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Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert Quotes

Film critic

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Famous Roger Ebert Quotes

“I was instructed long ago by a wise editor, "If you understand something you can explain it so that almost anyone can understand it. If you don't, you won't be able to understand your own explanation." That is why 90% of academic film theory is bullshit. Jargon is the last refuge of the scoundrel.”

IfsLongAbleLastsFilmWiseTheoryExplanationEditorsAcademicLong AgoRefugeBullshitScoundrelsJargon
Book:Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2010
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“Immortals is without doubt the best-looking awful movie you will ever see. Eiko Ishioka's costume designs alone deserve an Oscar nomination. "They weren't at all historically accurate," grumbled a woman in the elevator after the sneak preview, as if lots of documentation exists about the wardrobes of the gods. She added: "I guess that's what we deserve for using free tickets we got at a Blackhawks game.”

IfsGamesDoubtDesignDeserveAwfulAccurateTicketsOscarsCostumesWardrobeSneakElevatorsNominationsDocumentationPreviewBlackhawks
Book:Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2013: 25th Anniversary Edition
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“Here is a children's film made for the world we should live in, rather than the one we occupy. A film with no villains. No fight scenes. No evil adults. No fighting between the two kids. No scary monsters. No darkness before the dawn. A world that is benign. A world where if you meet a strange towering creature in the forest, you curl up on its tummy and have a nap.”

IfsWorldShouldChildrenMadeTwoKidsFilmFightingEvilDarknessStrangeSceneCreaturesAdultsScaryMonstersForestsDawnVillainNapsCurlsBenignDarkness Before The Dawn
Author:Roger Ebert
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“A lot of people just go to movies that feed into their preexisting and not so noble needs and desires: They just go to action pictures, and things like that. But if you go to foreign films, if you go to documentaries, if you go to independent films, if you go to good films, you will become a better person because you will understand human nature better. Movies record human nature in a better way than any other art form, that's for sure.”

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Author:Roger Ebert
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“To know me is to love me. This cliche is popular for a reason, because most of us, I imagine, believe deep in our hearts that if anyone truly got to know us, they'd truly get to love us - or at least know why we're the way we are. The problem in life, maybe the central problem, is that so few people ever seem to have sufficient curiosity to do the job on us that we know we deserve.”

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Author:Roger Ebert
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“Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson star. I neglected to mention that, maybe because I was trying to place them in this review's version of the Witness Protection Program. If I were taken off the movie beat and assigned to cover the interior design of bowling alleys, I would have some idea of how they must have felt as they made this film.”

IfsTryingMadeIdeasFilmStarsFeltTakenDesignBeatsProgramProtectionVersionsWitnessReviewsInteriorsNeglectedKateInterior DesignAlleysMatthewBowlingBowling Alleys
Book:Your Movie Sucks
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“If you want to save yourself the ticket price, go into the kitchen, cue up a male choir singing the music of hell, and get a kid to start banging pots and pans together. Then close your eyes and use your imagination.”

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Book:A Horrible Experience of Unbearable Length: More Movies That Suck
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“Dice Rules is one of the most appalling movies I have ever seen. It could not be more damaging to the career of Andrew Dice Clay if it had been made as a documentary by someone who hated him. The fact that Clay apparently thinks this movie is worth seeing is revealing and sad, indicating that he not only lacks a sense of humor, but also ordinary human decency.”

IfsThinkingHumansMadeFactsCareersSeeingOrdinaryHatedSense Of HumorDocumentariesClayRevealingDecencyAndrewDice
Book:I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie
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“I was indeed a snob, if you agree with this definition: 'A person who believes that their tastes in a particular area are superior to those of other people.' I do believe that. Not superior to all other people, but to some, most probably including those who think Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen is a great film. That is not simply ego on my part. It is a faith that after writing and teaching about films for more than 40 years, my tastes are more evolved than those of a fanboy.”

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Author:Roger Ebert
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“The time in between my clapping is ma. If you just have non-stop action with no breathing space at all, it's just busyness, But if you take a moment, then the tension building in the film can grow into a wider dimension. If you just have constant tension at 80 degrees all the time you just get numb.”

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Book:Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2004
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“And yet, even so, there is a way to find happiness. That is to be curious about all of the interlocking events that add up to our lives. To notice connections. To be amused or perhaps frightened by the ways things work out. If the universe is indifferent, what a consolation that we are not.”

IfsWayUniverseOur LivesEventsConnectionsAddWork OutCuriousFrightenedIndifferentConsolationFinding HappinessAmusedThings Work Out
Book:Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2005
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“I've been around a long time, and young men, if there is one thing I know, it is that the only way to kiss a girl for the first time is to look like you want to and intend do, and move in fast enough to seem eager but slow enough to give her a chance to say "So anyway ..." and look up as if she's trying to remember your name.”

IfsKnowsMenWayWantGivingTryingFirstsLooksLongEnoughSeemsRememberRomanceMovingYoungGirlNamesChanceOne ThingLike YouKissingLong TimeFirst TimeDatingYoung ManLook Up
Author:Roger Ebert
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“Lebanon was at one time known as a nation that rose above sectarian hatred; Beirut was known as the Paris of the Middle East. All of that was blown apart by senseless religious wars, financed and exploited in part by those who sought power and wealth. If women had been in charge, would they have been more sensible? It's a theory.”

IfsHas BeensWarNationsReligiousWealthKnownMiddleTheoryHatredRoseEastParisOne TimeSensibleMiddle EastLebanonBeirutReligious Wars
Author:Roger Ebert
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“Parents and schools should place great emphasis on the idea that it is all right to be different. Racism and all the other 'isms' grow from primitive tribalism, the instinctive hostility against those of another tribe, race, religion, nationality, class or whatever. You are a lucky child if your parents taught you to accept diversity.”

IfsShouldChildrenIdeasDifferentSchoolGrowsParentRaceAcceptingClassTaughtLuckyDiversityRacismPrimitiveTribesEmphasisHostilityNationalityIsmsTribalismDifferent Nationalities
Author:Roger Ebert
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“The idea that a book can advise a woman how to capture a man is touchingly naive. Books advising men how to capture a woman are far less common, perhaps because few men are willing to admit to such a difficulty. For both sexes, I recommend a good novel, offering scenarios you might learn from, if only because they reflect a lot of doubt.”

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Book:Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2013: 25th Anniversary Edition
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