Just heard this a moment ago and I thought you guys would be elated to hear this news. The Bens are out. For those of you that haven’t been following the saga of At the Movies, the Bens are these two poor film critics that ran that once great bastion of film criticism into the ground over the last year. Well, no more. They are out. Guess who’s in?
A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips. The obvious choices. I’m not gonna lie, I actually do find this somewhat exciting, as I enjoyed watching those two as guest critics with Roeper not too long ago. Sure, you could argue that it might be more fun to get a critic who’s a little more out there, like Robert Wilonsky, but for my money Tony and Mike are the best two choices, excluding Roeper and Ebert, of course.
If they make some more strategic changes to this show, I might start watching again. The switch happens September 7.