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Two thumbs up, to recently axed Kansas City Star movie critic Robert W. Butler…
It takes a pretty darn good sport to put up with me at times. Like that’s a secret. And from the looks of Butler’s just-posted review of the new Transformers movie, that’s exactly what he is – a good sport.
"If you somehow find yourself in a theater showing this third episode in the ‘Transformers’ saga, there’s a bit of good news," Butler writes on his new blog. "It’s not nearly as bad as installment 2. I base that judgment on my ability to keep my eyes open this time around."
Here, here!
Two years back at an advance screening of the gawdawful Transformers 2, bored, I glanced about the theater during the intense robot battle scenes. And there was Butler. Sound asleep while attempting to review it.
That’s a major league journalistic no-no, by the way.
Butler probably didn’t miss much. A minute or two after catching Butler with his lights out, he blinked back to awakeness. But the damage was done.
The Star held his review for several hours and when it finally posted, Butler guardedly confessed to dozing off.
The bottom line: My little bust was funny – obviously a bit on the silly side – but equally obviously, not something the newspaper took lightly. To it’s credit.
A handful of years back the Pitch fired one of its premier critics for leaving plays early while reviewing.
If you don’t witness the full movie or play how can you write a fair and balanced review?
Anyway, my hat’s off to Bob for being a good sport. Hey, he’s human. Nobody likes being laid off and he’s making the best of a difficult situation with his blog and other endeavors. And for making it through Transformers 3 without nodding off.
From what Jack’s told me, T-3 is far better than T-2. But mostly because of the first two thirds of the movie that has a bit of a plot. Not the last third which is largely composed of the intense robot battle scenesthat put Bob to sleep the last time out.
And hey, for the record, I wasn’t much better. I was more interested in watching Bob than the movie.
At Least Bob Stays for the Whole Movie
I’ve been at a lot of movies Hearne has “screened,” and I can’t remember one time that Hearne stayed more than 10 minutes. When he calls out Butler for falling asleep, I am suspicious that he actually saw it. I’m guessing someone else — I suspect another victim of The Star’s layoffs — actually snitched on Butler to Hearne. There’s no way Hearne stayed long enough to see Butler fall asleep. But if Hearne stayed long enough at Trannies 2 to witness first hand Butler dozing, it was a first.