. His other books,about movies he loves, are much better.
wakemaggieup's review
5.0
After reading this book, I feel compelled to tell everyone what Roger Ebert thought of their favorite crappy movies. And now I always wonder what he would say about the new terrible movies that come out each year.