Richard Roeper Blog

What’s with all this Cyber Monday bullshit? Is everyone in the media just buying into this manufactured gimmick?

Washington Post: “Retailers hope to hook shoppers online with Cyber Monday sales”

Wall Street Journal: “Cyber Monday Sales Appear Strong”

New York Times: “How to Tell if a Cyber Monday Sale is a Good Deal”

ABC News: “Cyber Monday Deals: Five Online Shopping Tips”

You can find literally thousands of examples of news organizations drinking the Flavor-Aid and buying into the Cyber Monday “holiday,” which was created just four years ago by a branch of the National Retail Federation. The idea was that on the Monday after “Black Friday,” millions of shoppers worn out and/or disappointed by their weekend shopping excursions would turn to their computers in search of holiday sales—so why not create a name for the day and give the media a “hook” on which to hang their stories?

I just clicked on the official Cyber Monday site, which is brimming with ads from online retailers such as Borders, eToys, Sony, Dell, you name it. A helpful clock tells me I have just 42 minutes and counting to click on the eToys ad (“Childhood dreams delivered”) if I want to “Save up to 50% on the hottest toys during the eToys CyberMonday Sale!”

Woohoo!!!!

Interestingly, Cyber Monday has never been the biggest online shopping day of the holiday season—–but then again, Black Friday isn’t usually the biggest “regular” shopping day of the season. Black Friday is often the busiest in terms of foot traffic, but the biggest shopping day is usually the last Saturday before Christmas, or the last Friday before Christmas if Dec. 25th falls on a weekend.

Great piece on \”The Myth of Cyber Monday\”

Some Cyber Monday proponents say it was never intended to be marketed as the biggest online shopping day of the year, though that may well become a self-fulfilling prophecy. They say it’s supposed to be the kickoff to the online holiday shopping season, not the ultimate shopping day.

Does it matter any more? For the rest of our lives, the media will be doing Monday-after-Thanksgiving stories about sales on “Cyber Monday.”

According to the online marketing firm Coremetrics, online sales in the U.S. today are up 16 percent from last year as of late afternoon.

Oh. In that case, maybe I am a fan of Cyber Monday. As much as I resent these manufactured gimmicks, especially when much of the media just runs with it without question because it fills space on a slow news day, anything that gives a charge to the economy and might lead to people getting jobs or keeping jobs—-I’m all for that.

Let’s see what they’re asking for “Lost: The Complete Fifth Season” on Blu-ray over at amazon.com, I know someone who would love that…

Some nice comments from the from Facebook and Twitter friends. Thanks guys!

Tady Villatoro: YES!!!!! Thank you!!! I missed ur reviews!!!!

Franco Ocampo: Very cool, can’t wait!

Thomas Beau Vickroy: Sweetness. Just bookmarked it!

Geoff Scofield: This is awsome news. Ive been lost since there hasnt been any movie review shows on since you left Richard.I Cant wait to watch your reviews again. Props on the video. very funny loved the ending.

David Gardetti: Paranormal Activity parody: like it. RR doing movie reviews reviews: love it.

Rich Hlava Jr.: Did i just read that right?? I will soon be able to WATCH Richard Roeper movie reviews on my iPhone??? Holy sweet God!! Heaven awaits..

Christopher Zeidel: Roger is in full support of Roeper’s decision, and so are we. The new version of the site is looking good. I am looking forward to the video reviews of new movies.

Nelson Espe: I just read your blog about some guy taking a shot at you, and your comments to Ebert….I totally understood what you were saying. You were not dissing Ebert at all, you were just clearly trying to say that it is more laid back, as if it would be talking about a movie with your friends. And not afraid to say something is a pile of shit, whereas on TV you cannot do that.

Betsy Knight Casillo: I am thrilled to see you doing reviews again on TV! I don’t get Starz (maybe someday) but will watch online. Best of luck to you in your new venture and thank you.

Yasmeen Shuller: Congratulations!! So happy to see you back in full reviewer mode and with a new website too!!

Rick Holtrop: Still loving your work, Rich, can’t wait to see the new stuff.

Jay Shulz: This is fantastic news. Very happy to have you back on TV. Congrats!

Tony Healy: The new website looks sleeeeeeek! Holy crap!

bpdreview: I love Richard Roeper! I’m making no apologies for that. He’s back w/a new website and weekly reviews.

warlock716: Love the new site. You’re getting an Iphone app???

DanielleCesena: Read Feder’s article. Glad you’re back to reviewing. Kudos to you responding to those ignorant commentators.

wood_brothers21: Happy Thanksgiving Mr. Roeper. Your Starz gig sounds edgy and cool.

literallyfresh: Looking forward to catching Richard Roeper’s weekly video reviews on his official site.

vinceamatuzzi: The new site is looking good.

LiamJM: Cool, congrats on the new site.

MissJo_25: love love love your blog. I’m on it all the time.

bryanalaspa: The site looks  fantastic Richard.

ToddDilley Glad to hear Richard Roeper will be reviewing movies online and also for the Starz channel starting soonabout 4 hours ago from Twikini

Earlier this week, I launched the updated version of this site, and I announced plans to include on-camera reviews of new movies. Thanks to everyone who has Twittered, posted a message on Facebook or emailed me with kind words about the new venture.

Veteran media columnist Robert Feder wrote about the deal on his blog.

Robert Feder blog

Some of the comments under Rob’s fair and accurate piece were pretty negative, but as long as the criticism is fair, I have no problem with that. If you can’t take it, don’t dish it out. A few other comments were based on false claims, so I jumped in with a response to set the record straight. I don’t mind if you’re going to take a shot at me, but if you’re going to make things up or repeat untruths, that’s just not right.

A few days later Roger Ebert wrote a long piece about the history of the show, including his take on some recent developments, for his online journal. Roger took note of a comment I made to Feder and addressed me directly:

“I confess I felt a twinge that Rob Feder’s column quoted you: ‘As much as I loved doing ‘Ebert & Roeper,’ this will have much more of an unfiltered, uncut, viral feel. As someone at Starz put it, they wanted ‘Roeper uncut.’ If a film is a piece of shit, I’ll say it’s a piece of shit.’

“Richard, were you not uncut at E&R? Did you never say a movie was ‘a piece of shit?’ On the web and cable you can use that very word, of course, as you do in your web site’s promo for your new enterprise, promising to review ‘a lot of big movies, and some smaller, shitty ones as well.’ “

A few words of explanation. First, it was not my intention to disparage the amazing experience I had as Roger’s co-host, or to imply I was creatively stifled. Roger and Gene pioneered the concept of two smart, interesting people on TV talking like they would at a coffee shop or at a bar. (The “Pardon the Interruption” guys, among many others, have said they’re just doing a variation of “Siskel & Ebert.”) From the first time I sat in the balcony, Roger always encouraged me to speak freely and be myself–and he was exceedingly generous about giving me equal time every time we discussed a movie.

However, during my first couple of years on the show and then again at the very end of my run, I did have some behind-the-scenes “creative differences” (as they say) with producers. I probably should have clarified to Rob that that’s what I was thinking about when I said “uncut, unfitered,” blah blah blah. But on the air, with Roger–I was absolutely encouraged to be myself and to express myself in my own way. I didn’t mean to suggest otherwise with a clumsy and cryptic quote.

The other factor that played into my comments is the delivery system I’ll be using. With these reviews airing on premium cable and on the Internet as opposed to broadcast television, I will have more freedom in terms of language. (Not that I’m going to come out of the box every week cussing like a Tarantino character.) Anyone who reads my blog knows I’ve occasionally said things in this space I could never print in the Sun-Times. In that same vein, these on-camera reviews might be a little more PG-13 or R than the reviews on the Disney-produced show. When I said “uncut, unfiltered,” etc., I just meant I’ll be delivering the reviews in a casual setting, in a conversational tone.

As for my comment about reviewing “a lot of big movies, and some smaller, shitty ones as well,” that was just a lame attempt at humor. It would have been more accurate for me to say I’ll be reviewing a lot of big movies, and some great smaller movies as well. I’d much rather celebrate a small gem than go out of my way to spotlight a little film, only to say it’s terrible. There are enough shitty BIG movies (hello, “2012″) to review as it is.

Here’s how it’s going to work. I’m going to see the movies and record my reviews in Chicago. The Denver-based editing team at Starz will drop in clips and graphics. The reviews will appear on richardroeper.com and on other web sites on the day the movie opens; a short while later, they’ll run on Starz. It’s really that simple.

And Roger, to answer your question: You’re right. Indeed I did once compare a certain movie to “a hot, steaming pile of excrement.”  It was “The Brown Bunny.” Never did get a Christmas card from Vincent Gallo after that.

Cheers,

Richard

Oprah Winfrey isn’t retiring. Not this year, not next year, not in 2011. She’s just moving on, perhaps to California, maybe to a show on cable, perhaps to a Barbara Walters-type deal where she does specials, develops programming and occasionally returns to the type of show that made her world-famous and scary-rich. But she ain’t retiring any more than Jay Leno retired when he left “The Tonight Show.”

Or how about this. She’s retiring in 2011 because that positions her for…

OPRAH FOR PRESIDENT IN 2012!!!

She’d kick Sarah Palin’s ass.

Oh wait. Obama’s probably gonna run for re-election, right? So scratch the whole Oprah for President deal. (Years and years ago, I wrote that Oprah should run for mayor of Chicago. I was only half-kidding. These days, I can’t imagine her thinking that small. Mayor of the World, perhaps.)

Mayor Daley, perhaps jousting with the media just a bit, said with a nearly straight face he believes the criticism of Oprah’s Michigan Avenue shutdown-show might have contributed to her departure

“That became a big rhubarb in the Chicago press—-beat up Oprah,” Daley said Thursday night. “So you keep kicking people, people will leave, simple as that.”

Uh-huh. Methinks the mayor might be projecting a bit there.

I remember when Oprah arrived in Chicago in the 1980s to take over the “A.M. Chicago” hosting slot from a guy named Robb Weller, who went on to hosting duties at “Entertainment Tonight.” She was a raw talent who immediately connected with the Chicago audience and started taking away viewers from Phil Donahue, who had pioneered the morning show format in Ohio and taken it to national prominence out of the CBS studios in Chicago. But none of us could have envisioned that she’d ever reach such stratospheric levels. Even when I guested on Oprah’s show in the early 1990s, it was a pretty cool thing but for me it wasn’t nearly as exciting as my first time on “The Tonight Show” or even Conan’s program.

According to one urban legend, Oprah took control of her show after a dispute with the general manager of the ABC affiliate in Chicago, who wouldn’t give up one of his parking spaces for her. I don’t think that one’s true—-but I do believe the story about how my pal Roger Ebert was the one who convinced her that syndication was the route to national exposure and possible fortune.

Roger, Oprah. Oprah, Roger.

As I write this, dawn has broken in Chicago. After I did a live spot on the CBS affiliate in Chicago in which I pointed out that Oprah’s total weight gains and losses over the last 25 years equals the national debt (it was a JOKE!), I cruised past the Harpo Studios, where some fans were already lining up for the Friday morning show. Lining up in the dark, God bless ‘em. (There was also a considerable media presence. Oprah’s one of the few TV stars who merits constant coverage from the competition, such as it is. In Chicago, she’s on ABC-7, but WGN, Fox, CBS and NBC were covering her Friday with as much verve as Channel 7.)

For anyone who works in the Chicago media, Oprah’s departure means we’ll finally, finally, FINALLY stop hearing from friends, acquaintances and friends of friends of acquaintances asking, “Can you help my Mom get tickets for Oprah?”

For some 600 Chicagoans, the end of the show could mean the end of a job. That’s how many staffers report to the Harpo complex every day for work. The neighborhood where Harpo is located is going to suffer quite the blow if the studio shuts down.

As for the show itself: I won’t miss it much because I hardly ever watch it. I’m not the target audience. I’d occasionally tune in or TIVO when Oprah interviewed a newsmaker, or when the show made news because of some wacky episode, e.g., Tom Cruise’s couch-dancing.

I’d go after Oprah when she touted another fad diet, embraced that bullshit known as The Secret or indulged her monumental ego to the point of insanity. I hated that shit when she gave away the Pontiacs and some members of the studio audience nearly fainted with greed, and nobody pointed out that PONTIAC was giving away the Pontiacs, not Oprah, and by the way: everyone owes about $7,000 in taxes, so good luck with that.

I also praised her for commanding the small screen like few ever have. I expressed admiration for her myriad good deeds, her love of reading and the Oprah Book Club, and the fact that she stayed in Chicago all these years when it would have been easier to take the show to the West Coast.

You don’t really see Oprah out and about in Chicago these days; her restaurant is long-gone, and she’s hardly a regular at White Sox games. Once she goes to California, I doubt we’ll see much of her here. But, like Michael Jordan and Siskel & Ebert, like Harry Caray and Walter Payton, like the Tower formerly known as Sears and the Daley dynasty, Oprah will always be an iconic part of The Chicago Story.

A couple of iPhone pics of the Michael Douglas jacket from “Traffic,” as discussed in Monday’s column…

After a sparkling first day of wagering on the Breeders Cup races last Friday, I fell back to Earth on Saturday, with a couple of close-but-no-cigar specials.

The 2009 Breeders Cup

In the Classic, I had all my money on Gio Ponti, and there was a moment at the top of the stretch when I thought it might happen—-but the remarkable Zenyatta roared to a thrilling victory, with Gio Ponti finishing second.

Now then. Had I done a Win-Place-Show bet on Gio Ponti, I would have realized a nice profit. But as a casual horse player, I’ve never been a big fan of hedging my bets, so to speak. I want my horse to win baby win! If he comes in second, so be it.

My only regret is that I finished the weekend -$250. Had Gio Ponti pulled off the upset, I would have had at least several hundred in profits, and all of that would have gone to charity.

Ah well. Had a great time betting online with TVG.com and watching the races at Bull & Bear.

Cheers,

RR

UPDATE:

OK, here are my pics so far, as placed on TVG.com. I’m still open to suggestions.

6th race: $30 to win on #10, Justenuffhumor. $5 Exacta Box, 10-11.

7th race: $50 to win on #4, Bullsbay. $5 Exacta Box, 4/7.

8th race: $25 to win on #7, Spanish Moon. $5 Exacta Box, 7/8.

9th race: $100 win on #7, Gio Ponti. $10 Exacta Box, 1-7.

On my way to the Bull & Bear to watch the proceedings…

UPDATE: I had the last two winners in Friday’s Breeders Cup races: Informed Decision and Life is Sweet.

Heading into today’s races, I’m up $222—-and remember, any profits realized for the weekend will be donated to charity. (See below). I’m going to start lining up my picks and making my bets at TVG.com, and later this afternoon I’ll be heading to the Bull & Bear to watch the races.

A few weeks ago, the Illinois Racing Board gave the go-ahead to three companies to host online sports betting operations. In other words, your home computer is now an OTB, if you’re so inclined to bet the ponies.

I now have an account with TVG.com, and I’m going to be placing wagers on the Breeders Cup races today and tomorrow. Your tips and hunches are welcome!

TVG website

My opening bankroll is $500. Here’s the deal: If I end up realizing any profits today and tomorrow, 100 percent of my winnings will be donated to the Racing Industry Charitable Foundation.

RICF

The RICF provideds comprehensive medical, dental, social services and substance abuse care for all racetrack workers and their families. It’s a terrific organization.

I’m putting $30 to win on Cloudy’s Knight in the 3rd today. More bets to come.

Note to Matt Drudge: Probably not the best day to run the ad you have on the top of your site.

All right, it’s time to unveil my Cheesy Mustache theory regarding three of the biggest movie stars in the world.

It is my contention that some time ago, perhaps during the filming of “Ocean’s Thirteen,” Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Matt Damon made some sort of wager saying that by 2009, each of them would have to star in a movie while sporting an incredibly cheesy mustache. The loser would have to…I don’t know, maybe break out into song for no good reason the next time he was on “Oprah”?

Here’s Brad in “Inglourious Basterds”

And here’s Matty in “The Informant!”

And finally, here’s Georgey boy in “The Men Who Stare At Goats,” opening Friday.

I rest my case.

Even in this cynical age when sports stars routinely hop from team to team in pursuit of more millions, a lot of fans have a funny way of taking it personally when one of their beloved heroes moves on.

In 2003, Cleveland fans voted Jim Thome the most popular athlete in the history of the team. This was a year after Thome left the Indians for a lucrative deal with the Phillies. I guess the Cleveland fans didn’t mind it so much when Thome was a National Leaguer—–but when he returned to the AL Central as a member of the White Sox in 2006,he was booed mercilessly whenever the Sox played at Cleveland.

The fans felt betrayed.

It was hardly surprising when the Green Bay faithful booed and heckled Brett Favre on his return to Lambeau Field. A sizable percentage of Cheeseheads are deeply offended that Favre would dare don a Vikings uni and take the field as a member of the hated opposition.

Give me a friggin’ break.

Granted, Favre’s Hamlet act has worn thin over the years, and you can’t really blame Green Bay management for letting Favre go to the Jets so they could move forward with Aaron Rodgers. Even after Favre “retired” from the Jets, it was obvious he still had a passion for the game and he was probably going to make one last comeback attempt—–but who knew he was still gonna be this good? Who knew he’d torch his former team for seven TD passes in two games?

OK, that’s gotta hurt if you’re a Packer Backer. But how can you fault Favre for wanting to extend his career another season or two? As I wrote a few months ago when Favre was still on the fence, of course the guy was going to opt for another year of playing football in front of 70,000 fans every Sunday for lots of dough and the thrill of competition.

In most jobs, you work for 40 years and you retire for maybe 10 years. Twenty years if you’re lucky.

In professional sports, the career lasts 10 years or so, and the retirement lasts 40 years. (If you’re lucky.) Little wonder that so many stars retire, unretire, retire again, unretire. It’s hard to be 35 or 37 or 41 and realize your best days are about to disappear forever.

Somewhere down the road, the same Packers fans who “hate” Favre right now will most likely acknowledge he’s one of the greatest players ever to don a Green Bay uniform. When Favre is inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he won’t be remembered as a Jet or a Viking. He’ll be a Green Bay Packer.