By Roger Ebert
Andrews McMeel Publishing, $16.99, 372 pages
A Horrible Experience of Unbearable Length is exactly what it advertises itself as: a compilation of reviews of bad movies. The best part about this book is these are movies that you’ve seen, or at least seen previews for and groaned. The book is a great romp through contemporary pop culture (virtually all the movies are 2006 or later), and a great chance to laugh at yourself. Roger Ebert, despite his physical limitations, still has the voice that has been one of the seminal forces in movie criticism for the last several decades, and these reviews are wonderful and insightful as to what makes a movie bad. Included in this book are several movies that were almost good, or seem to be lacking a critical element. These reviews may cause you to really think about what makes a movie good or what makes it resonate with an audience. If this book has a weakness, it’s that this is a collection of reviews written over time, so that certain tricks or recurring ideas are more prominent than they would be to the average reader of the individual review. However, if you like movies, and have a sense of humor, this is definitely a worthwhile read.
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