The Two Bens Are No Longer "At The Movies"

Film fans everywhere rejoice! After only one year, Buena Vista Television has decided to replace both Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz as the hosts of “At The Movies.” They came on the show after former longtime hosts Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper decided not to renew their contracts with Disney as they were uncomfortable with the new direction the show was going in. Ever since their debut on the long running show, both Bens have been hounded by thumbs down from television critics, and they have been subjected to a lot of vicious hatred from those on the internet. It was announced that starting September 5th, noted film critics A.O. (Tony) Scott of The New York Times and Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune will be taking over as hosts of the show.

For me, this is a big thrill as the show had become vapid and shallow, and less and less time seemed to be spent talking about the movies. Both of the Bens were pretty much hounded from the get go, but Ben Lyons especially (and deservedly) got a lot of film fanatic bile thrown at him on a regular basis. Throughout the show, he seemed to be obsessed with getting quotes of his reviews all over movie advertisements, be it in the newspapers or film. Lyons also continued to make ridiculous comments of how “Let The Right One In,” the Swedish vampire movie from 2008, was going to be remade and how he felt American audiences would now “get to see the movie in English.”

Indeed, one of the great things about watching this incarnation of the show was to just see what ridiculous and unintentionally hilarious stuff would come out of these guys mouths next.

Brian Frons, who heads up the Disney unit that oversees ABC Media Productions, summed up “At The Movies” past season:

“We tried something new this season, and they (Lyons and Mankiewicz) did everything we asked of them, and they have been complete professionals. However, we've decided to return the show to its original essence — two traditional film critics discussing current motion picture and DVD releases."

With Scott and Phillips taking over the show in the fall, there is a confident feeling that it will bring the show back to where it was before all this two Bens nonsense brought it crashing down; two professional film critics from rival newspapers discussing and arguing over the current batch of new releases. Granted, there will never ever be a replacement for either Gene Siskel, Roger Ebert, or even Richard Roeper, but having these two noted critics take over is a positive sign. Both Tony and Michael appeared on the opposite side of Richard Roeper on several episodes of “Ebert & Roper” while Ebert was battling salivary cancer, and their appearances gave the show some of its strongest moments. Seeing these two together will be interesting, and it should mean an end to that lame ass theme song that may have been brief but still utterly tacky.

In a recent interview, departing critic Ben Lyons said that he has no regrets over this past year, and that he was “extremely proud” of the work he and Mankiewicz had done. Lyons also said that he put the criticisms of the show’s new format into perspective, but he did make a serious exception to those who leveled “malicious” attacks at him from “behind a computer screen.”

Mankiewicz concurred in a separate interview that his co-host did take most of the heat directed at their take on the show, but he also felt that it was generally “unfair and mean spirited.” Clearly, this Ben had put his experience doing “At The Movies” in perspective as well:

“We're film critics — and we can't really go ballistic when people criticize us. I loved working on the show, all of it. It will sound hokey, but it really was an honor to continue that broadcast legacy that Roger and Gene created. I have worked on TV a long time, and I know nothing is permanent in television."

So now the two Ben’s reign of accidental terror has ceased, and they join the ranks of other “critics” who have tried and failed to recapture the chemistry that Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert had when they did the show. Those victims include Jeffrey Lyons (Ben Lyon’s father), Michael Medved, Rex Reed, etc. Hopefully A.O. Tony Scott and Michael Phillips will fare much better than any of these people, and perhaps they will succeed in making this show their own.

Sources:

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/Movies/story?id=8254270&page=1

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090806/ap_on_en_tv/us_tv_at_the_movies_hosts_6