I went for a long time being sure )I mean REALLY sure) that an Amazon wrapper was a box.
@BWhit i wondered for way too long whether it was a bra.
@BWhit Same, especially since I opened one this morning! What a fabulous misdirect taking us south of the border!
@BWhit as I’m reading this I am realizing that it is not, in fact, box.
"Fifteen minutes of fun packed into thirty-one minutes!"
@Your Fired 😂 Way to seize the spirit of the puzzle!!!!!
I loved this puzzle. Loved loved loved loved loved this puzzle. Loved it.
@Jacqui J great comment
As a big fan of Roger Ebert back in the day, I love love loved this puzzle. He called ‘em as he seen ‘em, and even when he was scathing he was always fair. I used to follow his Movie Answer Man column on Compuserve.(And if that doesn’t date me, nothing will!) One day, I wrote him an email to offer a counter opinion to something he had written, and much to my surprise, he replied with a lengthy, thoughtful and appreciative response. He was a true gentleman, and movie criticism hasn’t been the same without him. Two thumbs up. (Gene, I miss you, too.)
@Heidi What a great thing to have something written especially for you by Ebert! Somehow I have the impression he enjoyed engaging with people. I got a short one. Not too long after his web site was launched he (or someone) misspelled Amy Brenneman (which is an easy name to misspell). Anyway, I emailed him about it, and he wrote back "God, you're right.". I wish I'd saved that e-mail.
You may know this one already, but my favorite Roger Ebert story isn't about the movies. He was watching a movie one night, decided it was a waste of his time, and wandered into a folk club that was having an open mic night. Knowing nothing about the performer, he happened upon a mailman who was playing guitar and singing his own compositions. Yes, that is how the world learned about John Prine. <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/features/john-prine-american-legend" target="_blank">https://www.rogerebert.com/features/john-prine-american-legend</a>
@Jack McCullough Thank you for that link, a fascinating read. This was a delightful puzzle! I hope to see many more puzzles from John McClung.
@Jack McCullough Amazing— thanks for sharing!
@Jack McCullough Thanks for the article on John Prine! I had never heard of him and sent the article to a folk music-loving friend who told me how much he loved Prine and that I should also check out Tom Waits. He then proceeded to send me 3 covers of Tom Waits tunes that were all amazing! What a delightful rabbit hole the comments are today!
@Jack McCullough What a great article about John Prine. Anyone who considers Prine one of America's best songwriters will consider it time well spent reading that article. Anyone not that familiar with Prine's work may be inspired to become so after reading the article.
@Jack McCullough thank you for sharing this connection! John Prine always comes along with me on long road trips...
@Jack McCullough Amazing! I had no idea he lived 30 minutes from where I grew up. Some of us were talking about him on this forum not long ago. Among other songs, we discussed "Summer's End." I also like the collaborations he did with Kurt Vile. <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TNDmIrh1Cwo" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TNDmIrh1Cwo</a>
Two thumbs up for me. I so miss Roger Ebert. I did wonder as I was reading the clues whether these were movie critiques or quotes from crossword commentators. Pretty straightforward clues—maybe more a Tuesday? Nothing too tricky, except “Amazon wrapper” which gave me a smile. One comment, I never noticed signs at school zones that say SLO instead of “Slow”. If so it’s pretty ironic that we can’t even teach our kids to spell in a school zone.
@SP Just noticed this was your debut John. Congrats, nice smooth fill for a first timer, well done, I look forward to more.
SP, As you likely know, SLO has been clued this way hundreds of times, going back to 1953. The pavement marking is a staple of the Crosslandia School District.
Fun puzzle! I knew the theme right away when I saw 18A, and even knew the film off the top of my head--I had bought Ebert's collection "I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie" at a train station back in the 2000s. My only criticism is that it would have been nice to celebrate both Siskel and Ebert, since I believe this week marks the 50th anniversary of their debut as a reviewer team on television.
@CJ Oh jeez, their 50th anniversary really dates me. It was very small potatoes at the beginning when it was on WTTW, our local PBS affiliate.
@CJ yes I knew it as soon as I saw the clue as well. His review of North is legendary. Anyhow, I loved Loved loved loved the theme of this crossword.
@CJ Someone not that familiar with Roger Ebert might see this puzzle and think he was just a curmudgeon. But of course, Ebert loved good movies, and was never hesitant to be heap praise on films that deserved it. I'm so grateful that IMDB features his reviews on countless films.
Much to trigger smiles today: • The Ebert barbs, each of which brought s genuine “Hah!” • Words/phrases I greatly enjoy: DITTIES, AUTEURS, HOBNOB, BENDERS, BUM RAP. • TOM on Thanksgiving Eve. • The constructor’s notes, with more Ebert digs and the line “the monkey who lives in my cranium”. • A rare-in-crosswords five-letter semordnilap REPEL. • MAE crossing EAST, causing my brain to tap me on the shoulder and shout, “MAE should have crossed WEST!” • Speaking of directions, NORTH crossing NOTRE, which anagrams to “norte”, Spanish for NORTH. • The inspiring backstory of the constructor, who today had a puzzle published in the NYT, one year after he started making them. Wow! Congratulations, John. What a terrific tribute puzzle – thank you!
I really, really enjoyed this puzzle. I go way back to "Sneak Preview" on PBS with Siskel and Ebert. I loved that show, loved their success (tragically short in Siskel's case) but I also missed their outgrowing their PBS origins. What a success story! And there is a lot of hilarious literature about pranks they played on one another--I think it's pretty clear that they weren't exactly bosom buddies. Ebert's five-fold repetition of "hated" in his North review is something I've used numerous times for things I despised. What a happy surprise to see it in the crossword puzzle. Now, that doesn't mean I glided to a perfect landing. I plucked around for quite a while fixing an embarrassment of errors. Not nED, but JED. Not LAUREl but LAUREN. Not IPoD, but IPAD (which was tough with the cross, that could go "a" or "o".) And every time I found one of these I was overcome with relief, only to be shattered when all I got was another "Sorry". And each time, I could feel a tiny but vital bit of life force draining from me...that was dumb. I just felt annoyed. I think my problem is that I consider doing the puzzle as the price of admission to the comments. I've never read the comments before closing a puzzle. So that puts an extra urgency on solving the puzzle. It's how I get to the party. I'm surprised to find that I'm still writing this. I'd be even more surprised if you're still reading this.
@Francis to the party? more to kafkas trial, seems like. but i feel you...
@Francis I'm still here. (Footnote for Andrzej: title of great song by Sondheim. But you'll never know...)
And a P. S. We are finally getting some bona fide winter weather. A really nice looking *and* sounding snow storm. Sorry to those it inconveniences, but I do love winter weather.
The inclusion of an Oscar Wilde quote (23A) is a fun addition. If he had been around a hundred years later, I bet he’d have put out some doozies of hilarious dismissive movie reviews. “Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative - I really really really hated this movie.”
@Cat Lady Margaret I have nothing to declare except my genius and my hatred of this movie.
Also from Roger Ebert: To call “A Lot Like Love” dead in the water is an insult to water. (2005) On the movie “Mr. Magoo”: There is not a laugh in it. Not one. I counted. (1997) On the movie “Masterminds”: I stopped taking notes on my Palm Pilot and started playing the little chess game. (1997)
Some puzzles are a workout, which I love. Some are a puzzle-in-a-puzzle, which I love. Some are a riddle, some a play on words. Love ‘em. Today’s was a romp. A frolic. The perfect song playing on the radio as the weather has shifted and the windows are open and the world feels a bit lighter, and you just want to keep on driving…
Roger Ebert, Oscar Wilde, Nathaniel Hawthorne—what’s not to love about the puzzle? I needed a few crosses before ARMAGEDDON popped in, and I couldn’t quite remember the movie. So, later, I googled it, and went, “Ahhh, yes.” I had just finished misspending my youth as a physics undergrad when the movie came out, and I was on a date with a guy from my department when I saw it. We laughed ourselves silly. Aptly, too, Wikipedia quotes Ben Affleck as saying, "I asked [director] Michael why it was easier to train oil drillers to become astronauts than it was to train astronauts to become oil drillers, and he told me to shut the [hi, emus] up, so that was the end of that talk." Ebert called ‘em as he saw ‘em. A talent to be forever missed. Nice job on your debut, John. I’m still smiling at the BOA clue.
@Sam Lyons I embraced the siIIy spectacle of "Armageddon" and enjoyed it greatly - maybe because I didn't go to see it with that piece of tra$h who insulted you. Did it make sense? Of course not, but aren't all stories based on a premise that wouldn't really work in the real world? Wouldn't it be easier for Antigone to let go of wanting to bury her brother? But we wouldn't have had the play then... I was not familiar with Ebert but I'll try to review "Antigone" in his style, as evidenced solely by today's several clues: "It was like spending two hours locked in a stinky bathroom with an emo teenager" (but hating, hating, hating, hating, hating it is apparently the *mature* thing to do 🤷🏽) Btw. Since apparently this guy was so beloved, why don't y'all love the grumpier among my posts more? 🤣 (I'm not aiming this at you, Sam)
@Sam Lyons I know what you mean about feeling superior to the rest of the audience 😃 When I went to see "Gladiator" I was in the middle of my Ancient Roman Law course and I cringed so hard over how manumission was presented 🤣. I screamed inside: "You f00I5! That's now how it worked!!!" Anyway, I didn't like the movie, but mostly because of the ahistorical ending of Commodus's life.
The only movie I'd ever heard of was Armageddon. Nevertheless, it was pretty easy to complete the puzzle and figure out that it was Roger Ebert whose reviews were quoted. But the happy coincidence for me was the answer to 38A. For days now I've been wracking my brain trying to remember the name of a phenomenal indie movie, likely the very first indie movie, I saw in the early mid-80s, and NORTH made it pop into my brain. The movie was El Norte, and few here have probably ever heard of or seen it. I urge you to either find it online or at least to read the Wikipedia article about it. It is so poignantly and heartbreakingly apropos of what is going on today, but also interspersed with a bit of comical relief. Roger Ebert is even quoted in the article, and Wikipedia cites the one scene I remember best, when the heroine is exposed to the modern convenience of a washing machine. El Norte received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay in 1985. In 1995, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". I hope that the current thugs in charge of destroying our culture don't rip this film from its place in the LOC.
@Times Rita I read of/heard of this movie ("El Norte") but have never seen it. ....(among the many dozens of movies I wish I could see...without going to a movie theater!)
@Times Rita Thanks! I had forgotten that one.
@Times Rita - Of the films in this puzzle I'd only watched Armageddon, but I'd heard of Pearl Harbor and Battlefield Earth simply because they were panned so much. Battlefield Earth actually earned a Razzie as worst film of the *decade*.
@Times Rita Ebert loved "El Norte" - <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/el-norte-1983" target="_blank">https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/el-norte-1983</a> I've added it to my watchlist. Thank you!
Quite an enjoyable debut, Mr. McClung. I think that’s it was matched with the correct day of the week, which is always good. I think I would recognize Roger Ebert’s writing almost anywhere. During the last chapter of his life he was producing op-eds on important societal issues related to both Chicago and the nation, in addition to his movie reviews. He was an irreplaceable treasure and is dearly missed.
I loved how “auteur” was thrown in with Ebert’s hilarious pans of Hollywood schlock. There was a bit of a missed opportunity to clue “stone” as director Oliver Stone, but I’m nitpicking. Great theme, good fill - more like this, please!
Congratulations on your debut, John, and thank you for a well-made puzzle, fun to work, and I'm always glad to spend some time with an old friend. At least we felt Roger Ebert was an old friend from the time he showed up with Gene Siskel on PBS. I tended to side more with Siskel than Ebert, but after Siskel died (way too young), I was still devoted to the show and always eager to hear Ebert's take on new movies. I google his reviews now when we're trying to decide on whether an older movie will be worth watching, and I still disagree with his take sometimes, but that just adds to the pleasure of reading his reviews.
@dutchiris I'm very much the same. In the early days, on those few movies I managed to see, I agreed a bit more with Siskel. They were fascinating. Some of their exchanges seemed much more cutting than was common for the day. For a while after he died, when I'd want a take on a movie, I'd ask "Did this come out before Ebert died? Might he have reviewed it?"
I'm not much of a movie goer, but I enjoyed this. Everything was gettable with crosses and it took longer for me than recent early week puzzles, and I always like that. Not about movies, but my all-time favorite restaurant review: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/dining/reviews/restaurant-review-guys-american-kitchen-bar-in-times-square.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4E8.X7rK.xj9PD9d832mA&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/dining/reviews/restaurant-review-guys-american-kitchen-bar-in-times-square.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4E8.X7rK.xj9PD9d832mA&smid=url-share</a>
@Nancy J. Ouch. Every sentence except the last one is a question, which is fun. I clicked on the resto link; it timed out. I can only hope that means it closed. Chain restaurants are almost always abominations. But typically successful.
@Nancy J. That review is hysterical 🤣🤣🤣
@Nancy J. I concur. That is the best restaurant review I’ve ever read! I feel a little bad for Guy though. I noticed the restaurant is permanently closed. I wonder how long it was open after this review. Anyone know?
Congratulations on the debut! Movies are usually right up my alley - I didn't know any of these by the review right off the top of my head, but the crosses made pretty quick work of them, which led to a nice breezy solve. Not a personal best, but only about a minute off. Very enjoyable!
Felt fairly breezy for a Wednesday. I loved Roger Ebert, and suspected he was the theme pretty early on. My one, minor quibble is the clue for 10A. My entire backyard is a hill of moss, and it grows on all sides of all the trees. The idea that it only grows on the north side of trees is a myth. It grows where it's shady, cool, and damp.
@DW Ah but if you see it growing on one side of the tree, it will be the north side (in the northern hemisphere). We all learned that as aspiring explorers.
DW, I assumed the clue meant “out”, so technically correct, and in all hemispheres.
I forgot to turn on autocheck for this puzzle and by the time I remembered I had enough fill that I thought I might be able to finish it with less help and just switched to pencil instead. It took a while, and a look up for 42A got me TiM instead of TOM, but once I got that fixed I had my first three-day streak in months. Actually, this puzzle was a lot easier than Monday's!
How the fans (IMDb rating; out of 10) and other critics (Metascore; out of 100) ranked these movies: Armageddon: 6.7 / 42 Pearl Harbor: 6.3 / 44 North: 4.6 / 33 Battlefield Earth: 2.5 / 9
@Bill in Yokohama BE was my favorite book growing up. I waited 20 years for it to make it to the screen. I walked out after 20 minutes. I love Armageddon. Fun and brainless.
@Bill in Yokohama - Battlefield Earth won a Golden Raspberry award for worst picture of the *decade*.
I’m surprised that the clue for 2D wasn’t tied more directly into the theme. From Roger Ebert’s review of Godzilla (1998): “Oh, and then there are New York’s Mayor Ebert (gamely played by Michael Lerner) and his adviser, Gene (Lorry Goldman). The mayor of course makes every possible wrong decision (he is against evacuating Manhattan, etc.), and the adviser eventually gives thumbs-down to his reelection campaign. These characters are a reaction by Emmerich and Devlin to negative Siskel and Ebert reviews of their earlier movies (‘Stargate,’ ‘Independence Day’), but they let us off lightly; I fully expected to be squished like a bug by Godzilla.”
Really phenomenal debut. Made me laugh, snicker, and go read more of Ebert's reviews. Looking forward to more from this constructor!
Thanks for the laughs. That was a joyous grid. I don’t know Mr Ebert, but I completely agree with his review of the one film in that list I had seen, ARMAGEDDON. I love the word HOBNOB, it has such a robust, meaty sound. Also Hobnob chocolate biscuits, when I used to eat biscuits (step away from the tin Helen). Proper workman like snacks; thick, crunchy, chocolatey and can withstand a prolonged dunk in a cuppa. The SAS of the biscuit world. Damn. I really want a biscuit now.
@Helen Wright I discovered Hobnob biscuits on my first ever trip to the UK many years ago and am surprised customs let me take so many packages back to the US (then I discovered that specialty shops sell them here). I found Hobnobs to be oh, so good and rather addicting -- a delicious memory!
Critic who wrote: "I guess I have an incredible nose for schlock, because not only didn't I see any of these movies -- I wasn't even aware that they were movies." (2025) --Nancy Loved this puzzle anyway. Ebert's reviews are SO funny that it almost doesn't matter if you don't know what movie he's talking about. I used to watch him on the TV show "Siskel and Ebert" and I don't remember him being all that acerbic. The critic whom I remember as acerbic is John Simon. Dorothy Parker too, though I'm not old enough to have actually read her reviews contemporaneously. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
A nice Wednesday offering with snappy answers!
Lyle Lovett held the key to 52A with his album “Joshua Judges Ruth.”
@Michael Ostroff - Great album -- and I just listened to it this past weekend! I really want to attend his church.
As soon as I hit the first movie review clue, I jumped down to the revealer to see if ROGER EBERT fit. Spoiler Alert. It did. The movies needed a few letters to fill in, except BATTLEFIELD EARTH. Knew that one. Had BrA before BOA for Amazon wrap because I was thinking woman warrior rather than snake. D'oh. Pretty niche puzzle, fortunately for me my niche. I won't be surprised if non-Americans, youngsters and non-movie watchers are unhappy.
@Vaer My jaw dropped and pretty much stayed dropped when I saw Battlefield Earth. I'm guessing it swept the Razzies.
I hadn't heard of ROGER EBERT, and haven't seen any of the films. However, I solved all the clues with the crossers, as they were mostly simple synonyms or general knowledge. I only needed help with ORTEGA - I haven't seen Beetlejuice either! The theme obviously evokes such fond memories for many, which I can't share, and fair enough. Clive James is a critic I remember similarly. Otherwise, quite straightforward.
@Jane Wheelaghan I saw part of PEARL HARBOR on TV (with commercials, so it was even loooooonger than 3 hours, which is why I gave up on the sappy thing) and I had never heard of NORTH or BATTLEFIELD EARTH... Nonetheless, I enjoyed the puzzle immensely...and of course, the Oscar Wilde quote was the cherry on top.
My mother wants to make sure everyone knows that Roger Ebert is from Urbana, IL, and attended our alma mater, the University of Illinois. Growing up, he was somewhat of a local hero, so the theme was easy for me to figure out, even if the movies weren’t always obvious. I dearly wish Deuce Bigelow had made the puzzle!
A great puzzle and theme! Today, incidentally, is the 50th Anniversary of the debut of Siskel & Ebert on public television. Great job, editors!
Great movie-themed puzzle today. Was a fan of Mr Ebert too. IFEAR had me in a chokehold for far too long. Not unsurprising considering it crossed with BOA.
I did fill in the correct one first, but TIL ROGEREBERT has the same number of letters as Gene Siskel, even a common “E” in the fourth position. I used to watch Siskel and Ebert regularly and feel like that knowledge would have annoyed them mightily. 👍
Maybe my fastest Wednesday ever — having a copy of "Your Movie Sucks" that I read cover-to-cover as a teen absolutely helped. I can remember those reviews like song lyrics. Thanks for a puzzle as witty, snarky, and fun as reading Roger Ebert himself always was!
I loved every square of this.
Always happy to have occasion to remember my favorite opening line to a Roger Ebert review: “PEARL HARBOR is a two hour movie squeezed into three hours how, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise attack on an American love triangle.”
It must be a curious mix of achievement and slight to learn one has written a "ditty." On one hand, the term implies something lesser. On the other hand, they do make quite a nest for themselves in the brain, don't they? So then, I wanna know. What's your favourite ditty?
@Kurt Good question. Not sure where the line is between ditty and song, and a lot that came to mind for me (Alice’s Restaurant) aren’t really ditties when you take the whole song into account. How about “High Hopes” would that count? (The ant trying to move the rubber tree plant and all that…) If not then let’s go with “Mairzy Doats”. Or one more—“Gary, Indiana” from “Music Man”. It has a special place in my heart. I was Winthrop when I was 10 in a Hebrew speaking summer camp. I can still sing it in Hebrew with a lisp 50 years later.
@Kurt An old Irish tune known as “Cockles and Mussels" or "Molly Malone”. Its first stanza is: “In Dublin's fair city, where the girls are so pretty I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone As she wheeled her wheel-barrow Through streets broad and narrow, Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!"
@Kurt Stephen Foster's "Oh, Susannah" is about as ditty as it gets: Oh, oh, oh, Susannah Don't you cry for me (oh Susannah, oh Susannah) Cause I come from Alabama with my B-A-N-J-O on my knee (Oh Susannah, oh Susannah) ______________ It's riddled with "Oh Susannahs" and lighthearted nonsense. e.g. Rained all night the day I left (oh Susannah, oh Susannah) The weather, it was dry (oh Susannah, oh Susannah) Sun so hot, I froze to death (oh Susannah, oh Susannah) Susannah, don't you cry (oh, Susannah) Kids love it! (Sorry if I've given you an earworm.)
@Kurt “The unsinkable taste of Cheerios Not a lotta sugar to weigh down those Cheerios!” 35? 40? years ago and it still popped right into my mind.
@Kurt Reflexively giving this literal reply: Little ditty bout Jack and Diane Two American kids growin’ up in the heartland -John Mellancamp
Thanks for sharing, folks; glad I asked. The "ditties" most often stuck in my brain are probably short loops from video game soundtracks! In particular, the recent faux-retro compilation UFO 50 has hundreds of tiny tunes that are very top-of-mind for me lately.
@Kurt So many from the advertising world. Which brings me to a consideration of the difference between a ditty and a jingle. One of my favorites, well known by New York Mets fans everywhere: My beer is Rheingold, the dry beer Think of Rheingold whenever you buy beer It's not bitter not sweet It's the extra dry treat Won't you try extra dry Rheingold beer
I await the day that the answer for 37D will be clued "Tennis star Fonseca"
@Steven M. The day is sure to come. ;-) João is still young and already a force to be reckoned with on the court. And so humble!
getting stumped for a bit by the clever final fill for amazon wrapper after receiving no love from the juan:spanish cross (gotta be joan like joan miro - i KNOW hes not portuguese but it wont go away) made the entire 14 minutes worth it.
@Matt Yes, I was sure it was Miro and was disappointed when it wasn't. I even thought, Gee, I didn't know he was Portuguese.
Share your most loved/hated films today in honor of Roger Ebert and this puzzle! Also I need some good recs. Loved - Casablanca Hated - LOTR
@Becky Loved - The Conversation (1974) Hated - Guilty Bystander (1950) although maybe I need to rewatch it for the pure camp factor
@Becky The best movie in the history of this, or any other, universe is clearly The Big Lebowski. The worst is Eraserhead. Blue Velvet's pretty bad too.
@Becky Loved: Mulholland Drive Hated: Die Hard
@Becky Can't think of any hated its at the moment, but two favorites that come to mind are baseball movies weirdly enough. A League of Their Own, and Field of Dreams.
@Ed Never could get into The Big Lebowski. Heresy, I know. Gotta say that Raising Arizona is my fave early Coen Bros. movie and
@Becky Can't say the two following were my *most* loved/hated movies ever, but they do seem to be the ones of which my opinion seems to be least commonly shared. Loved: Dune (1984) Hated: Philadelphia (not because of the story but how it was presented) Honorable "hated" mention: anything by Christopher Nolan I watched The Big Lebowski recently, because people here recommended it. It was not a waste of my time but I was far from loving it 🤷🏽
@Becky Loved - Local Hero Hated - Chasing Amy Loved so many others too, I’ll list some since you are looking for recommendations: Cinema Paradiso Thelma and Louise Carrington Diner de Cons Gaslight Babette’s Feast Wicked Along Comes Polly Capote
@Becky Loved - Strangelove Hated - Tree of Life
@Becky The Princess Bride is my all time favorite. Walked out of Conan the Barbarian.
@Becky I don’t watch many newer movies (which for me means anything after 1970, lol) but I’m a noir/crime guy. Two favorites… The Killing (1956) Double Indemnity (1944)
@Becky Loved American Beauty Hated Pretty Woman Loved many many more: Rear Window, Sabrina, An Affair to Remember, Romeo & Juliet (Zeffirelli), ........
@Becky. Loved - Chinatown Hated - Godfather (walked out in middle the first one)
@Becky Indian cinema has been screening a fair bit here in Japan ever since RRR was such a hit. Off the top of the my head: Hated: Devara Hated: Simhadri (from the same director as RRR, which I did quite enjoy) Loved: Maaveeran Loved: 777 Charlie
@Becky Loved - Witness for the Prosecution Loved - Raising Arizona Loved - The Great Escape Loved - The Sound of Music Hated - all the rest
@Becky Too many favorite movies to do any of them justice, but will bring up two unusual ones just to bring them to people’s attention: “LadyHawke” with Matthew Broderick and “Dead Again” with Kenneth Branagh/Emma Thompson. Oh and best family movie of all time, the remake of “Parent Trap” with Lindsay Lohan. Worst movies are easy, to this day I can’t get the stench of “Click” with Adam Sandler out of my mind, with that horrible animated movie “Hood” a close second.
@Becky Loved: Babette's Feast The Red Violin (the two films which can reliably make me weep up.) Also loved, for the wrong reasons: 10,000BC (The only film I rushed to theater to see, because I knew how bad it would be. My review, had I been to asked to write one: "100 times worse that "One Million Years B.C.": the latter at least had Raquel Welsh, clad in a loin-cloth, being fed to a brood of baby pterosaurs.")
Loved: Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday. Made me cry with laughter. Don’t dare watch it again because it probably won’t be as funny. Hated: a Chinese film whose title I’ve forgotten, about the occupation by Japan. It showed a torture scene that I foolishly decided to keep my eyes open for. It was an effective film, but I hate that that indelible cruel scene is still in my brain.
@Becky Loved: The Sound of Music; The Princess Bride; This Beautiful Fantastic; It’s a Wonderful Life Hated: The Hours (too depressing); Lawrence of Arabia (I never got past the opening twenty minutes of camel-riding); Rabbit Test (Just no)
@Becky Loved - Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) Hated - Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) I had to look at my IMDb list to refresh my memory for the latter. My worst-ranked film on there is actually The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978), but that was a TV movie and is, I think, universally considered one of the very worst things created by humans in recorded history.
What a delightful puzzle theme! Kudos and thanks to Mr. McClung for a wonderful debut, and for reminding us of how a well-placed (ahem!) barb can become the stuff of legend. Somewhere up there, Dorothy Parker is smiling.
Enjoyable puzzle. As a combat veteran and - having a father-in-law who was at Pearl Harbor - early on I thought this was an entirely different theme. Yeah - until I got to the reveal. No big deal. Most of it filled in fairly smoothly, and then it was just working the crosses elsewhere. A pair of puzzle finds today - kind of interesting. A Monday from October 22, 1979 and a Thursday from January 2, 1986. In the Monday puzzle the three theme answers were: EMERALDISLE THEDIAMONDSTATE PEARLHARBOR In the Thursday puzzle: EMERALDCITY DIAMONDHEAD EMERALDISLE PEARLHARBOR Just hadn't stumbled across such a similar pair of puzzles before. ....
@Rich in Atlanta My great uncle flew B-24s in WWII, so I felt obliged to see "Red Tails," as he had said good things about those pilots. What a disappointment. Sure, the dogfight scenes were great, but I swear they used every war movie cliche in the book. Oh, that guy fell in love with a local girl? He's gonna get shot down. I went back and read Ebert's review of the movie, and he thought they should have spent more time focused on when they were training in the Jim Crow South. For those who don't know the movie, it was about the Tuskegee Airmen. (Black pilots in the Army Air Corps.)
This was my quickest solve this week, and faster than my Tuesday average, even though I was unfamiliar with the guy, and the rather unfunny, unoriginal and generic quotes were very little help in identifying the specific movies. The clueing may have possibly been toughened up a bit for Wednesday? My wife and I spent the night in Drumnadrochit on our Scottish trip several years ago. I actually remembered the name today, and the way our host pronounced it. The local pub served good food, and the aptly named beer HoppyNess. I'll post my 2020 review of "Inception" in a reply - it will take some creative editing to get it past the emus...
I saw this film ten years ago when it was originally released, and I found it obno×iou5Iy bad - its unforgiveable sin being the fact it is just a $t✓pid fantasy flick with a shallow story that wants the viewer to believe it is an intellectual masterpiece. The whole thing is ab5urdIy ®idicuIous, utterly reliant on special effects and cheap plot twists, and yet it desperately wants to be treated seriously. Another way to describe it would be as an exact opposite of a Monty Python movie, where you get some serious food for thought but expressed through siIIiness. In "Inception" you get pure siIIiness but with an annoyingly straight face.
@Andrzej "...unfunny, unoriginal and generic quotes..." I gotta take it back. My telescopes are back in first place.😀
Nope. Creative editing didn't help. What I'll do is I'll post a link to a cute pic if Lucek, and the review will be below that, in the description 😃 <a href="https://imgur.com/c2Q4RXB" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/c2Q4RXB</a>
@Andrzej The quotes don’t need to be original or funny to help identify the movies; they are all well-known schmaltzy action films (with the exception of “North”), and knowing anything about Ebert’s taste helps narrow down the possibilities.
@Andrzej Knowing the context, Ebert's "hated" comments were not the least bit unfunny.
How is criticizing an action movie for it being siIIy anything else than unoriginal and unfunny? Of course they never make any sense, the acting is atrocious, and they usually run too long - basically, you could write any generic, grumpy thing about one and it would fit them all. And believe me, I know about grumpiness and how to use it! 🤣 It's all very low hanging fruit 🤷🏽
Found this very easy for Wednesday, but I had an advantage in that I used to read Ebert reviews on Compuserve as a little kid in 1994, it seemed like the next best thing to actually seeing those movies. I remember North had just come out and so his review was featured, and it was a pretty entertaining read.
@Charles Nelson Reilly It's interesting after all these years, to find that my favorite reads weren't just mine, but shared by a lot of others. I loved seeking out Ebert reviews. I search for new-to-me "Siskel and Ebert" shows online.
Pleasure . Send more John
@Joan from Brooklyn Joan from Yuma heartily agrees!
Wonderful puzzle and very entertaining constructor notes. Great debut, John McClung! Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel did the unthinkable by delivering movie reviews that made good TV. If not for them we might never have had the hilarious parody called Men on Film featuring Damon Wayons and David Alan Grier on In Living Color. Two snaps up!