Rob Schneider, via rottontomatoes.com
At the end of his August 2005 review of Rob Schneider’s movie “Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo,” the late Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert declared, “Mr. Schneider, your movie sucks.” The last three words of that barb became the title of Ebert’s 2007 book, “Your Movie Sucks.”
And while Schneider was hurt by the blow, it didn’t keep him from reaching out when Ebert’s cancer diagnosis went public two years later. In a recent email to questions from Ebert’s widow, Chaz, Schneider described his reaction to the news and even mused about his philosophy of life, the Big Bang theory and other topics you might not necessarily associate with a guy who’s most famous for playing a “man whore.” It’s all posted on Chaz’s Blog — part of rogerebert.com.
“When Mr. Ebert’s book, “Your Movie Sucks!” came out I admit to feeling sore about it,” Schneider wrote. “You have to build a somewhat thick body armor to survive in show business. But the strange thing was, when I heard Roger was sick I felt terrible and my heart ached. Whatever bad feelings that were leftover melted away and all I remembered was thinking about how much I really admired and loved Roger Ebert and his work and how grateful I felt to him for introducing me to countless films from all over the world that became such an important part of my life and of my work. Some of the best times I had as a kid were watching the films that he thought were great! When Roger and the late Gene Siskel loved or fought over a film, my friends and I would run out to see it and then decide who was right! More times than not we decided it was Roger that was right.”
On Ebert’s “Deuce Bigalow” slam in particular, Schneider admitted, “Mr. Ebert’s review was mean but fair. Truthfully, it was not a good picture…”
