Posted 8:36 AM by Gene

The hacks are in their self-pity mode again. One of them is blaming the dimwit zillionaire of Ain't It Cool News for DESTROYING movie CRITICISM. The fact is, if he did it (doubtful), he had mentors. Nobody told Gene Shalit to turn movies into a ONE-LINER LAFF RIOT, or the ink-stained Messrs. Siskel and Ebert to have their thumb bones fused up so they could dance into a TV studio and make their own zillions above the title. They were Ain't It Cool News before the Internet, and without the grunge sensibility. There's really no difference between these several types of flackery, only that the newer dimwit probably couldn't recite the life stories of Erich von Stroheim and Fritz Lang. And whatever drool-inducing drivel Mr. Ain't wrote didn't seem to help MMMMMMMMMM-IIIIIIIIII-THREEEEEEEEEE's box office, suggesting even his target audience doesn't take him seriously. Several of Mr. Ain't's alleged rub-outs were also victims of buyouts and (in the Trib's case) a mere switching of positions (prodded in part by the fact that GENE SISKEL'S SUCCESSOR wasn't BRINGING HOME THE BACON). Of course we don't doubt news hacks would dumb down their properties to attract readers. And there's a problem with that idea too: it doesn't seem to be working.

(Via the usual ArtsJournal.com)