Roger Ebert: Film

Roger Ebert was American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter. Explore interesting quotes on film.

Roger Ebert: 528 quotes2 likes

“I am required to award stars to movies I review. This time, I refuse to do it. The star rating system is unsuited to this film. Is the movie good? Is it bad? Does it matter? It is what it is and occupies a world where the stars don't shine.”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-human-centipede-2010 of The Human Centipede (5 May 2010) Reviews, No star rating

“Khan is played as a cauldron of resentment by Ricardo Montalban, and his performance is so strong that he helps illustrate a general principle involving not only Star Trek but Star Wars and all the epic serials, especially the James Bond movies: Each film is only as good as its villain. Since the heroes and the gimmicks tend to repeat from film to film, only a great villain can transform a good try into a triumph.”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/star-trek-ii-the-wrath-of-khan-1982 of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1 January 1982) Reviews, Three star reviews

“In my very first review I was already jaded, observing of "Galia," an obscure French film, that it "opens and closes with arty shots of the ocean, mother of us all, but in between it's pretty clear that what is washing ashore is the French New Wave." My pose in those days was one of superiority to the movies, although just when I had the exact angle of condescension calculated, a movie would open that disarmed my defenses and left me ecstatic and joyful.”

Roger Ebert

Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert (2006)

“When the film premiered at Cannes 2003, Lars von Trier was accused of not portraying Americans accurately, but how many movies do? Anything by David Spade come to mind? Von Trier could justifiably make a fantasy about America, even an anti-American fantasy, and produce a good film, but here he approaches the ideological subtlety of a raving prophet on a street corner.”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/dogville-2004 of Dogville (9 April 2004) Reviews, Two star reviews

“Here is how [life] happens. We find something we want to do, if we are lucky, or something we need to do, if we are like most people. We use it as a way to obtain food, shelter, clothing, mates, comfort, a first folio of Shakespeare, model airplanes, American Girl dolls, a handful of rice, sex, solitude, a trip to Venice, Nikes, drinking water, plastic surgery, child care, dogs, medicine, education, cars, spiritual solace -- whatever we think we need. To do this, we enact the role we call "me," trying to brand ourselves as a person who can and should obtain these things.In the process, we place the people in our lives into compartments and define how they should behave to our advantage. Because we cannot force them to follow our desires, we deal with projections of them created in our minds. But they will be contrary and have wills of their own. Eventually new projections of us are dealing with new projections of them. Sometimes versions of ourselves disagree. We succumb to temptation — but, oh, father, what else was I gonna do? I feel like hell. I repent. I'll do it again… This has not been a conventional review. There is no need to name the characters, name the actors, assign adjectives to their acting. Look at who is in this cast. You know what I think of them. This film must not have seemed strange to them. It's what they do all day, especially waiting around for the director to make up his mind.”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/synecdoche-new-york-2008 of Synecdoche, New York (5 November 2008) Reviews, Four star reviews

“There is a scene in this film where a character is defecated on by several people at the same time, and I dunno … I didn't enjoy it.”

Roger Ebert

Source: Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/tim-and-erics-billion-dollar-movie-2012 of Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie (29 February 2012)

“Empathy has been in short supply in our nation recently. Our leaders are quick to congratulate us on our own feelings, slow to ask us to wonder how others feel. But maybe times are changing. Every Lee film is an exercise in empathy. He is not interested in congratulating the black people in his audience, or condemning the white ones. He puts human beings on the screen, and asks his audience to walk a little while in their shoes.”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/malcolm-x-1992 of Malcolm X (18 November 1992) Reviews, Four star reviews

“To see strong acting like this is exhilarating. In a time of flashy directors who slice and dice their films in a dizzy editing rhythm, it is important to remember that films can look and listen and attentively sympathize with their characters. Directors grow great by subtracting, not adding, and Eastwood does nothing for show, everything for effect.”

Roger Ebert

Reviews, Four star reviews Source: Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/mystic-river-2003 of Mystic River (8 October 2003)

“The R rating refers to Logue's use of vulgarity. It is utterly inexplicable. This is an excellent film for teenagers.”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-kings-speech-2010 of The King's Speech (15 December 2010) Reviews, Four star reviews

“Especially in its opening scenes, Ballast is "slower" and "quieter" than we usually expect. You know what? So is life, most of the time. We don't wake up and immediately start engaging with plot points. But Ballast inexorably grows and deepens and gathers power and absorbs us. I always say I hardly ever cry at sad films, but I sometimes do, just a little, at films about good people.”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/ballast-2008 of Ballast (29 October 2008) Reviews, Four star reviews

“These days too many children's movies are infected by the virus of Winning, as if kids are nothing more than underage pro athletes, and the values of Vince Lombardi prevail: It's not how you play the game, but whether you win or lose. This is a movie that breaks with that tradition, that allows its kids to be kids, that shows them in the insular world of imagination and dreaming that children create entirely apart from adult domains and values. There was a moment in the film when Rodriguez hit a line drive directly at the pitcher's mound, and I ducked and held up my mitt, and then I realized I didn't have a mitt, and it was then I also realized how completely this movie had seduced me with its memories of what really matters when you are 12.”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-sandlot-1993 of The Sandlot (7 April 1993) Reviews, Three star reviews

“Only enormously talented people could have made Death to Smoochy. Those with lesser gifts would have lacked the nerve to make a film so bad, so miscalculated, so lacking any connection with any possible audience.”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/death-to-smoochy-2002 of Death to Smoochy (29 March 2002) Reviews, Half-star reviews

“Chaos is ugly, nihilistic, and cruel -- a film I regret having seen. I urge you to avoid it. Don't make the mistake of thinking it's 'only' a horror film, or a slasher film. It is an exercise in heartless cruelty and it ends with careless brutality. The movie denies not only the value of life, but the possibility of hope.”

Roger Ebert

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/chaos-2005 of Chaos (11 August 2005) Reviews, Zero star reviews