Obligatory Ebert Post

I should probably just have an obligatory Ebert post, kind of like Marginal Revolution's "markets in everything." Is it weird that I've really started to think he's my friend? That if we met, he'd like me just as much as I like him? Or is that just a sign of how lonely and trapped in my mind I can get? Anyhow, here's my Ebert post. First, Ebert talks about the f-word, for no other reason than that it was kind of interesting. I also have used the word countless times, routinely still (sort of gives mea thrill to say it still), yet also find it really offensive.

The National Post just went ahead and printed the title. I do not believe the Chicago Sun-Times, or the majority of American newspapers, would. I wouldn't want to myself, although I have just printed it in this blog, with an advance warning.

Why not? I have used the word many, many times. I have heard it countless more times. On occasion it is employed simply as punctuation, and some people seem scarcely aware they have used it.

On the other hand, I was standing in a truck stop in Harbert, Michigan a few years ago, and one truck driver unleashed such a stream of fuckings to another that I quietly asked him, "Do you think that's an appropriate way to speak in a public place?"

How did he react? He gaped at me as if the thought had never occurred to him.

Second, the wife and I watched Alex Proyas's Dark City last night. The movie was written and directed by Proyas (who also gave us The Crow and I, Robot), but the screenplay had been polished by David Goyer, who has written many things I love, but especially Batman Begins. This movie stood out because the other day, I learned that Ebert not only gave the movie 4 stars out of 4 stars, but he also ranked it no. 1 in his Top Ten Movies of 1998. If I had to regress my ratings onto Ebert's ratings, I bet the correlation would be something like 0.85 or something, so I figured chances are not only will I love this, but it'll be the greatest movie of 1998 for me, too! Well, every now and then, ole Ebert lets me down. And when he does, it's sort of like getting kicked in the crotch by a well-aimed foot. Last night was one such night. My wife, on two occasions, rolled over and said to me, "This is the stupidest movie I've ever seen," and then one last time said, "You don't actually like this do you?" Like? Hmm. No, I can't say I "liked" it. It seemed to me like The Matrix meets Time Bandits or The Adventures of Baron Munchausen or something. By that I mean, it's a combination of the themes of alien oppression and delusion from The Matrix, but visually it reminded me of Terrry Gilliam's earlier stuff. I like Gilliam's movies, and especially Time Bandits, but I wasn't crazy about this Proyas movie. I personally found the story and pacing and characters of The Matrix, though, much more interesting, and I guess I'm just not all impressed by the imagination of the visuals. So I give it a shockingly low 2 stars out of 4 stars. Maybe it'll be totally different for you, but I was pretty let down by it.