Times, Tribune Critics Next-Gen Siskel & Ebert

High prices and few choices don't help: Roger Ebert

(NEWSER) - News that movie theaters had lackluster revenue in 2011 didn’t surprise Roger Ebert. He ticks off a list of the reasons why at his blog , including the lack of an Avatar-like blockbuster and usual suspects like too-high prices for tickets and refreshments. But also:

• Distractions: Loud talkers and people using their cell phones (with their bright screens) to text are getting out of hand.

Paul Rudd stars in Jesse Peretz comedy

(NEWSER) - Our Idiot Brother is the story of a sweet-natured fool who depends on his three sisters to get his life back on track. It’s good for a smile, if not big laughs:

• In the New York Times , AO Scott calls it a “thin, unconvincing movie made likable by the charm and skill of its cast and by a script peppered with wit and insight.” The humor, however, comes from “obvious, picked-over places.”

M. Night gets the bad news about Airbender's reviews

(NEWSER) - M. Night Shyamalan doesn’t worry about the critics. In fact, he says he wasn’t even aware of the brutal reviews for The Last Airbender until he gave an interview to New York magazine yesterday. “I don’t know what to say to that stuff,” Shyamalan replied after hearing some of the vitriol. “It must be a language thing, in terms of a particular accent, a storytelling accent. … I don’t know how to think in another language.” More»

Film critic will use computer for interview on Tuesday's show

(NEWSER) - Roger Ebert can no longer speak , but he's been booked on the Oprah Winfrey Show. The legendary film critic, who lost his lower jaw during cancer treatment, communicates with computer assistance. He's been in the news thanks to an Esquire profile and his good-natured reaction , and the queen of all media—who once dated her fellow Chicagoan, TV Guide reminds us—is on the case. The interview, taped Friday, will air on Tuesday's show. More»

And he's fine with the jarring photo in 'Esquire'

(NEWSER) - Like others who read the profile of Roger Ebert in Esquire, Ebert himself got a "jolt" when he saw the full-page photo of face, now altered by cancer surgeries. But he has no regrets about it. "Not a lovely sight," he writes in the Chicago Sun-Times . "But then I am not a lovely sight, and in a moment I thought, well, what the hell. It's just as well it's out there. That's how I look, after all." More»