The film Roger Ebert called “one of the worst movies ever made”
Widely revered as one of the greatest movie critics of all time, Roger Ebert managed to transcend the medium of film criticism with his passionate prose. Ebert seemed to know everything there was to know about cinema history and the way films themselves were made, and his many writings and articles for the Chicago Sun-Times have gone down in history.
Perhaps the most vital thing to Ebert’s success was that his writing was accessible without presuming his readership’s intelligence was any less than his own. He dived headfirst into the thematic and social qualities of film, attracting readers of varying demographics and tastes, whether those who loved a Hollywood blockbuster or those with a passion for demanding European cinema.
Throughout his career, Ebert stated the films that he loved the most and the kinds of pieces of cinema that he thought would improve his readers’ lives. However, by the same token, there were some movies that Ebert watched that he simply could not stand, the films that left a sour taste in the critic’s mouth.
While the likes of The Usual Suspects and Caligula were on the receiving end of Ebert’s scorn, there were few films to arrive as low in his estimation as Rob Reiner’s 1994 adventure comedy-drama North. In his review of the film, Ebert absolutely tore it to pieces in perhaps some of his most condemning writing of all time.
“I have no idea why Rob Reiner, or anyone else, wanted to make this story into a movie, and close examination of the film itself is no help,” Ebert wrote. North is one of the most unpleasant, contrived, artificial, cloying experiences I’ve had at the movies. To call it manipulative would be inaccurate; it has an ambition to manipulate, but fails.”
Ouch. North sees Elijah Wood play a young boy who sets out on a global journey to find new guardians after feeling unappreciated by his parents. He meets a series of odd characters on his way, including a Texan cowboy played by Bruce Willis and an affluent businessman in Hawaii.
The likes of Jason Alexander, Dan Aykroyd, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and Reba McEntire also starred, but even a star-studded cast could not prevent the film from poor reviews, most notably from the furious Ebert, who felt that the central premise of the film was “flawed”. “Children do not lightly separate from their parents,” he said.
Ripping into the film in the harshest of ways, Ebert simply stated, “I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie. Hated it. Hated every simpering stupid vacant audience-insulting moment of it. Hated the sensibility that thought anyone would like it. Hated the implied insult to the audience by its belief that anyone would be entertained by it.”
Interestingly, though, Ebert had noted that Reiner himself is a “gifted filmmaker”, pointing to the likes of This Is Spinal Tap, Stand by Me and The Princess Bride as markers of his excellence. Even though he thought North was “one of the worst movies ever made”, Ebert felt that Reiner would “recover” from it.
Reiner would indeed recover from North, but it’s probably fair to say that his best days as a director were behind him.
