I have never taken any movie critic seriously. Their product was never the product I was interested in.
Or maybe I’m too bullheaded; like a guy stopping and asking for directions or something – “Just not right.”
Much later I purchased Ebert’s two books, The Great Movies I and II, not for his recommendations, but for his writing skills representing the great movies, most of which I had already seen. I believe he is still the only movie critic to win a Pulitzer Prize; so he’s kind of in a league of his own in writing skills (not movie judgment).
Ebert is not brilliant, but he is a hard worker. His writing shows exactly that.
His special feature DVD commentary on Citizen Kane actually gives Peter Bogdanovich a run for his money; something I would have bet the house against. He holds his own just fine.
Every now and again on NPR I hear more engaging, intellectual, juicy, exciting, and meaningful reviews; reviews where I want to reach in the glove box and fumble to write down a turn of phrase, or something to look up. I don’t know who the people are, but it’s probably not the people anyway, but the producer’s decisions.