Roger Ebert became film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times in 1967. He is the only film critic with a star on Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame and was named honorary life member of the Directors' Guild of America. He won the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Screenwriters' Guild, and honorary degrees from the American Film Institute and the University of Colorado at Boulder. Since 1989 he has hosted Ebertfest, a film festival at the Virginia Theater in Champaign-Urbana. From 1975 until 2006 he, Gene Siskel and Richard Roeper co-hosted a weekly movie review program on national TV. He was Lecturer on Film for the University of Chicago extension program from 1970 until 2006, and recorded shot-by-shot commentaries for the DVDs of "Citizen Kane," "Casablanca," "Floating Weeds" and "Dark City," and has written over 20 books.
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Q. I was in the U.S. last year, and at every cinema I visited the lights came half-up at the "end" of the movie, but before the credits began. This happened to me once here recently, at the Barbican Arts…
Q. Just read your review of "Alaska." It's really difficult to take seriously a movie in which kids head off into the Alaskan wilderness accompanied by A Friendly Polar Bear when one has recently had the experience of sitting in…
Q. My 10-year-old son and I took off half a day so we could see "Jack," our favorite actor's "sweet little movie," as Robin Williams described it on Leno. I was stunned by the highly sexualized depiction of boys in…
As the third annual Chicago Underground Film Festival prepares to unreel, my first task is to define the term underground. These films are not to be confused with "independent films," which are discovered at Sundance by Hollywood agents and lead…
Q. Upon your recommendation we went to see "King Pin. " The one intelligent and strong minded woman character was in a scene in which she fought with her breasts and spent time with an abusive boyfriend. There were so…
Q. In your review of "A Time to Kill," you wrote that it was "a skillfully-constructed morality play that pushes all the right buttons and arrives at all the right conclusions." Okay, close your eyes. Now imagine the two rapists…
Q. The latest movie spin-off industry is the production of TV shows explaining how movie special effects are done. Magicians don't let the audience know how their tricks are accomplished, and I think Hollywood should keep their procedures a secret.…
Q. Why is "Independence Day" such a hit? Is it just a result of media hype (covers of Time and Newsweek, etc.)? Although I contributed to the opening weekend receipts, I wasn't all that impressed. The effects weren't that impressive…
Q. In your review of "Independence Day," referring to the gigantic alien space craft, you write: "an object that size in near-Earth orbit might be expected to cause tidal waves." Tidal waves, or tsunamis, are caused by sudden earth movement,…
Q. Last week, I was an extra in the Julia Roberts film, "My Best Friend's Wedding," which is shooting in Chicago. We were filming at Buddy Guy's club. At the crew table, I noticed to my surprise that there was…
