Life Itself
Rule of Thumb
Official Website | Trailers & Mo
R | 115 min

I love me some Roger Ebert [You can read what he meant to me here].  Everyone loved him.  That’s why he got even more popular than ever when he lost his jaw and ability to eat and drink and became a mad blogger and twittererer.  His fighting of cancer and continuing his love of movies made it even easier for us to be a fan and root him on.  And then he left us.  But before he did, someone Ebert championed – Hoop Dreams director Steve James – followed him around in his waning months, to tell his life story, and his death story, with help of Ebert’s memoir, also the title of the film

Ebert deserves a doc about his life.  There’s no denying that.  And James’ one is good enough, but I feel like it only scratches at the surface of what made Ebert Ebert.  It all becomes much clearer, about 1/3 of the way thru, when Gene Siskel enters the picture.  Ebert’s past is colorful stuff  – the Pulitzer win, the Russ Meyer screenplaying, the love of booze and ladies – but what really made Ebert Ebert was his partner Siskel (and you should see his past – staring at boobies at that Playboy Mansion!!!!!).  Without Siskel, this doc would probably not need to exist.  But Siskel left us too early, and his due is long overdue.  He’s a figure equally as important as Ebert is/was, but he didn’t get his final say – as he choose to hide his sickness, where Ebert didn’t

I cannot fault Life Itself as itself, but I just wish the focus was wholly equal – where each thumb’s owner got their diligence dued, dude.  Two thumbs are better than one, but one is still better than none.  Now we have zero thumbs.  But…

Verdictgo: Jeepers Worth A Peepers

Life lives in limited release AND on demand!

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

Peace The Forks Out

to

Ebert

you had one of the two best thumbs OF ALL THYME  

you and Gene showed me that it was OK to both LOVE and HATE movies  

you made it OK to be overweight AND really really love movies  

I grew up digesting your show, EACH and EVERY Saturday.  it was the best TV show about movies, and one of the best TV shows PERIOD…  and then it was gone, and there hasn’t been anything on TV (or the stoopid internets) like it since, and probably never will, cause there’s only one Ebert, and only one Siskel  

cancer took your voice, but it never silenced you  

cancer took your life, but your voice will always and forever be heard in our hearts and minds  

thank you for being you. there aren’t enuff thumbs on earth to raise up and salute you

and until next time, the balcony is clothed closed :(

 

CBS Sunday Morning is the #1 show on TV ever (sorry Twin Peaks), and as for 2011…

1. Dan Le Batard Is Highly Questionable (ESPN)

It’s father’s day, every day, on the funniest show on TV, and it isn’t even a comedy.  Take a look above and tell we that that’s something you don’t want to watch DAILY.  Papi for presidente!!

2. Breaking Bad (AMC)

Every time you think things can’t get more f#%cked up, things goes beyonds more f#%cked up, and it’s f#%cking RAWsome!!!

3. Misfits (E4, England)

Losing Robert Sheehan would seem like a nail in the Misfits coffin, but that was not even close to the case with Joseph Gilgun getting mad rude as Rudy.  Each episode feels like its own season, and that’s a GREAT THING

4. Homeland (Showtime)

It’s everything 24 wasn’t – believable terrorism stuff happening on our shores, and it was all more tense than a KOA campground!!  Damian Lewis deserves to win every award he would be eligible for… and the supporting trio of Claire Danes, Mandy Patinkin and Morena Baccarin is third to none

5. American Horror Story (FX)

It broke every TV show rule, and a lot of bones AND boners.  Don’t even know how they’re gonna be able to top this debut season, but we can’t wait to see how they do it

6. Beavis & Butt-head (MTV)

Why did B&B ever go away?

7. Life’s Too Short (BBC2/HBO)

Warwick Davis plays himself, but channels show creator and co-star Ricky Gervais (think how people play the Woody Allen role in Woody Allen movies) in more cringe-inducing situations than Larry David could ever imagine… for dwarves

8. Episodes (Showtime)

They made Matt LeBlanc funny.  A feat and feast that must be seen

9. Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)

If you know what goes on in the pic above, you know the show hasn’t gathered even a speck of moss in its 8th, New York-centric, season

10. Ebert Presents At The Movies (PBS)

Honestly, it doesn’t matter who’s in the chair and which direction their thumbs go, it juss matters that there are chairs being sat in and thumbs being moved in a direction.  Never leave, although that may not be the case

11. Children’s Hospital (Cartoon Network)

Name a better 11 minute show on TV… ever?

12. Boardwalk Empire (HBO)

MOTHER LOVE THIS SHOW!

13. Ryan and Tatum: The O’Neals (OWN)

You can keep yer Krapdashians, and we’ll stick with the O’Neals

13. The Office (NBC)

Michael Scott left us and Dunder Mifflin on the best possible terms (the Holly proposal even rivals the early Jim & Pam courtship stuff), and the addition of James Spader has helped to soften the blow of his departure.  It all still works, even if it isn’t eggzactly the same

 

other solid forms of entertainments: An Idiot Abroad (we’re a year behind on this one!) Roseanne’s Nuts (who knew she’s the same off-screen as she was on it!!!), Hung (came into its own this season, only to prematurely ejaculate), Rock Center with Brian Williams (it ROCKS!), Kendra (lockout with yer cock out), Sports Show with Norm Macdonald (unjustly cancelled), Game of Thrones (even though we have zero idea what happened on the show), Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel (thoughts are endlessly provoked), Making & Selling Jeans In America (so long Rasta Monsta), Bored To Death (rarely boring), Enlightened (enlightened we), Louie (although everyone on twitter makes we want to hate it), Modern Family (it’s funnier than Louie), Gossip Girl (we gave up on it 2 years ago, returned, and it’s like we never missed an ep… cause nothing new ever happens, but who cares!), The Big C (Hugh Dancy dancyied like no one was watching), Web Therapy (Kudrow!), Shameless (the kids steal the show from H Macy), and Skins (UK, as in not the US version, obvi)

 

+ bone-yes moments

how does THIS get cancelled?

- Ricky Gervais should host everything.  Franco & Hathaway should only host diseases

– Todd Haynes’ Mildred Pierce was Mildred FIERCE!!!

– the list may be wrong, but 50 Documentaries To See Before You Die was 260 well worth watched minutes to debate!

– US Skins was meh, but Rachel Thevenard is not!!!

– don’t remember one minute of Too Big To Fail.  does that make it a too small and failed?

– kinda pissed that Miranda Otto & Sarah Bolger show never became a show

- Cinema Verite proved that reality bites, even at the very beginning

–  Elizabeth Hurley sexes up Gossip Girl, but Kaylee DeFer is the sexiest!!!

– Ron Swanson aside, Parks & Rec is not funny, despite what your brain and internets has been telling you

– Ken Burns’ Prohibition was bob-tastic

– wait, Oscar was orange?

– Addison Timlin made Californication semi-watchable

– Colin Hanks single-handedly stinks up an entire season Dexter, and juss stinks in general

- Whatever You Want,Think Belmont! FINALLYYYY!!!

- Entourage thankfully ends, but unthankfully with a wimper, but honestly, who cares, as shlong as it’s gone, 9ever

& fair thee well Colonel Sherman T Potter & Sherwood and of course

perv-iously

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