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Ebert's Web Site to Post Movie Reviews

"He's taking about 12,000 steps a day," his wife said.

In the meantime, he said, he screens as many as three films a day, with his nights spent watching DVDs to catch up on the films he's missed.


In this undated photo released by Disney-ABC Domestic Television, movie critics Roger Ebert, right, and Gene Siskel are shown. Starting Thursday, Aug. 2, 2007, a new web site touted as the largest collection of video-based movie reviews online will begin. The site will feature clips from the show that made the thumb famous and include 5,000 movie reviews, spanning more than 20 years of the show hosted by newspaper film critics Roger Ebert and the late Gene Siskel and columnist Richard Roeper. (AP Photo/Disney-ABC Domestic Television)
In this undated photo released by Disney-ABC Domestic Television, movie critics Roger Ebert, right, and Gene Siskel are shown. Starting Thursday, Aug. 2, 2007, a new web site touted as the largest collection of video-based movie reviews online will begin. The site will feature clips from the show that made the thumb famous and include 5,000 movie reviews, spanning more than 20 years of the show hosted by newspaper film critics Roger Ebert and the late Gene Siskel and columnist Richard Roeper. (AP Photo/Disney-ABC Domestic Television) (AP)

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He clearly wants to return to the balcony seat next to Roeper, who has been his co-host since 2000, the year after Siskel died. But, he said, even if he doesn't, he'd like to see the show "go on and on and on."

Ebert is obviously proud of the program _ as much for what it isn't as for what it is.

"Too much entertainment TV is just hype and gossip," he said. "We have no interviews, no premieres, no arrests ... And (it is) a rare show that says when we think a movie is bad."

All of that can be found on the Web site.

Observers can see just how often Siskel, then the Chicago Tribune's film critic, and Ebert disagreed and how passionately they did so on "Siskel & Ebert at the Movies." They can see "Ebert & Roeper."

And they can see more recent shows featuring Roeper and guest reviewers including Jay Leno, The New York Times film critic A.O. Scott and Christy Lemire of The Associated Press.

They can see the time Ebert said he got "worked up" when Siskel didn't send his thumb north for "Apocalypse Now" _ or the time the two heaped praise on the documentary "Hoop Dreams," smiling at the memory of how the "Oscar judges turned it off after 15 minutes."

Then there is the memory of the enthusiastic thumbs-up both he and Roeper gave "Monster." If that doesn't sound like such a big deal, given that the movie earned Charlize Theron an Academy Award for best actress, Ebert said that at the time they gave their review "'Monster' wasn't necessarily going to theaters at all."

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On the Net:

http://www.AtTheMoviesTV.com


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© 2007 The Associated Press