MovieChat Forums > Life Itself (2014) Discussion > Wonderful - and points out the great fla...

Wonderful - and points out the great flaws of the IMDB boards

posted 10 years ago by kay_rock
2 replies | jump to latest

Being reminded of what Ebert had to say about films (and Gene Siskel, for that matter) truly points out why film reviews/criticism should not be left to the masses. The IMDB population is, as a whole, full of people who likely shouldn't even be allowed to see films, much less criticize them.

I'm no better.

I miss the intelligent analysis I could get from Roger Ebert. I miss agreeing with him, and disagreeing with him, but at least having something of value to think about.

Endless posts about "worst movie ever" and "are there boobies?" and "I liked it better when it was called..." and "so boring" really don't add to the great fun of loving or hating a movie.

Wouldn't it be great if we could watch the life of Mr. Ebert and all be inspired to step up our game here?

I MISS YOU ROGER!

Movies are IQ tests; the IMDB boards are how people broadcast their score.

[–] WarpedRecord 10 years ago

I miss Roger and Gene's insight greatly, and this film reminds me of how much we've lost since they left us. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad era for films – though from what I've seen lately, I'm leaning toward the latter – but I can safely say the era of intelligent film criticism has passed. These boards are a symptom rather than a cause.

[–] tyboulder 9 years ago

The boards have actually become a lot less interesting and far less frequented over the last few years. IMDb doesn seem to do anything to promote them, nor care very much, which is sad because they are the heart of the site, IMO. Even 5 years ago you would find a lot more interesting discussion going on. There have always been the types of bad posts you refer to but they used to share space with thoughtful and insightful posts as well.

It's possible that the average attention span has gone down a bit. The bigger issue seems to be that what's not watered will eventually wither and die, leaving weeds behind.