reviews were sneered at by film critics for being too simplistic and dumbed down. what did you think? >> well i'm a critic and obviously you spend a lot of time and effort crafting things getting nuance in there. and a thumb doesn't have a lot of nuance. but on the other hand, roger really used his positive thumbs to make small films, give them more visibility foreign language films, documentaries as in "hoop dreams." it went both ways. >> you say ebert's impact on film was much larger than the syndicated film he did with gene siskell? >> he reached people. this was his gift. i'd be with him in all parts of the world and people would come up and say hello. e h liked that. he liked convincing people that films were worth seeing. this was a great thing. >> this documentary, i watched it a few days ago, it is