I'm glad my sister is normal now. You see, there was a time she wasn't. She had gone away to college, and she'd return for Thanksgiving or Christmas, and you couldn't talk to her. She'd be involved in whatever silly thing was hot at her college. She was a vegetarian for a while, because it was "cruel to animals". Yet she had leather shoes.

And during this period of time, she said to me "Why is it all you talk about is movies?" I explained that I talk about a variety of subjects, with a variety of people. But when there's a person that has idiotic views and opinions on things...or, they just don't want to listen to another side of the argument, really, the only thing you can talk about is movies. Because, we'll all agree that Jack Nicholson was amazing in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. And, you can compare the book to the film. Or Nicholsons role in that, with The Shining, or his current movie. And it goes down all kinds of fun paths, even if you don't all agree.

I've been having a lot of arguments about movie critic Roger Ebert lately.

This is a guy that I feel has added tremendously to the film industry. As a kid, I loved watching him and Gene Siskel argue about a movie. Or, more often than not, be in complete agreement and joy, talking about some amazing film they just caught. Siskel's all-time favorite movie was Saturday Night Fever, and he took a lot of grief for that. He then went and bought the outfit Travolta wore in that movie, for about $7,000.

I've enjoyed most of Ebert's books. But, over the last few years, I've watched as he's recommend so many bad films. It's gotten to the point where I disagree with most of what he says. And that's sad. To me, it's more sad than all his medical ailments. Because, he's giving crappy movies more money, and that will keep studios making this tripe.

And the movies we agree on that are good (Boy A, for example), he gets main facts in them wrong! He had four movies in a row, where he got something incorrect. His most recent being in Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist (a disappointing film which he liked). He says that the main characters kiss, because one girl wants to make her on again/off again boyfriend jealous. Which is not the case.

I'm complaining about Ebert today for a totally different reason. He recently reviewed a movie after only watching the first 8 minutes of it. And, after tearing the movie apart, he got a lot of bad press for only seeing 8 minutes of it. He then issued an apology, saying it was unfair to the actors, director, producer, etc. As always, a classy move by Ebert, who is actually a nice guy. One of my friends met him on a cruise, and he enjoyed talking film with everyone that would approach him.

And when he was doing a booksigning here in town, I suggested to my friend, that she ask if she could interview him (for a tiny publication she was writing for). He said he was busy, but that he'd do the interview via email. She was thrilled (I spent 30 minutes arguing with him on how he could love Crash so much, when the characters were so poorly written).

When I've mentioned to a few of my friends that Ebert only saw the first 8 minutes of a recent movie, they seemed to think that wasn't a big deal. I would respond with, "What if a restaurant reviewer said that they hated the appetizer, and then left before the entree. We would have no clue how good the restaurant was. And sure, I'm willing to bet that someone that has seen as many movies as Ebert...can watch the first 8 minutes, and know if it's good or bad. But, as cool of a job as it must be to sit and watch movies and review them... And collect a pay check doing it...That sometimes means watching crap, and wasting two hours of your life."

Most of my friends don't agree.

But, the next time I go to one of their parties, and it's incredibly lame; and, I have other parties I can go to that night...at least they'll understand if I leave after 10 minutes of being there.