Contacts

* For comments or questions about opinions expressed in reviews, please write to the Movie Answer Man (see link in the left column, or: answerman@gmail.com). PLEASE NOTE: You MUST include your city and state/province for your submission to be considered. Your information may be published, online and offline, in connection with your submission.

* Submissions to Ebert's Little Movie Glossary should be sent to the Movie Answer Man (see link in the left column, or: answerman@gmail.com).

AGAIN, PLEASE NOTE: You MUST include your city and state/province for your submission to be considered. Your information may be published, online and offline, in connection with your submission.

* For editorial (text/content-related) questions, comments, and error-reporting, please e-mail the editor: feedback@rogerebert.com. PLEASE include your city and state or province.

* For web site performance/functionality questions, comments, and problems (with search, registration, overall site speed/performance), please e-mail the web master: webmaster@rogerebert.com.

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Q. Your new "search" is very picky. How can I best find what I'm looking for?

A. We're already working on improving the search functionality, which can be rather unforgiving at times. For example, if you type in too much information, and you get even one character wrong, you won't get any result at all (for example: typing "lady killers" to find the Coens' 2004 "The Ladykillers" will bring up no results because "ladykillers" is one word; same thing if you forget there's a hyphen in "Spider-Man 2"). Until we can improve this, it's best to enter the least amount of information you can to find what you're looking for -- one word in a title, or just a last name for a person. Better to see a range of results to choose from than to get none at all. So, for example, typing in "lady" will give you a list of movies with that word in the title, and you can easily spot "The Ladykillers" from there.

Q. I searched for some of my favorite movies and couldn’t find them on the site. What’s wrong?

A. RogerEbert.com is built on a database of more than 5,500 reviews that Ebert has written for the Chicago Sun-Times since he began as the paper’s movie critic in 1967. In some cases, we are still trying to locate reviews that aren’t yet in the database (checking library copies of the newspaper, for example), and they will be added as we find and convert them into electronic form. Also, in any given year, there may be 200 or 300 movies opening in Chicago and around the U.S., and it’s simply impossible for one person to review them all, so your search may simply mean that Ebert didn’t review that particular film. Finally, if the movie you’re looking for played in Chicago before Ebert began reviewing for the Sun-Times in 1967, the chances of it being represented in our current database are slim – unless he reviewed a later re-release or chose to honor it with a Great Movie review.

Q. How many stars are in Ebert's rating scale?

A. Roger Ebert has used a four-star scale since the very beginning. So, the star ratings range from Zero stars (beneath contempt) to Four stars (first-rate).

Q. Where are the One-Minute Reviews?

A. "One Minute Reviews" are available from the top of the right column on the homepage and reviews page, just under "new reviews" and above "opening this week." As always, if you would prefer to go directly to the full-length review of a particular movie, look for the title under "new reviews." You can also click on the "new reviews" heading (or "more current reviews") to bring up a click-able list of films reviewed in the past few weeks that are most likely still playing in theaters in some areas.

Q. How do I find Ebert's ten best lists for various years?

A. Until we can compile an index page of all of them, the way to get the most lists is to use the "advanced search" to find the phrase "best 10" in the category "Interviews & Essays."

Q. What are the "related articles" in the left-hand column?

A. Part of what's "new and improved" about RogerEbert.com is the ability to pull together related information from all over the site and display it on a single page, where it's easier for you to find and use it. The links in the left column under "related articles" will include other reviews of the same movie or related movies, interviews with the filmmakers and cast, essays, film festival coverage, and more. Under this section you will see Answer Man links, by date. Just click on a date to access individual Answer Man questions and answers related to the movie or people you're reading about.

Q. Why do some movies have more than one Ebert review?

A. Over time, some movies (like “Apocalypse Now” or the original “Star Wars” for example) may accumulate as many as three or more different Ebert reviews: a review of the original release; a review of a restored version, “Special Edition,” and/or “Director’s Cut”; and a Great Movies review. Other prominent movies may also have a Critical Debate feature, showing contrasting views from other critics. You will find additional reviews (as well as links to other articles related to that particular film – interviews, essays, Answer Man questions, film festival coverage) in the column on the left side of the page as you are looking at a review.

Q. What is a “Great Movie” review?

A. Every other Sunday, in a column that alternates with Answer Man, Roger Ebert reviews (or re-reviews) a film that he feels qualifies as a “Great Movie” – one of the all-time best. The film could be as old as “The Birth of a Nation” (1915) or as recent as “Fargo” (1996). These reviews are sometimes timed to coincide with the DVD release of a particular movie, so that it becomes easily accessible to readers who want to check it out for themselves.

Q. What is a “Critical Debate” feature?

A. The pages we call “Critical Debates” are brief summaries of what other critics said about a particular movie –when it was first released, and in some cases over the years since – to put the film’s reputation in historical and critical perspective. Many movies we consider classics today were not embraced by all the critics when they were first released (“It’s a Wonderful Life” and “2001: A Space Odyssey” being among the most notable examples). Whenever possible, we tried to arrange these little review excerpts to create almost a “panel discussion” of the flaws and merits of any given movie.

Q. What does it mean when a person’s name or a movie title appears underlined (or hot-linked) in the text of an article?

A. Clicking on a hot movie title will take you to the main review page for that title, from which all articles about that movie can be found. Because we do not have extensive credits, filmography, or biographies, clicking on the names of actors, actresses, and directors that are hot will automatically perform a search for articles in which that person is mentioned and display the search results for you.

Q. Why do some reviews have cast and crew credits while others don’t?

A. It’s simply a matter of the original material we had to work with. The Chicago Sun-Times began keeping articles in a database in 1985, so most of the reviews written since then are accompanied by the cast and credits information – in whatever format the newspaper was using at the time the original reviews were published. Anything before 1985, however, may have been keyed in manually from an old clipping or microfiche, or the result of a photocopy that has been scanned with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software, in which case the credits may not have come through. Eventually we would like to have more complete credits for all the films in our review database.

Q. What are those dates that appear under the Answer Man heading in the left column next to a review?

A. Those are the original publication dates of Answer Man questions and answers related to the title reviewed on that page. Click on the dates to read the relevant Q&As; (some have a thread of follow-up Q&As;, in which case you may want to start with the oldest date and work your way forward).

Q. What is “Ebert’s Little Movie Glossary”?

A. It’s a clever little compendium of movie clichés, mostly provided by readers. New entries appear at the end of each Answer Man column. You can browse through the entire glossary (or search for a particular term) in the Movie Glossary section. Meanwhile, random selections appear in the left column of the homepage and some section pages each time you visit.

Q. How do I submit items to be considered for Ebert's Little Movie Glossary?

Submissions to Ebert's Little Movie Glossary should be sent to the Movie Answer Man (see link in the left column, or: answerman@gmail.com). PLEASE NOTE: You MUST include your city and state/province for your submission to be considered. Your information may be published, online and offline, in connection with your submission.

Q. Why don’t you have DVD reviews?

A. At this stage in the site’s development we are concentrating on Roger Ebert’s reviews of the movies themselves. Eventually, we would like to add reviews of DVDs that consider the sound and image quality, commentary tracks, deleted scenes, and other special features.

Q. How do I give my own star rating to movies?

A. All you have to do is register. Registered users are able to award their own star ratings to movies, to see the average user rating compared to Ebert's rating, and to keep track of their own star ratings of movies (through the use of a cookie). Once you rate a movie, you will see the Ebert star rating, the Users rating (an average), and "You" -- your personal rating of a particular movie.

Q. What is involved in becoming a “registered user” of RogerEbert.com?

A. Registered users are able to "rate" movies (see above) and have the opportunity to sign up for a weekly e-mail newsletter about what Roger and other contributors to the site are writing about that week. Please check our privacy policy for further information.

Q. Can I reprint Roger Ebert’s reviews on my web site?

A. Not without permission. Ebert’s reviews are syndicated to various publications and web sites for a fee. Copyright restrictions apply: See our terms of use. You’re perfectly free to link to the full reviews at www.rogerebert.com,so long as you follow our linking policy.

Q. What should I do if I find an error on RogerEbert.com?

A. Since we’re just getting up and running, and the thousands of articles on this site have never appeared in a single database before, we’d really appreciate it if you’d let us know when you find something you think is wrong.

If it’s an error of fact or something in the text itself, please e-mail the Editor at feedback@rogerebert.com. PLEASE include your city and state or province.

If it’s a problem related to the way the site is functioning (or NOT functioning -- including search, registration, user star ratings), please e-mail the Webmaster at a webmaster@rogerebert.com.

* For comments or questions about opinions expressed in reviews, please write to the Movie Answer Man (see link in the left column, or: answerman@gmail.com). PLEASE NOTE: You MUST include your city and state/province for your submission to be considered.

* Submissions to Ebert's Little Movie Glossary should be sent to the Movie Answer Man (see link in the left column, or: answerman@gmail.com). AGAIN, PLEASE NOTE: You MUST include your city and state/province for your submission to be considered.

NO ATTACHMENTS PLEASE. (They won't make it through our firewall.)