Ben Lyons Is Ruining 'At The Movie'

Well folks, I've waited long enough before writing this, but I feel enough time has gone by that I now have the right to complain about something. See, as you all know from reading my sites and listening to my podcasts (new episode coming soon - I promise) you'll know that I'm a huge fan of "At The Movies," and Siskel and Ebert were personal heroes of mine. Well, both those men aren't on the show anymore (one due to death and the other illness), replaced with Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz. Now Mankiweicz I don't have too much of a problem with. Sure, he's wrong about the Oscar potential of "The Dark Knight" and "Slumdog Millionaire," and he put "Rachel Getting Married" on his Top Ten Worst list at number two (I put it on my best list at...number two), but overall he's not too bad. This is a guy who works for actual newspapers, gets to show off his knowledge on Turner Classic Movies (my favorite channel now that Cartoon Network has gone to the dogs), and can defend his opinion well.

So no matter how much I disagree with him at least he's a critic, however small that may be. No, my main problem is with Ben Lyons, the quote-grabbing whore who makes poor desisions and couldn't back up his opinion to save his life. This is a guy who said "I Am Legend" was "One of the greatest movies ever made!" I know that because it was a major selling point in the ads, and it's hard to look at someone with a straight face when they put that movie in the same category as "Casablanca," "Gone With The Wind," and "The Godfather." His major complaint with "Max Pain" (and, trust me, I'm NOT defending this movie) was that he didn't care about the story or characters, he just wanted to see things blow up, and was worried that "The Dark Knight" had set a bad trend in summer movies by inspiring story. Yes, Ben, let's all rally against "The Dark Knight" for it's complicated characters, deep story, and grand directional scope.

Damn that movie for actually raising the bar for summers movies just a "little" bit higher then it has been in previous years. No, Ben is not a real critic. He's not even half a critic. He's a faux-critic for the "Digital Age," a pretty face who's there to hype of movies with flashy graphics and cool catch phrases. Yeah, I know that the day of watching film critics discuss movies has drastically changed since Siskel and Ebert came onto the scene, and "At The Movies" was feeling a little stale in comparison to the E! channel shows (of which Ben comes from), but there's a proper way to do flashy, legitimate film critism and be taken seriously. Like compare Spill.com's review of "Bedtime Stories" with the same review on "At The Movies:"

See, Spill.com may just be a bunch of under thirty year olds talking about movies in cartoon form, but take a closer look: They actually DISCUSS the films! They point out it's good points, it's bad points, they help you understand their opinion, and they have an actual debate about the film. Now compare that to Ben's review of the film and it's laughably bad. Not only is he calling this a comedy classic for kids (up there with "Home Alone" and "A Christmas Story" I assume), but he doesn't actually review the film. He uses phrases like "the kids will love it," "perfect family film," and "another classic Sandler film" (Editor's Note: The quotes may vary, but the general idea is the same). This isn't a review, this is some guy hoping to get quoted on the commericials. Which, speaking about, it looks like he was beaten to the punch by Rachel Smith...

...whoever that is. The bottom line is I know that times are changing, and the ways people get recommendations on movies they watch is rapidly changing. A percentage number on Rotten Tomatoes is more likely to garner interest then a single review. But TV shows that specialize in movie reviews shouldn't deliberatly dumb down film critism. Esspecially when you are producing the longest running show about film critism out there. Oh, and as for Roger Ebert...

...he doesn't strike me as too pleased with the new critic sitting in Gene's chair.