Roger Ebert on Dolling Out Too Many ****, etc.

I've been saying for the better part of a decade that Roger Ebert is too much of a pushover for the movies. Which is in no way to say that I don't like his reviews, which I do. But I was happy to run across this response to people telling him just that: link. In the article he offers up an interesting factoid, that the four star movie rating started "at the New York Daily News in 1929" (he qualifies it with "I think," but still, interesting if even in the ballpark). He also notes that Gene Siskel was a proponent of the binary system: see it or skip it (using the new At the Movies verbiage). By the way, I accept his explanation, but I'm still gonna be stingy with my four-stars!

Also, if you missed it, there was a (now that we know it was nothing) funny altercation between Ebert and a New York Post critic, in which the critic accosted Ebert after Ebert tapped him in a screening (trying to get his attention about blocking the screen). Ebert had a response in his column, which appears to have been taken down but the story is explained in this E! link.

Lastly, good ol' Roger shows he's not lost his sense of humor, responding to some punk's query about Ebert's non-reviewing of Disaster Movie: link.