SteynOnScreen reviews Hellboy (which he just saw on DVD, I’m guessing).

He also hits The Village hard, swings the praises of Spider-Man 2 and manages a review of Fahrenheit 9/11 that sidesteps the political differences and looks at how it works as a movie.

I found that last one a welcome relief. It ought to be printed out and mailed to Roger Ebert, whose pandering “review” of the film consisted entirely of breathlessly repeating the movie’s claims without question or analysis. It is one of the most embarrassingly obvious displays of political bolstering I’ve ever seen from Ebert; he often makes snide (and sometimes astonishingly ignorant) political comments in reviews, but rarely does he go so overboard that he forgets he is a critic. Roger Ebert is an amazingly learned man when it comes to the subject of film, and his insight into propaganda films is valuable, as when he examines Leni Riefenstahl. Yet he said that as of June 18th he had seen F911 twice and didn’t notice any glaring errors, which means that when it comes to political films he has large blinders on because plenty of other people have spotted them. He also gave a rave review of Bowling For Columbine and says he was disheartened when numerous factual challenges came out later; again, the “errors” are obvious to those who aren’t too busy nodding in agreement to make notes. If he could catch those distortions the first time, would that have affected the number of stars he gives the movie? Doesn’t this tell Ebert that he has a problem with reviewing these movies honestly?

Guess I’ve rambled a lot more than I meant to. Reading Steyn’s review just made me wish that Ebert would apply his analytical skills properly in his reviews of Moore’s films. I’m left with a couple of questions:

1) After this election and Bush’s probable second term is over, I wonder what Ebert would say if he were to go back and re-review F911 as a film, without the desire to give away a free political ad? I’d honestly like to read such a review.

2) Ebert keeps dishonestly claiming that he would review partisan movies from the other side of the spectrum. I say “dishonestly” because of his blatant mocking tone when he talks of the very idea of a pro-Bush documentary, and because of his obvious partisan intent in hyping Moore’s films, squeezing in snipes and gibes regularly in his other movie reviews, and his bolstering such straight-to-video, MoveOn.Org-funded efforts as Outfoxed. So I have to wonder if he’s going to give just as much attention to FahrenHYPE 9/11 or Michael Moore Hates America. Will he give a fair hearing to Brainwashing 101 (not this short version, but the full-length film) by Brain Terminal’s Evan Coyne Maloney?