Tech demo movies can be entertaining in their own right, in the same way a piece of piano music written just to show off incredibly hard techniques can also be emotional and moving. It's just a rare combination, otherwise the early Pixar shorts and movies wouldn't have stood out so much from all the other early CGI demos.

I know Ebert is a renowned and loved critic and everything, but fuck that guy. He spoiled the film Super for me in his review......in the first fucking paragraph! Won't be reading him again. He didn't like the film, fine, doesn't give him the right to spoil it for those of us who may actually enjoy it.

And he was talking shite about The Frighteners too, it's great.

I'm so conflicted about Ebert.  His argument about Video Games as art is totally asinine, and he has others which can be equally infuriating.  But I revere the role criticism has in filmmaking and I think over the course of his career he's arced towards a very positive impact on film.  Not only that but he truly advocates for quality film and his passion is unmistakable.  I respect him a great deal for jumping headfirst into blogging.  Like many prolific bloggers find out, A blog isn't a thesis that you can slave over and mold as your perspective changes.  It's a snapshot of your best articulated feelings IN THAT TIME AND PLACE.  I think if he were to write that same post now, it would be much more nuanced.  But, he puts his feelings out there and he doesn't apologize or back peddle, he simply states his reasoning and updates on wether that viewpoint changes or not.  Also, much like Andrew Sullivan, he has no problem posting and linking to articles that completely savage his opinions.

I don't share all or even most of his opinions, but the man has had a huge impact on both criticism and film itself, and can't be overlooked.  Personally, he was hugely influential on me in terms of defining taste and recognizing the importance of spirited debate.  Siskel and Ebert was a staple in my household as a child from back in the PBS days, and now with At The Movies back on PBS, it's taken its place again as required viewing in the Doty household.

I don't think you're entirely wrong, but he did come out and say plainly, "I'm in no position to say Video Games can never be art, because it's in the future and there's no way of knowing."

He did also have a few words for fanboys, and honestly considering just how many cracks I saw directed at his weight and health issues, I can understand just a tad bit of acrimony on his part.  I love nerdy things, but nerd culture can be an ugly, ugly beast at times.  Look no further than the Donald Glover/Spider Man debacle.  If he would have said "From what I've seen, in their current incarnation, video games are not art." I seriously wouldn't have given a shit.  But he took it a step further then he needed, undoubtedly.  As a result, he got rightfully shelacked by folks, and at the end of the day I truly felt like while his opinion didn't shift, it did change his perspective a bit.  That's what good debate should do.

I also understand the almost willful ignorance of a lot of younger folk and the temptation to snap back with some invective, like Roger did.  Shit, I'm 33 and I feel like waving my cane at my wife's dance students when they think Britney's new single is great song writing.  Certainly that's not a 1-1 comparison of video game fans to tween girls, but as a regular player of WoW and Halo I can tell you without hesitation that most gamers I've played with are fucking loons.

I was listening to the show and you kept talking about how Peter Jackson was "Given" Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson wasn't given Lord of the Rings he pitched it to Miramax as a 2 films but decided to go elsewhere when they wanted to cut the entire 3 book trilogy into a single 2 hour movie.
When they came to New Line it was them who decided 2 movies was too little and said it should be a trilogy.

The fact remains that he didn't have the rights to LOTR and he had to convince someone to 1) buy the rights, 2) fund the films, and 3) let him be the one at the helm.

It's a fair point that we probably made it sound like it was just handed to him on a silver platter, when he had to put in some serious legwork. But however you want to put it, if I were in the position in 1998 to hire Peter Jackson to helm a $300 million epic undertaking of an epic trilogy that we weren't even planning to make until he walked in the door, I don't know if I'd have done it no matter how good his pitch was. So New Line -- and Robert Shaye in particular -- gets my admiration for sacking up and taking a chance.

No kidding, Dorkman.  People don't often realize just how much was riding on that first film, especially.  Had it tanked, New Line absolutely would have gone out of business and PJ would be directing Zippy's commercials in New Zealand (they have Zippy's in New Zealand, I think).  Jus tthe fact that Peter and Fran always pitched LOTR as two movies goes to show what conventional thinking was at the time: there's no way they are giving me three films off the bat.  Robert Shaye has balls bigger than I ever will.