| EBERT ERRORS | ||
Be warned: This page may contain spoilers. Am I perfect? Absolutely not. As I am not taking notes while watching these movies, it's entirely possible that *I* could be wrong (though I don't think so). E-mail me if you think I am! I have also begun including errors cited by other individuals on the web. When I do this, I will include the source info. |
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| EBERT'S 2nd DEGREE ERRORS | ||
|---|---|---|
| FILM TITLE | WHAT EBERT SAID | WHAT REALLY HAPPENED |
| Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason (2005) | " Bridget flies off to Thailand on assignment and discovers that her former boyfriend Daniel (Hugh Grant) is already there." | Bridget is well aware that she is to meet Daniel in Thailand, and they in fact, connect in the air plane before setting down in Bangkok. |
| Cinderella Man (2005) | "Then Braddock breaks his right hand, loses some matches so badly his license is taken away, and descends with his family to grim poverty in the early days of the Depression." | He doesn�t lose the fight just prior to his license being taken away. The match is a draw, and people are mad because there wasn�t enough good fighting to keep the audience entertained. |
| Closer (2004) | "More time passes. Dan, who has been with Anna, impersonates a woman named "Anna" on a chat line, and sets up a date with Larry, a stranger." | At this point in the movie, Dan has only kissed Anna and then been turned away by her after she finds out that he is living with Alice. |
| NEW! Coach Carter (2005) | "He's asked to take over as basketball coach, an unpaid volunteer position; the former coach tells him, "I can't get them to show up for school." Ken Carter thinks he can fix that." | The position is not unpaid nor considered a �volunteer� role. It comes with a $1500 stipend. This point is documented in two different conversations at the beginning of the film. |
| Crash (2005) | "The Iranian can't understand what the locksmith is trying to tell him, freaks out, and buys a gun to protect himself. " | The gun is purchased before the store owner makes any attempt to change the locks on the door. (It was referenced that the gun was purchased due to a situation in the store not shown in the movie where the man felt his wife�s life had been in jeopardy.) |
| First Daughter (2004) | "Samantha wears clothes that inspire Joan Rivers monologues on TV, she sits in a roped-off section of lecture classes, flanked by Secret Service agents, and she is thoroughly miserable. So she stages a revolt that is painfully awkward in its conception and execution, pretending to be a bad girl, so the president will hear her cry for help. Her first transgression is to slide down a hill on a wet tarp at a frat party, which gets her on the front page of the New York Post, a paper more easily shocked in this movie than in life� | Samantha demands more privacy after going to a pool party where her bodyguards take down another student with a water gun. This precedes the water slide. |
| NEW! Godzilla (2004) | "When Dr. Serizawa demonstrates the Oxygen Destroyer to the fiancee of his son, the superweapon is somewhat anticlimactic. He drops a pill into a tank of tropical fish, the tank lights up, he shouts "stand back!," the fiancee screams, and the fish go belly up. Yeah, that'll stop Godzilla in his tracks.� | �But the fish don't "go belly up"; they turn instantly into skeletons, which is certainly more impressive. I probably wouldn't have cared about the error, except that Ebert was so damn sarcastic while getting his facts wrong.� Gary M @ http://www.reason.com/hitandrun/2004/07/the_fahrenheit.shtml |
| Hide & Seek (2005) | " Then there is the matter of her imaginary friend, Charlie. Dr. Calloway knows kids have imaginary friends, and that troubled kids often invent confidants to share their fears. He consults a colleague (Famke Janssen), who specializes in children, meets Emily, and agrees.� | It is made clear that Famke Janssen not only plays a �colleague,� but a family friend who was mentored by Dr. Calloway. She has known Emily for a long time and certainly is seen in scenes with her prior to the appearance of Charlie. Furthermore, she suggests the reason for Charlie�s presence, as opposed to simply agreeing with Dr. Calloway�s assessment. |
| NEW! Hustle & Flow (2005) | "They staple cardboard egg containers to the walls to soundproof a recording studio, enlist a hooker named Shug (Taraji P. Henson) to sing backup, and make the recording. � | They�re drink holders, not egg containers. (This is specifically stated in the film when the main character asks his friend what he is hanging all over the wall.) |
| NEW! Hustle & Flow (2005) | "Shug, who Djay gradually realizes he loves, is pregnant, probably not with Djay's child.� | This is not left to question. The main character quite explicitly refers to this woman�s child being the product of an interlude with �some trick.� |
| NEW! Jay & Silent Bob (2001) | "And while Affleck does not play his "Chasing Amy" character in "Jay and Silent Bob, ...� | "Um, yeah he does, Ebert....and it was a pretty long scene too, where they make it clear, even for non Smith fans, who the character was... If you've seen the movie you should appreciate this. [This quote PROVES] that Ebert either a)doesn't watch the movies or 2)skims them to get enough info to piece together a 'review'...." Rockwell @ http://forums.dvdfile.com/archive/index.php/t-7829.html |
| NEW! Jay & Silent Bob (2001) | "Jason Lee, the co-creator of the Bluntman comic, does, turning up in this one to warn Jay and Silent Bob that the comic is being made into a movie by Miramax� | "Ok, I can see how this could be a bit confusing, since Jason Lee played 2 parts in the movie. Still, it was Brodie, not Banky (the co-creator of the comic) who warned J&SB in the beginning. Man, this stuff happens a lot. If only there was a way to force critics to watch the movies." Rockwell @ http://forums.dvdfile.com/archive/index.php/t-7829.html |
| NEW! King Arthur(2004) | "They even keep straight faces in the last shot, as the camera audaciously pulls back to reveal Stonehenge.� | �Stonehenge is not the only circle of standing stones in Britain, Roger. Stonehenge is located on the Salisbury Plains, not on the edge of some rocky coast line. Stonehenge is far larger than the stone ring shown in the movie, consisting of a double ring of stones, rather than a single ring. Any attentive viewer would know at a glance that the ring in the movie wasn't Stonehenge. Additionally, we do know that the stone circles were used ceremonially, so it isn't too farfetched to think that a High King may have been married in one.�R Hailey @ http://shotsacrossthebow.com/archives/002044.html |
| Little Black Book (2004) | "Young Stacy suggests a show on "little black books" -- in particular, the Palm Pilot, Trio or Blackberry of the person you're dating, which may contain evidence that you're being cheated on.� | Stacy suggests a show involving a cook off. Her co-worker, Ira, suggests the show about Little Black Books. |
| The Longest Yard (2005) | "His mentor is a former prisoner, played by Burt Reynolds, who starred in Robert Aldrich's original "Longest Yard" (1974) and whose character this time is described in my notes as the Heisman Trophy Winner of 1955.� | Reynolds character is not a former prisoner. He�s a current one. |
| National Treasure (2004) | "Luckily the National Archivist, Dr. Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger), named after her scenes in the movie, is convinced by Benjamin, and together they team up to steal the Declaration before the villain (Sean Bean) can steal it first.� | Dr. Chase cannot be convinced prior to the stealing of the Decleration. She discounts him after first meeting him, then becomes suspicious of Gates at a Gala at the museum and attempts to stop him. |
| The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (2005) | "She gets a young assistant named Bailey (Jenna Boyd) who is a good soul, open and warm-hearted, and with a secret that Tibby discovers one day when Bailey passes out right there on the floor of a store corridor. � | Actually, this is the first time Tibby even meets Bailey (passed out on the floor of the store). She doesn�t discover her �secret� until quite a while later. |
| The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (2005) | "And Amber Tamblyn (of "Joan or Arcadia") is Tibby, the one with the sardonic angle on life, who wants to be a filmmaker and takes a low-paying job for the summer at a suburban megastore where she plans to shoot a video documentary about life and work. � | Tibby takes the job at the Wal-Mart clone to pay for more equipment as she specifically states. Her intent is to shoot the documentary all over town (in the diner, in the convenience store, etc.), etc. and essentially wherever something shootable (and sometimes not-so-shootable) can be found. |
| NEW! Skeleton Key (2005) | " The visitor in this case is Caroline (Kate Hudson), a nurse who grows despondent when a beloved patient dies, and quits her hospital job and sign on as private care giver.� | etc.) She isn�t a nurse. She is a PCA saving up to attend nursing school as noted in the more than one occasion. In fact, it is even mentioned as one of her motivations for taking this particular job. |
| NEW! Skeleton Key (2005) | "He has crawled out of his window and onto the porch, and falls to the ground, for reasons that seem clearer at the time than they do later. � | Unless there is some remote definition of which I am unaware of the meaning of the word 'Porch,' that goes something like 'Part of roof accessible from second floor window' then I'm pretty sure he crawled out onto the roof, hence the slantiness leading to the fall. |
| Unleashed (2005) | "The dog has been raised from infancy as a killer, obedient to its master. When it wears its collar it is passive. When the collar is removed and an order is given, it turns into a savage murder machine. Then a confusing thing happens. The dog experiences kindness for the first time in its life.(Jet Li stars in "Unleashed" as Danny, a lethal martial arts warrior who has been raised in captivity since childhood)("Danny the Dog" is fearful of his owner, passive in captivity and obedient in action, because he has been trained that way for his whole life.) � | This �dog� was not raised from infancy, and it was never indicated that he was� only that he had been young at the time of his �uncle� had taken on raising him. It also becomes very clear that this is not the first time this �dog� has ever experienced kindness during flashback scenes with his mother. |
| Unleashed (2005) | "Danny falls into their lives by accident, after running away from Bart, as a dog is likely to do when it becomes fed up with its master� | Danny leaves his master only when he believes he has been shot and killed. |
| Willow (1988) | "Then they team up to continue their quest, which leads eventually to Bavmorda's fortress, guarded by a two-headed, fire-breathing dragon. � | Part of Willow�s mission is to reach a castle that he ultimately finds more or less abandoned. There, he runs into a troll whom he himself mistakingly turns into a two-headed dragon with a mis-swing of his magical wand. This castle is very much separate from Bavmorda�s castle which is guarded only by men and Bavmorda herself. |
| Be sure to keep checking back for new entries! | ||
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