Roger Ebert (who is more famous but less talented than me), recently watched a movie called Tru Loved and wrote a scathing, one-star review of it. And when I say he watched the movie, I mean he watched the first eight minutes and then wrote a bickering review that rambled on with a lot of generic nonsense about movie ingredients, and then ended his review saying that he only watched eight minutes so “after that you’re on your own.”

Nice work!

Since posting the review, public backlash has inspired him to issue an apology, watch the movie all the way through, and write a full review.

I just have to say that, having a bit of film reviewing experience myself, sometimes the mood you’re in while you watch a movie can affect your opinion of it. Clearly, Roger was in a terrible mood, although he remains unimpressed with the movie.

Here’s something I found a little interesting, Ebert responded to public discontent by watching the full movie and then posting a whopping 1,800 word review (that’s six times the length of this article). Seems like just a little bit of over-compensation to me! If you’re interested, here’s the link to it.

I agree that it’s difficult to sit through a movie that you immediately know you’re going to hate, but when it’s your job these are sacrifices that you have to make. The work of a film critic is to separate the wheat from the chaff, to part foul cinematic waters to help lead other people to the films worth seeing, and help them stay away from the clunkers.

On his website he currently has posted the original review based on his abbreviated viewing, followed by his prodigious comment on the full film. Both are pretty negative. He ends his review with a note of congratulations to the indie film crew of Tru Loved for accomplishing the enormously difficult task of getting the film made and released, although I sort of wish he had instead just come right out and said, “Happy now?!”

On a personal note, I hereby promise that I will watch all of the movies that I review for you, even if I hate them from the first eight minutes!