The news broke yesterday that At the Movies will end production this summer:
The demise of “At the Movies” was a blow to the legions of armchair reviewers it spawned in its many incarnations, some of whom went on to professional careers in criticism. “It’s impossible to overestimate the impact of what Gene and Roger did,” Mr. Scott, the co-chief film critic at The Times, said in a telephone interview. “Any one of us who’s doing this now, on any platform or in any medium, is following them.”
But the program’s cancellation is also a reflection of the rapid changes that the film and television industries have undergone in recent years — the proliferation of print and Web outlets that offer movie reviews as much as the declining value of “At the Movies” in Disney’s syndication portfolio.
Reading this reminded me once again of the devastating profile of Roger Ebert published in Esquire last month – well worth the read.