Thankfully, up until now I’ve successfully tuned out the flood of trailers infiltrating the airwaves attempting to usher me into the theater to see The Lake House. No amount of strategically placed advertisement could force me to swallow this sappy love story involving Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves, a romantic combo that even now makes my stomach churn. Not even a gimmicky little premise that involves them sharing that love across separate temporal planes could convince me otherwise.

But it seems nothing is too trite for “film critic” Richard Roeper as I recently discovered today. During one of my hour-long stares at the television in which I contemplate everything that has thus far gone wrong with my life, I caught a little blurb from him during a trailer for the film that proclaimed it his favorite movie so far this year. Seriously? Nothing else caught your interest Mr. Roeper? Bubble? The Death of Mr. Lazarescu? Any of this registering? This shouldn’t be all too surprising coming from the man who gave L’Enfant a thumbs down.

Now, I’m sure Mr. Roeper is a very nice man, and likely more astute and informed on many other issues than I am, but when it comes to film, I seriously question his credibility. We must henceforth differentiate between moviegoer and film critic and begin to respect those who adhere to the traits plainly reserved for honest criticism.

Clearly Roeper belongs to the former category, whereas his partner in crime Roger Ebert by and large embodies the latter (though at times he drifts in between). What separates the two? Well, I’ll put it this way: when you place both Memento and Vanilla Sky in the top two positions for best films of 2001 and justify your decision by explaining that you like “puzzle movies,” well, then you exemplify the perceptions of a moviegoer – you watch movies, you enjoy movies, but that’s where it ends. Movies may inspire you from time to time and maybe you even see them in some cases as art, but you’re more than willing to allow them to succumb to capitalist greed for the sake of entertainment and higher quality special effects. Eh. Recently I fear I’m slipping into that mindset, hopefully though, I can claw my way out of this depression.

In any case, don’t be surprised to see The Lake House on Roeper’s year-end list. Why does this bother me? Let’s just say that I’m a bit jealous that this pedestrian critic holds a place alongside one of the most well known film critics of all time while I waste away in obscurity. I suppose it’s not so bad, at least I never said Jennifer Aniston “is underrated as a film actress.”