A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

I STRONGLY DISLIKED THIS MOVIE: The A.V. Club's take on Rob Reiner's film North, part of its My Year of Flops series, is of course very much based on seeing the film through the prism of Roger Ebert's legendary 0-star review, but Nathan Rabin also raises two fine thoughts worthy of your input:

1. "Watching the film, I was reminded of my late, great Movie Club colleague Anderson Jones’ comment that he hated kids films, hated kids in films, and hated children in general. I don’t hate children, but I do hate the way children are deified in films. I’m sickened by the endless deluge of parenthood redemption comedies about hard-working parents who learn, through some manner of metaphysical magic or bizarre quirk of fate, that the only way to be a good parent is to devote every waking moment to catering to their child’s every need. These films coldly exploit both the innate narcissism of children and the guilt of dual-income couples worried that their professional success is coming at the expense of their children’s happiness. Most parents try their best under challenging circumstances. They don’t deserve to have cynical kiddie fare propagating the message that if you miss little Timmy’s softball game even once he’ll end up a serial killer all because of your terrible parenting."

2. " Ebert expresses hope that North represents a mere 'lapse from which Reiner will soon recover'. Yet Reiner never really did recover. North marked the turning point where people stopped saying, 'Oh wow, a new Rob Reiner movie!' to 'Oh shit, another fucking Rob Reiner movie.' Reiner’s impressive string of triumphs was in the past (All in The Family, the aforementioned directorial hits, fucking Penny Marshall) while The Story Of Us, Alec & Emma, and Rumor Has It loomed ominously in his future. Reiner and Barry Levinson have strangely similar career arcs. Each triumphed throughout the ‘80s with critics and audiences then wiped out with a deeply personal labor of love early in the early 90s. Reiner and Levinson obviously put a lot of themselves into North and Toys, respectively. Reiner and Levinson clearly thought they were giving the world another Wizard Of Oz. So it must have been traumatic to have the world treat their gift-wrapped whimsy like a vial of the bubonic plague. They expected to be greeted as liberators of the world’s collective inner child. Instead they were treated like a guy who comes to the family Christmas party high on crack and hand-cuffed to a dead hooker."

Indeed, after a run including Spinal Tap, Princess Bride, Stand By Me, Misery, When Harry Met Sally and A Few Good Men, Reiner hasn't had a good film since 1995's The American President; Levinson has directed one solid film (Wag the Dog) since 1991's Bugsy, though he has a lifetime pass thanks to helming "Homicide: Life on the Streets". What happened?