Thursday, August 6, 2009
Out with the new, in with the old
posted at 9:16 AM |
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Laura reports that, a mere one year after they were hired as co-hosts for "At the Movies," E-Entertainment's Ben Lyons and TCM's Ben Mankiewicz will soon be leaving, to be replaced by the New York Times's A.O. Scott and the Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips. Technically, this is more a re-replacement because Scott and Phillips were frequent guest hosts either separately or together during the iteration of the show after Siskel and Ebert and before Mank and Lyons. I've never really liked Scott and Phillips all that much, I'm afraid - they're both perceptive and verbally clever but I have found them a bit too old-school and stodgy. OTOH, I will continue to watch - partly just because I like to watch (heh, hat tip to Peter Sellers) and partly because it's interesting to see what's coming out. I just won't enjoy it quite as much.
Some, Laura among them, never liked Lyons on the show and thought he was light and uninteresting; I'm sure they aren't sad to see him go. I actually kind of liked him, though, because he brought a viewpoint to the critique-al table that is rarely heard from . . . intone this next word dramatically. . . Critics. Most critics are older, came up on traditional movie-making and the whole history of it all. They love to show (off) how much they know about directors and the industry and so on. But Lyons and Mankewicz (someone with as solid a movie pedigree as even the most traditional elitist could wish for) seemed to be two guys who like movies a lot, without pretention, and I thought they conveyed their enjoyment and awareness. That made it fun to watch their show and listen to their discussions. I look forward to following both of them elsewhere.
Some, Laura among them, never liked Lyons on the show and thought he was light and uninteresting; I'm sure they aren't sad to see him go. I actually kind of liked him, though, because he brought a viewpoint to the critique-al table that is rarely heard from . . . intone this next word dramatically. . . Critics. Most critics are older, came up on traditional movie-making and the whole history of it all. They love to show (off) how much they know about directors and the industry and so on. But Lyons and Mankewicz (someone with as solid a movie pedigree as even the most traditional elitist could wish for) seemed to be two guys who like movies a lot, without pretention, and I thought they conveyed their enjoyment and awareness. That made it fun to watch their show and listen to their discussions. I look forward to following both of them elsewhere.
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