"At the Movies" Gets New Hosts.....Again.

So Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz have been replaced as hosts for At the Movies with A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips. I can't say I'm really dissapointed. I agreed with Mank most of the time, but often found Lyons to be a bit single-minded, especially with genres outside of drama. If it wasn't a limited release love story, Lyons often seemed to hate it.  
 
Does anyone watch the show or even care? I think it's gone downhill since Ebert had that operation back in '06.

I have the Reelz Channel so I still watch the show.  I find it funny that you agreed with Ben Mankiewicz most of the time, since I found Lyons more agreeable.  Mank seemed to be very stuffy and highbrow for my tastes.  Of course, all opinions are about personal tastes, it's just that we hope that professional critics have a greater pool of knowledge to draw on.  I was only starting to get to know them and now it seems they've been replaced.  Personally, I think they should have kept the previous hosts (post Ebert) since I got to understand Richard Roeper.  But, I see that the new hosts, A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips come from well regarded newspapers.  Scott is the co-chief film critic of The New York Times, and Phillips, like past host Gene Siskel, is from the Chicago Tribune.  I thought it was a mistake to place unknowns from cable networks into the seats once occupied by Roger Ebbert and Gene Siskel, so returning to print media as a source for their replacements is probably a better idea.
 
Of course this means that they'll hate everything that interests me in a film and love all the movies that bore me to death, but everyone is different so eventually I'll get to know if I agree with any small bit of their tastes.  Honestly, I get more out of Movie Mob, an amature movie review show on the Reelz Channel.  "Black Nerd" is my go to guy, but I like "Robin & the Boywonder" too.

I watch a show by the same name but its never had those people in it. So its probably a region specific version of the same show.

Roger Ebert>them.

  Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewic z both were terrible, in their opinions.. they made the show sound like a little kid talk show, i am not even kidding.  

"

So Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz have been replaced as hosts for At the Movies with A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips. I can't say I'm really dissapointed. I agreed with Mank most of the time, but often found Lyons to be a bit single-minded, especially with genres outside of drama. If it wasn't a limited release love story, Lyons often seemed to hate it.  
 
Does anyone watch the show or even care? I think it's gone downhill since Ebert had that operation back in '06.

"

I watched it alot back when Ebert and Roeper hosted.  But I thought the new hosts were awful.  It's good to hear that they are being replaced.  I think they would do better in print/online media.  I liked A.O. Scott, so I might start watching again.

I watched it back with Ebert and Roeper, even Ebert and Siskel at one point. I haven't watched it at all since Ebert's operation but I do like A.O. Scott so I may watch it again. He is the only NY TImes reviewer that doesn't have a pole up their ass. *cough* Dargis *cough*

Well, both A.O. Scott and Phillips were guest hosts while Ebert was gone, Phillips even became Co-Host in the final months before Roeper left.

I only watch the show online(at their website), since we don't get it in my country, but I really enjoy hearing their opinions about certain movies. I think the biggest problem the show had was the untimely death of Gene Siskel, who always seemed more like an equal to Ebert, while Roeper seemed like he had too much respect for Ebert to really get into arguments with him, and Ben Lyons is just the worst movie critic ever.

Edit: just a rephrase.

Unless i'm missing it, this isn't on in the UK so I don't really know what they're like on the show but Ben Lyons is often on E! News and The Daily 10 and he's absolutely useless so I can see this only being a good thing.

@Deathdealer108 said:

"Great News! I might start watching the show again. Both A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips    were competent guest hosts. Hopefully they can run the show by themselves. I really disliked both Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz so you made my day.   My favorite Movie Critic of all time is still Roger Ebert even with his constant insulting of Video Games.     "

Agreed. I still read Ebert's website. Even despite his, quite frankly, stupid views on video games, he seems like one of the few critics that actually has fun at the movies. He also respects all genres and gives every film a fair shake. You just can't get much better than that.  

@Wolverine said:

"I knew it existed but I never watched it. To tell you the truth I don't care enough about main stream films to watch a show like that. "

They do review a lot of indie movies and limited release stuff on the show, usually one or two a week. However, this was my problem with Lyons and Mank, they constantly gushed over these movies, and with genre films (Lyons specifically) would ALWAYS pan them, never giving them a chance. The only horror movie they seemed to like was Drag Me to Hell, and I think it was because it was a horror-comedy. I just got the feeling that their opinion was "Horror movies are always just excuses for simulated killings on screen and to show copious amount of gore.....Unless they have elements of a whimsical comedy of course!!!". End of rant. 

Sounds like a good move to me.  I stopped watching when they decided to put irreputable doods in the seats.  Meanwhile, Scott and Phillips...while it still doesn't have as much of a ring to it as Siskel & Ebert or Ebert & Roeper...will be excellent for the show.