lou lumenick Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It must be said, right off the bat: We all have bad days, we all behave obnoxiously sometimes, and (once in a while) we all do really stupid things that we regret big-time three seconds later. Having said that, it simply must be asked: Lou Lumenick ... what the &%!#$ing &$)# were you thinking? I hesitate to even write about this story, but since a dozen other movie sites have picked up on it, we'd be a little tacky if we just brushed it under the carpet. Plus, hey, it's interesting.

Anyway, according to various sources, NY Post film critic Lou Lumenick got into a brief altercation with Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert during a press screening at the Toronto Film Festival. More specifically (and allegedly, I suppose I should say), it seems that Lou ignored numerous shoulder taps from Roger, and then -- in a fit of full-bore film critic snittiness -- whirled around and landed a half-solid pop on Ebert's noggin, er, knee. The weapon was some sort of portfolio or rolled-up program.

For his part, Roger Ebert has been (as usual) the epitome of class. At first he tried to keep the situation quiet, but once word got out, he penned this explanation. And since the guy already has a Pultizer, I say he now deserves a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. Because let me tell you right now: If I was struck silent by a throat malady and the PROFESSIONAL FILM WATCHER in front of me refused to turn around and at least acknowledge my simple request, well, then I suspect we'd be reading blog posts about how "Cinematical Film Critic Scott Weinberg Just Wrapped a Fire Hydrant Around the Head of an Unidentifiable Man."

And for HIS part, Lou Lumenick has remained distressingly silent. Whether or not the guy was dead-wrong or drop-dead apologetic, there's no excuse for him not addressing the story by this point. Something along the lines of "Dear sweet lord, was I an asshole the other morning. I'm really, truly sorry" published on the New York Post editorial page should just about do it. Me? I'd have written that email six minutes after the incident occurred. Before sending it to every movie site, blog, and message board in the universe.

The tag line underneath Lou Lumenick's name should read, "Will provide sh*tty film reviews for fifty cents because that's about as much as my opinion is worth." Lumenick, who writes film reviews for the New York Post, is easily the worst critic of 2008 so far -- and, unlike his reviews, I'm actually going to back up that statement.

Lou reviewed The Promotion on Friday and gave it Zero stars. Look, I'll be the first to tell you The Promotion is in no way the greatest film of all time, but it's charming, humorous, human and has a lot of heart. But this has nothing to do with The Promotion, and everything to do with performing the job assigned to you.

Fine. Zero stars. We'll go with that; perhaps Lou spotted enough flaws to warrant the rating. But then I actually read Lumenick's "review" of The Promotion, which starts out saying the film's tagline should change to read, "No Laughs." Really? Because I've watched this film with two different audiences in two different states, and each time the audience was laughing ... a lot. Did you watch it with an audience, Lou? Probably not. But let's move on ...