The most hated movie critic in America.
Hate is such a negative emotion. Maybe "most easily ignored" would be healthier.
I am not familiar with the work of Ben Lyons, but I have seen I Am Legend, which I would put on my list of greatest movies involving a depopulated New York City, if it was a fairly long list.
We watched Fight Club the other night. Elijah said he liked it, but didn't enjoy it. Now he wants to fight Gandhi.
Our film rating criteria is rock solid: Does it have hot chicks? Does it have non-gratuitous violence? And is it worth the money we paid to see it? We also just reviewed "Bottle Shock" and liked it despite the fact we don't like wine.
Ben Lyons is a hack.
Posted by: Gate | Dec 27, 2008 at 10:20 AM
Wow...! Lyons sounds like a combination of George W. Bush, who ascended to the governorship and the presidency because of his last name.. and Sarah Palin, who knows nothing about subjects she needs to know about... and Mr. Lyons is DEFENDED for his know-nothingness about movies because "..he's very much of the TV generation who don't spend time reading newspapers." And THAT'S the grammatically-challenged idiot at ABC Disney justifying HIS (Lyon's) ignorance and lack of relevant experience, as the willfully blind justify the Governor of Alaska.
Maybe this kind of stupidity will stop when cooler heads prevail and unqualified Caroline Kennedy will not be given the Senate job in NY. But I doubt it.
Posted by: Brad Krantz | Dec 27, 2008 at 04:18 PM
nixon and frost..3 thumbs up..go see why
Posted by: Beelzebubba | Dec 27, 2008 at 05:29 PM
I've not been watching Lyons, but he does sem quite awful. The worst "major" print film critic is probably Owen Gleiberman at ENTERTAINMENT WEAKLY (I would say Armond White at THE NEW YORK PRESS, but A) he's not quite "major" and B) his bizarre neo-Marxist rants are pompous and wrong-headed, but generally literate and sometimes interesting). Gleiberman recently trashed the sublimely sad, creepy, sweetly touching and disturbing Swedish vampire romance LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (becoming the only critic listed at Rotten Tomatoes to do), while praising the puerile but thematically similar TWILIGHT to the skies.
What makes him so bad is not that he hated a film I loved (any opinion is defensible), but that he wrote so ineptly and carelessly about it, getting major plot points wrong and accusing a perfectly coherent film of obscurity.
Posted by: Ian McDowell | Dec 27, 2008 at 10:13 PM
I went to see Boy in the Striped Pajamas. I noticed the management of the national theatre chain went to great expense to protect the young public from a most predatory class of humans. Yes, yes indeed they had finally installed partitions between urinals to keep Republican congressmen from peeking at peepees. These partitions will make it impossible for them to cross swords without getting a stall for themselves. I hated the movie. It made genocide and fascism look like a bad thing. When asked why the Nazi tutor used such methods to instill hate in the minds of the 2 children, the father replied, "to make sure no child is left behind." I could have cried then, but I saved the tears for the emotional ending, which I will not spoil by reporting that everyone dies.
Posted by: cod bliss ewe awl | Dec 29, 2008 at 07:50 AM
Lyons' street cred would jump immeasurably if he adopted Ginmar's Werewolf System for assessing the quality of movies.
(The "Alexander" mentioned in the last sentence is the movie of that name and, so far as I know, has nothing to do with me.)
Posted by: Lex | Dec 29, 2008 at 12:43 PM