Posted by chicagomedia.org on October 19, 2008 at 07:31:39:
And he knows dense: It's time to arrange a decent burial for the brain-dead and utterly useless post-"Ebert & Roeper" incarnation of the Chicago-based nationally syndicated "At the Movies" review program.
Typical of the show's shallow, inane commentary was Ben Lyons' assessment of "Body of Lies" last weekend: "I found the film to be overtly complicated. Just because it's really dense and layered doesn't necessarily mean it's good."
Overtly complicated?
Are the people who work on this show, produced at Walt Disney Co.-owned WLS-Ch. 7, so numb to the gibberish at this point that they don't even stop the taping sessions anymore to ask Lyons what he is trying to say so they can help him say it better? Or did they in fact work with him, and this was still the best he could do?
Now I will stipulate I am a former Sun-Times colleague of Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper and consider each a friend. I also will admit I have no idea how complicated or even watchable "Body of Lies" is; I haven't seen it.
But one would think the folks at Disney, from Bob Iger on down, would take more care not to insult the intelligence of those of us who watch TV and/or like movies by continuing to churn out nonsense like this.
(Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune)