Posted by chicagomedia.org on September 10, 2008 at 07:24:03:
The new version of Disney's "At the Movies," with critics Ben Mankiewicz and Ben Lyons replacing Roger Ebert and my pal Richard Roeper as dueling reviewers, opened over the weekend. Call it "ATM: All About the Benjamins."
"It doesn't really work," Entertainment Weekly's John Young observed on EW.com.
Certainly, those who loved the interplay of Ebert and the late Gene Siskel, or Roeper and the Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips, were apt to be disappointed by the level of the discussion. The new balcony-less set was brighter than the reviews. Sample exchange:
Lyons: "Name me a bad Don Cheadle movie. Quick."
Mankiewicz: "That is tough. 'Ocean's 12.' "
Lyons: "The 'Ocean's' movies don't count!"
And what the machine-gun sound bites Mankiewicz and Lyons wrapped around film clips—and, at one point, a curiously noticeable Apple logo—lacked in depth, they made up for in volume. Especially when three other critics were piped in a la ESPN's loudest argument show, "Around the Horn," for a round-table discussion.
If the notion of adding the voices of other critics was to make up for the lack of insight offered from the main hosts, having a critic who recommended a film despite an admission, "I didn't know who these people were or where they were," didn't do it.
Since the point seemed to be to create movie-ad quotes, here are a couple that could just as well be self-assessments:
"Didn't you think they were holding your hand, tugging you along, telling you what to feel? … Like, 'Look, hey, we're being subtle. Look at us being subtle.' "—Mankiewicz.
"I unfortunately had a seat that faced the screen, and I have two hours of my life that I won't get back."—Lyons.
(ROSENTHAL/trib)