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Home > Lists > Film Lists > 10 Great Movies that Roger
Ebert Hated
08 May 2015 | Features, Film Lists | by Adam Gray
On April 4, 2013, the world lost one of its most prolific and
talented writers: Roger Ebert. From 1967 until his death,Roger
Ebert was the film critic for the Chicago-Sun Times. Eberts first
important review was a few months into hisstint at the Sun-Times,
for the groundbreaking film Bonnie and Clyde, directed by Arthur
Penn. Rogers four-starreview heralded the film as the beginning of
a new age in American cinema, and he was right.
All through his career, Roger Ebert was a champion of films and
filmmakers. On their television program, Ebert and
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his co-host Gene Siskel brought small films to the attention of
their audience, including Steve James Hoop Dreams(which Ebert said
was not only the greatest film of 1994, but also the greatest movie
of that decade) and Spike LeesDo the Right Thing. Roger Ebert was
also a mentor to a generation of young filmmakers, writers and
critics.
In his reviews, Eberts prose could be witty, sarcastic,
mournful, triumphant, giddy, intellectual, silly or downrightangry.
Each review got to the heart of the film, to its nuts and bolts.
Ebert could reveal the real emotional truths of amovie, or expose a
film for the piece of garbage it was. Even if you didnt agree with
his opinions, you could stillunderstand where he was coming
from.
Just like anybody, occasionally Roger Ebert got it wrong.
Compiled below are ten films, ranked in absolutely noorder, which
Roger Ebert hated. Many audiences deemed them to be great or
worthwhile, in one way or another. Allof the films in the following
list are movies that Roger Ebert awarded less than two stars
(except for the last entry,which he awarded two stars but clearly
detested).
1. The Usual Suspects (1995)
Roger Ebert disliked this classic nineties crime film enough to
give it one and a half stars; although, to his credit, hedid watch
it a second time to see if perhaps he had been wrong. His main
issue with the film was the plot itself, whichhe felt to be a whole
lot of complexities that add up to less than nothing. This is the
review where Ebert famouslywrote: To the degree that I do
understand, I do not care.
The point that is missed in his review is that the film itself
is a game of cat-and-mouse between Kevin Spaceyssmall-time thief
Verbal Kint and Chazz Palminteris police officer Dave Kujan. The
films plot twists and turnssometimes feel like smoke and mirrors
because thats crucial to the final plot reveal. If the story had
been straight-forward, the last con would not have worked.
Ebert was also less than amused with this last twist, which he
feels changes the nature everything we have justwitnessed; again,
that was the point. In his review, Ebert wishes the filmmakers
would have focused more on thecharacters and less on the surprises.
Regarding the ending, he writes I prefer to be amazed by
motivation, notexplanation.
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2. Blue Velvet (1986)
David Lynchs Blue Velvet was a landmark 1980s American film. It
was his first post-Dune motion picture, and BlueVelvet was the
movie that established Lynch as a major filmmaker, not just another
talented writer/director. It was thisfilm, along with his
Oscar-nominated work in Hoosiers, which helped resurrect Dennis
Hoppers stalling career.
The film received rave reviews and several awards, including the
best film of the year award from the NationalSociety of Film
Critics. In addition, Lynch was nominated for the Academy Award for
Best Director (the films onlyOscar nomination).
In one of his most controversial reviews in an illustrious
career, Roger Ebert gave the film a rating of one and a halfstars.
Ebert found the passages involving star Kyle MacLachlan and
Isabella Rossellini powerful and disturbing, buthe felt that the
power and darkness of those scenes was contrasted by sequences of
day-to-day life in the fictionaltown of Lumberton.
He found the shift in the films tone distracting and
inappropriate to the darker sequences featuring Rossellini.
Thefilms central theme about how evil things can happen in a
seemingly quiet and peaceful town is an idea to whichDavid Lynch
returns again and again in his projects (for instance, in the
television program Twin Peaks).
Eberts main problem with the film, then, is the main point that
Lynch is trying to make. In the films openingsequence, for
instance, he shows us moments of small-town life in a town
reminiscent of Leave It to Beaver, andlater shows us the horrific
things creeping and waiting just below the surface.
In his interview with David Lynch entitled My Problem with Blue
Velvet, Ebert writes: I believe Lynch is a talenteddirector, and
that in Blue Velvet, he has used his talent in an unworthy way. The
movie is powerful, challenging andmade with great skill, and yet it
made me feel pity for the actors who worked in it and anger at the
director for takingliberties with them.
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Ethan and Joel Coen followed their brilliant 1984 directorial
debut, Blood Simple, with the comedy classic RaisingArizona. Even
then, the Brothers Coen refused to be pigeon-holed in one genre.
Instead of another thriller, RaisingArizona was a bizarre,
live-action Looney Tunes cartoon about love, family and crime set
in the American Southwest.
The film has an almost boundless comic energy; its in every way
the exact opposite of Blood Simple. In his one anda half star
review of Raising Arizona, its clear that Roger Ebert has several
problems with the films demented comicstyle.
Ebert states that the movie cannot decide if it exists in the
real world of trailer parks and 7-Elevens and Pampers, orin a
fantasy world of characters from another dimension. The film
cannot, Ebert goes on to say, decide if it is aboutreal people, or
comic exaggerations. For many audiences and critics, it was this
very go-for-broke, anything-goesapproach that makes Raising Arizona
so memorable.
Another issue that Roger had with the film is that every
character, as he says, talks funny. Ebert: They all elevatetheir
dialogue to an arch and artificial level thats distracting and
unconvincing and slows down the progress of thefilm. Granted, the
dialects in Raising Arizona can be over-the-top, but again, thats a
comic choice the Coensdecided on, and it works beautifully. Raising
Arizona probably wouldnt work without it.
4. Taste of Cherry (1997)
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Richard Corliss of Time Magazine named it the best film of 1997.
At the Cannes Film Festival, it tied with ShoheiImamuras The Eel to
win the coveted Palme dOr. It won the National Society of Film
Critics Award for Best ForeignLanguage Film. Iranian director Abbas
Kiarostamis Taste of Cherry had many admirers.
Roger Ebert, who awarded the film one star, was not one of them.
Ebert found the film excruciatingly boring. In hisreview, he
describes an argument he got into with fellow critics Jonathan
Rosenbaum and Dave Kehr over the film.Both believed they had seen a
masterpiece. I thought I had seen an emperor without any clothes.
In response tothe films many accolades and awards, Ebert says just
as a bad novel can be made into a good movie, so can aboring movie
be made into a fascinating movie review.
Ebert criticized Kiarostamis directing style as too slow-paced
and monotonous to be effective. He said the style wasunnecessary
for the material. Kiarostamis subtle, minimal approach to this
story, which could have been told in amore straight-forward, more
dramatic style, was a mistake in Eberts opinion.
Its interesting that many of the same things that Ebert is
critical of in his review are some of the same things thatEbert
defends in the films of directors such as Bla Tarr and Andrei
Tarkovsky.
5. The Devils (1971)
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The films of the late Ken Russell always were an acquired taste.
In the sixties and seventies, few major filmmakersdared to push the
boundaries of what was deemed appropriate or acceptable quite as
hard as Russell did. TheDevils, which stands as one of his greatest
achievements, is his most controversial and provocative work.
The lowest rating Roger Ebert could award a film was zero stars.
He saved a zero stars rating for films he foundmorally
reprehensible, beyond merely good or bad (for example, he gave zero
stars to the original I Spit on YourGrave and Rob Reiners
North).
In his review of The Devils, Ebert gives the film zero stars (on
his website, the zero stars rating is replaced with athumb down
icon). Its a little difficult to decipher Eberts feelings regarding
the film at first, since his review isextremely sarcastic. Roger
Ebert would often use humor in his more negative reviews, but his
use of sarcasm in thisreview get in the way of informing the reader
of why he hated The Devils so much.
One reason may be that Roger Ebert didnt feel that subject
matter warranted a film. He writes: I didnt want to bethe only
member of my generation unaware of the terrible events of 1634, a
year that will live in infamy. The Devilsis, due to its content and
subject matter, a disturbing movie. Ebert seemed to have thought
that Ken Russell went toofar. In one of the only lines that hints
at Rogers true feelings for the film, he writes it took courage for
me to go seeThe Devils, just like it took courage for Ken Russell
to make it.
Despite Eberts zero star review, and his failure to see The
Devils cultural relevance, it remains one of the great filmsof the
1970s and contains Oliver Reeds finest performance.
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1 Comment 1
Steven Flores Yeah, he was wrong about those films. That's OK.
He's usually spot-on about everything else.Besides, he hated North
and created one of the greatest reviews ever.
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