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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

10 Great Movies that Roger Ebert Hated Taste of Cinema http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2015/10-great-movies-that-roger-ebert-hated/

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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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