Roger Ebert: Trending quotes

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Roger Ebert: 528 quotes2 likes

“Why must a film explain everything? Why must every motivation be spelled out? Aren't many films fundamentally the same film, with only the specifics changed? Aren't many of them telling the same story? Seeking perfection, we see what our dreams and hopes might look like. We realize they come as a gift through no power of our own, and if we lose them, isn't that almost worse than never having had them in the first place?There will be many who find "To the Wonder" elusive and too effervescent. They'll be dissatisfied by a film that would rather evoke than supply. I understand that, and I think Terrence Malick does, too. But here he has attempted to reach more deeply than that: to reach beneath the surface, and find the soul in need.”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/to-the-wonder-2013 of To the Wonder (April 6, 2013) NOTE: This was the last movie review Roger Ebert filed. Reviews, Three-and-a-half star reviews

“I like good horror movies. They can exorcise our demons. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre doesn't want to exorcise anything. It wants to tramp crap through our imaginations and wipe its feet on our dreams. I think of filmgoers on a date, seeing this movie and then — what? I guess they'll have to laugh at it, irony being a fashionable response to the experience of being had. … Do yourself a favor. There are a lot of good movies playing right now that can make you feel a little happier, smarter, sexier, funnier, more excited — or more scared, if that's what you want. This is not one of them. Don't let it kill 98 minutes of your life.”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-texas-chainsaw-massacre-2003 of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (17 October 2003) Reviews, Zero star reviews

“Dirty Love wasn't written and directed, it was committed. Here is a film so pitiful, it doesn't rise to the level of badness. It is hopelessly incompetent… I am not certain that anyone involved has ever seen a movie, or knows what one is.”

Roger Ebert

Review http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050922/REVIEWS/509220303/1023 of Dirty Love (23 September 2005) Reviews, Zero star reviews

“Parents: If you encounter teenagers who say they liked this movie, do not let them date your children.”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/resident-evil-apocalypse-2004 of Resident Evil: Apocalypse (10 September 2004) Reviews, Half-star reviews

“What did I think about this movie? As a film critic, I liked it. I liked the in-jokes and the self-aware characters. At the same time, I was aware of the incredible level of gore in this film. It is *really* violent. Is the violence defused by the ironic way the film uses it and comments on it? For me, it was. For some viewers, it will not be, and they will be horrified. Which category do you fall in? Here's an easy test: When I mentioned Fangoria, did you know what I was talking about?”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/scream-1996 of Scream (20 December 1996) Reviews, Three star reviews

“As I swim through the summer tide of vulgarity, I find that's what I'm looking for: Movies that at least feel affection for their characters. Raunchy is OK. Cruel is not.”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/american-pie-1999 of American Pie (9 July 1999) Reviews, Three star reviews

“So OK. Let’s say you know the novel, you agree with Ayn Rand, you’re an objectivist or a libertarian, and you’ve been waiting eagerly for this movie. Man, are you going to get a letdown. It’s not enough that a movie agree with you, in however an incoherent and murky fashion. It would help if it were like, you know, entertaining?”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/atlas-shrugged-2011 of Atlas Shrugged: Part I (14 April 2011) Reviews, One-star reviews

“Films like Fargo are why I love the movies.”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/fargo-1996 of Fargo (8 March 1996) Reviews, Four star reviews

“This is a movie that comes in two parts: It knows exactly what to do with special effects, but doesn't have a clue as to how two people in love might act and talk and think.
Movies like Top Gun are hard to review because the good parts are so good and the bad parts are so relentless. The dogfights are absolutely the best since Clint Eastwood's electrifying aerial scenes in Firefox. But look out for the scenes where the people talk to one another.”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/top-gun-1986 of Top Gun (16 May 1986) Reviews, Two-and-a-half star reviews

“Immortals is without doubt the best-looking awful movie you will ever see. Eiko Ishioka's costume designs alone deserve an Oscar nomination. "They weren't at all historically accurate," grumbled a woman in the elevator after the sneak preview, as if lots of documentation exists about the wardrobes of the gods. She added: "I guess that's what we deserve for using free tickets we got at a Blackhawks game."”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/immortals-2011 of Immortals (9 November 2011) Reviews, One-and-a-half star reviews

“This movie was made by professionals. Do not attempt any of this behavior yourself.”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/superbad-2007 of Superbad (17 August 2007) Reviews, Three-and-a-half star reviews

“Blue Velvet contains scenes of such raw emotional energy that it's easy to understand why some critics have hailed it as a masterpiece. A film this painful and wounding has to be given special consideration. And yet those scenes of stark sexual despair are the tipoff to what's wrong with the movie. They're so strong that they deserve to be in a movie that is sincere, honest and true. But Blue Velvet surrounds them with a story that's marred by sophomoric satire and cheap shots. The director is either denying the strength of his material or trying to defuse it by pretending it's all part of a campy in-joke. … What's worse? Slapping somebody around, or standing back and finding the whole thing funny?”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/blue-velvet-1986 of Blue Velvet (19 September 1986) Reviews, One-star reviews

“Rarely has a movie this expensive provided so many quotable lines.”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/ghostbusters-1984 of Ghostbusters (1 January 1984) Reviews, Three-and-a-half star reviews

“The star rating system is relative, not absolute. When you ask a friend if Hellboy is any good, you're not asking if it's any good compared to Mystic River, you're asking if it's any good compared to The Punisher. And my answer would be, on a scale of one to four, if Superman (1978) is four, then Hellboy is three and The Punisher is two. In the same way, if American Beauty gets four stars, then [The United States of] Leland clocks in at about two.”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/shaolin-soccer-2004 of Shaolin Soccer (23 April 2004) Reviews, Three star reviews

“Anna’s reaction is more complex than you might imagine, and it’s at such a moment you appreciate the woman in the writer-director’s chair. Women, I suspect, are more likely than men to view sex from the over-all perspective of what we may call their lives. In a country like Saudi Arabia, whose citizens express discomfort about men and women even attending movies together, I have little doubt which gender is more concerned.”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/humpday-2009 of Humpday (22 July 2009) Reviews, Three-and-a-half star reviews

“You used to be able to depend on a bad film being poorly made. No longer. The Punisher: War Zone [sic] is one of the best-made bad movies I've seen…Its only flaw is that it's disgusting.”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/punisher-war-zone-2008 of Punisher: War Zone (3 December 2008) Reviews, Two star reviews

“Well, what is a political film? A film about politicians? Or a film about issues — sexism, racism, the environment, nuclear policy? I decided on the broader definition. If I'd limited myself to films about politicians, it would have been a short list: How many characters in any mainstream American movie seem aware of the political process, or belong to a party?”

Roger Ebert

Ranking "the 20 best political films of the past two decades" in "The Big Picture: Roger Ebert" in MotherJones (May/June 1996) http://www.motherjones.com/arts/film/1996/05/ebert.html

“Reader, I must confess that while attending the sneak preview with its overwhelmingly female audience, I was gob-smacked by the delightful cleavage on display. Do women wear their lowest-cut frocks for each other?”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/sex-and-the-city-2-2010 of Sex and the City 2 (25 May 2010) Reviews, One-star reviews

“Films like Speed belong to the genre I call Bruised Forearm Movies, because you're always grabbing the arm of the person sitting next to you. Done wrong, they seem like tired replays of old chase cliches. Done well, they're fun. Done as well as Speed, they generate a kind of manic exhilaration.”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/speed-1994 of Speed (10 June 1994) Reviews, Four star reviews

“I have discovered a goodness and decency in people as exhibited in all the letters, e-mails, flowers, gifts and prayers that have been directed my way. I am overwhelmed and humbled. I offer you my most sincere thanks and my deep and abiding gratitude. If I ever write my memoirs, I have some spellbinding material. How does the Joni Mitchell song go? "Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone"? One thing I've discovered is that I love my job more than I thought I did, and I love my wife even more!”

Roger Ebert

"Roger writes to readers" Chicago Sun Times (11 October 2006)