Leonard Maltin 4 stars for recent movies (1 Viewer)

[Joe Wong]

Maltin is perceived to have an affiinity for older movies rather than more modern ones. The number of films he has awarded in the last 10 years (in his movie guide) or so seem to bear testament to this...the ones I know of are Schindler's List, Little Women, and Cider House Rules. Any others he has given 4 stars to?

Thanks!

Joe

 

[SteveGon]

Talk to Her received four stars. Can't think of any others offhand.

Some of Maltin's ratings left me scratching my head: three and a half stars for that shameless exercise in pandering, i am sam?

 

[Daniel J.S.]

You have to remember that Maltin has a team of editors working on his book; not every rating is neccesarily his. One thing that I like about his book is that the four star rating is rarely given out. They are very discriminating in their tastes. Roger Ebert, on the other hand, gives out four star ratings like they were going out of style and that hurts his credibility in my book. Also, Maltin's team is not afraid to slay some of the sacred cows (although I don't agree with his two star rating of "Taxi Driver", nor his two-and-a-half for "Minority Report" and "Gosford Park"). They realize that just because a movie is of the kind critics SHOULD like doesn't make it great.

 

[Anthony_D]

anyone who rates "Waterworld" higher than "Usual Suspects" is a complete and utter moron...nuff said about Maltin.

 

[Daniel J.S.]

No, he's not a moron. As I said, Maltin and his team aren't afraid to take on the sacred cows (incidentally, I haven't yet seen either of those films). Remember, no film is intrinsically good, so try to be more tolerant of people with different tastes than your own.

 

[Bill J]

Ebert also liked Waterworld more than The Usual Suspects. Does that make him a moron?

 

[Jason_Els]

If only Pauline Kael were still alive.... God I miss that woman! :frowning:

 

[Daniel J.S.]

^^^Now THERE was a woman who wasn't afraid to take on sacred cows!

 

[Vincent Matis]

Blade Runner: :star: 1/2

Cheers,

Vincent

 

[Brian Lawrence]

One problem I have with Maltin's film guide is that the short reviews do not have the contributors initials. In a book that has 15,000 films rated and numerous reviewers, it would help if we could at least know who was rating the film, I don't think that adding 2 or 3 letters to the end of each review is all that difficult.

 

[Daniel J.S.]

Vincent, you'd be surprised at how many bad reviews of "Blade Runner" are out there. It's a cult classic nowadays, but it's hardly universally loved.

 

[Julian Lalor]

Vincent, you'd be surprised at how many bad reviews of "Blade Runner" are out there. It's a cult classic nowadays, but it's hardly universally loved.

Indeed. I still find the film unbearably boring (both theatrical and director's cuts). I find my views on films correlate more closely with Maltin's reviewers than with pretty much anyone else's (even if his 4 stars for Cider House Rules and Little Women were, in my opinion, dramatically over-rated).

 

[Jean-Michel]

FYI, although the book doesn't credit individual reviews (and I agree it should), the Taxi Driver review (which in my experience has gotten more heat than any other in the book) is indeed Maltin's.

 

[CraigK]

Maltin is a fool and his show is wretched.

Ebert is also bad at times (***1/2 for THE RUNDOWN, *** for GODFATHER 2!!??)

Pauline Kael is as well...she gave the first STAR WARS a terrible review.

 

[Lew Crippen]

So I’m guessing that three stars you found too low for Godfather2? What was the problem with his view of The Rundown? You must have thought it a very bad movie, because IIRC Ebert really liked it.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

I hate it when reviewers/critics do their job and review a film based on their tastes and experience.

CONFORM! CONFORM!

Why does this always come up?

There should be no sacred cows. Judging a critic on one film, be it Star Wars, Scarface, or Snow Dogs is silly.

Not that Maltin is a critic, but...

Take care,
Chuck

 

[CraigK]

Okay, THE RUNDOWN is not a BAD film, but based on his rating system, he says its better than THE GODFATHER 2...that speaks volumes if you ask me. How many other people out there think that GODFATHER 2 deserves to be rated lower.

Okay....let's look at another idiot critic FOR EXAMPLE:

Rex Reed's Ten Worst Films of 2001

1. Vanilla Sky
2. Mulholland Drive
3. Town & Country
4. Moulin Rouge!
5. Shallow Hal
6. Swordfish
7. Pearl Harbor
8. Memento
9. The Mexican
10. Snatch

6-7 of those films IN NO WAY deserve to be on a worst list, C'MON!

 

[Lew Crippen]

Well Craig, I never look very closely at ½ point differences, especially as the reviews are so far apart. My only problem with Ebert is that he is such a big fan of films overall, that I think he is a bit too generous with his praises.

If it is worth anything (and it is not), I rate ‘Godfather2’ at a full four stars. But, that is not a rating on the day, it is a rating several years later. Normally if a critic is within one star of me, I think we are in accord. If not, (assuming it is a critic I respect) I might try to understand what he saw that I missed—sometimes I can never figure it out, and I don’t try real hard in most cases.

Rex Reed is not a critic whose value system matches mine—so I just ignore him.

But he did get it right with Pearl Harbor.

 

[CraigK]

Lew...you are right. Ebert has such an infectious love of cinema its hard to be TRULY overly critical of him.

Buuuuut...you are also right...he is far too generous

(ie)

TOMB RAIDER 1 and 2
SPEED 1 and 2
COP AND A HALF
WILD THINGS
ANACONDA
GIGLI
FAST AND THE FURIOUS 1 and 2
POINT BREAK
HOME ALONE 3
CRITTERS

Gosh...I could go on forever!

 

[Craig S]

That Rex Reed list is ridiculous. Three of those films (Mulholland Drive, Moulin Rouge, Memento) made it onto most people's BEST Ten list.

I'm almost afraid to ask, but what was on his Top Ten for 2001??