Whores of Summer

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E-Film Critic's Erik Childress has another critic-bashing piece out, this one called "The Whores of Summer and the Embargoes They Break." It's hard to subscribe to strict black-and-white concepts of ethical shilly-shallying for film critics. Everyone has a remnant of dried jizz on his/her coatsleeve. Nobody is 100% pure. Not even "Rabbi Dave' Poland.

I guess Childress' point is that some people whore out too much. They cross the line like Saddam Hussein crossed the line, and here's Childress dropping bombs and delivering shock-and-awe. I'm not saying everyone is a whore, but I think it was Bob Dylan who once wrote, "Show me someone who's not a parasite and I'll say a prayer for him."

Here's Childress's list of "The Ten Dumbest Blurbs Said This Summer"...but what does he mean by this? Does he mean lame, clumsily written, ill-considered, ignorant, willfully misleading...? The word "dumb" doesn't do it for me.
Anyway, in backwards order...

10. "A movie treat for kids, mom, pop, brothers, sisters, uncles and, of course, aunts..." -- Gene Shalit on The Ant Bully. (That's not so bad.) 9. "So extreme it's good, so shrewd it's good, so funny it's good, so good it's good." -- Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle, on Snakes on a Plane. 8. "A downright sweet love letter to Latino skate kids" -- Dennis Lim, The Village Voice on Wassup Rockers. 7. "Scoop is Woody Allen's finest film in years." -- Jeffrey Lyons...an outrageous thing to say! 6. "Columbo but hotter. Way, way hotter." -- Out magazine on Shock to the System. 5. "A celebration of the strength it takes to be different. Halle Berry steals the show with a sensational performance." -- David Sheehan on X-Men: The Last Stand. 4. "The best superhero film since Spider-Man!" -- Scott Bowles, USA Today, on My Super Ex-Girlfriend. 3. "A true story you'd never expect..." Newsweek (Childress doesn't say which staffer wrote this) on World Trade Center. 2. "...a fascinating Cain-and-Abel tragedy that foreshadows today's jihads and crusades." -- Queen Ann News on Beowulf & Grendel. 1. "If you liked March of the Penguins, you'll love An Inconvenient Truth." -- Eleanor Clift, Newsweek.