movie Glossary
Dead for Sure, No Doubt About It
In a movie, the absolute proof of the death of a character is when blood drips slowly from the corner of the mouth. This is in too many movies to document. An interesting variation was the dripping of liquid metal from the evil mutant's mouth in "X-Men 2." As a physician, I can tell you that blood coming from the mouth after a fight is either, 1) a sign of a communication of the esophagus with a major blood vessel, which would be fatal, or 2) a cut in the mouth, which would not be. KEN ROSENZWEIG, ENGLEWOOD, N.J.
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By Roger EbertPaul Newman, a sublime actor and a good man, is dead at 83. The movie legend died Friday at his home in Connecticut, a family spokeswoman said. The cause of death was lung cancer. Newman reportedly told his family he chose to die at home.
By Roger Ebert
KENOSHA, Wis. — “I just want to make one thing clear,” Paul Newman told the crowd at the American Motors plant. “I’m not here because I’m an actor. I’m here because I got six kids, and I’m worried about their future.”
He held up his right hand and the thumb of his left, which made six, and a little girl with long brown hair and tears in her eyes could restrain herself no longer.
 
The Duchess (PG-13)
By Roger Ebert
Much is made in Britain of the fact that Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire (1757-1806) was the great-great-great-great-aunt of Diana, Princess of Wales. I wouldn't know where to start in counting my own great-great-great-great-aunts, but the Brits have an obsession with genealogy, and then too both women married men who were fabulously wealthy, had several enormous houses and kept mistresses, and both women had lovers. The difference is, Georgiana was more interesting.
Eagle Eye (PG-13)
By Roger EbertThe word preposterous is too moderate to describe "Eagle Eye." This film contains not a single plausible moment after the opening sequence, and that's borderline. It's not an assault on intelligence. It's an assault on consciousness. I know, I know, I liked "Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor," but that film intended to be absurd. "Eagle Eye" has real cars and buildings and trains and CNN and stuff, and purports to take place in the real world.
The Lucky Ones (R)
By Roger EbertThree soldiers, home on a month's leave from Iraq, find themselves on an odyssey from New York to Las Vegas in "The Lucky Ones." That's the setup. The journey involves your standard rest stops: friendly diners, dubious mechanics, fervent church people, roadside hookers, redneck saloons, lonely motels, tornadoes, casinos -- those sorts of things. This formula is fraught with pitfalls, but the characters and the actors redeem it with a surprising emotional impact.
Nights in Rodanthe (PG-13)
By Roger Ebert"Nights in Rodanthe" is what Variety likes to call a "weeper." The term is not often intended as praise. The movie attempts to jerk tears with one clunky device after another, in a plot that is a perfect storm of cliche and contrivance. In fact, it even contains a storm -- an imperfect one.
Trouble the Water (No MPAA rating)
Do you know what it means? To miss New Orleans? -- song lyrics By Roger EbertAs I write, the hellstorm Ike is battering Texas. I hear of evacuation buses, National Guard troops, emergency supplies, contraflow, Red Cross volunteers, helicopter rescues. It is a different world from the world after Katrina hit New Orleans. Yes, there were noble rescue efforts, but too little and too late, and without enough urgency on the part of the federal ("You're doin' a great job, Brownie!") government.
From Ebert's new book, now on sale. by Roger Ebert We were born five months apart in 1942, into worlds that could not have differed more: Martin Scorsese in Queens, me in downstate Illinois, but in important ways we had similar childhoods. We were children of working-class parents who were well aware of their ethnic origins. We attended Roman Catholic schools and churches that, in those pre-Vatican II days, would have been substantially similar. We memorized the Latin of the Mass, we were drilled on mortal sins, venial sins, sanctifying grace, the fires of hell; we memorized great swathes of the Baltimore Catechism. We were baffled by the concept of Forever, and asked how it was that God could have no beginning and no end. We were indoors children, not gifted at sports: “That boy always has his nose buried in a book.”
Q. I saw an article on movieweb .com that said its author was sitting next to a film critic who "remained on his cell phone for the entire duration of 'Towelhead.' While he wasn't talking on the phone, he [spent] most of the two hours click-typing out texts. His head was continuously pulled down, face away from the screen, his zombie-like eyes bathed in that annoying bright blue light." Your reaction?
by Roger Ebert
Dear Boss:
As you know, Katie Couric leaked part of her interview with Sarah Palin that didn't go on the air. After they discussed Roe v. Wade, Katie asked if Gov. Palin could name any other Supreme Court decisions. Put on the spot like that, of course she couldn't! It was a typical "Gotcha!" question.
by Roger EbertI do not like you, John McCain. My feeling has nothing to do with issues. It has to do with common courtesy. During the debate, you refused to look Barack Obama in the eye. Indeed, you refused to look at him at all. Even when the two of you shook hands at the start, you used your eyes only to locate his hand, and then gazed past him as you shook it.
By Roger EbertTORONTO, Ont.--When he was a kid in Brooklyn, Spike Lee said, he and his brothers loved war movies: "Three little boys, so it was fun to see the Germans get shot and blown up and stuff like that. But even as a kid, I knew that black people were involved in the war because my father’s two older brothers were World War II."
Spike Lee is a spellbinder. I got wrapped up in my conversation with him at the Toronto festival, after the premiere of "Miracle at St. Anna," which opens Sept. 26. This is a very lightly edited transcript, with my questions removed to capture Spike's voice.
Adaptation. (R) (2002)
By Roger EbertCharlie Kaufman's screenplay for "Adaptation." (2002) has it three ways. It is wickedly playful in its construction, it gets the story told, and it doubles back and kids itself. There is also the sense that to some degree it's true: that it records the torments of a screenwriter who doesn't know how the hell to write a movie about orchids. And it has the audacity to introduce characters we know are based on real people and has them do shocking things.
by Roger Ebert (2005)IMAX theaters in several Southern cities have decided not to show a film on volcanoes out of concern that its references to evolution might offend those with fundamental religious beliefs. -- Associated Press I suppose the AP meant to say "fundamentalist," since most people with fundamental religious beliefs, including the pope, believe in the theory of evolution. But what is more disturbing is that the theaters have made this decision simply because they are afraid someone might be offended. Not even a single protester needed to appear before the chilling effect of faith-based intolerance was felt.
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That's the hard-boiled Dragline, speaking of Cool Hand Luke. After she read my obituary of Paul Newman, my wife Chaz asked me, "Why didn't you write more about his acting?" She was right. Why didn't I? I've been asking myself that. Maybe I was trying to tell myself something. I think it was this: I never really thought of him as an actor. I regarded him more as an embodiment, an evocation, of something. And I think that something was himself. He seemed above all a deeply good man, who freed himself to live life fully and joyfully, and used his success as a way to follow his own path, and to help others.
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