RIP Roger Ebert

I was sad to hear that well-known film critic Roger Ebert passed away today at age 70, after a long battle with cancer. I always liked his take on films, and while I did¬¨‚Ć not agree with them all the time, they were always presented with just the right amount of wit, sometimes of the sharp-tongued variety. He was also a long-time fan of MAD. Here’s a quote from his forward from the book MAD About the Movies:

“I learned to be a movie critic by reading Mad magazine… Mad’s parodies made me aware of the machine inside the skin…of the way a movie might look original on the outside, while inside it was just recycling the same old dumb formulas. I did not read the magazine, I plundered it for clues to the universe. Pauline Kael lost it at the movies; I lost it at Mad magazine.”