Newt has “guest hosts” for these WTF Wednesdays. There’s that guy from Argentina or where ever and now there’s this guy. Before I get to this guy, let me just speak broadly about the idea of guest hosts.
When Roger Ebert was near the end of his life, he brought in a team of writers to review movies on his website. It was a way to reduce the workload for Roger and probably an attempt to extend the life of the brand after Roger dies. He wanted to create a “Roger Ebert” brand of movie reviewers who people would trust and enjoy as much as if Roger Ebert himself was reviewing the movies.
It didn’t take off. Maybe the guest reviewers were good. I don’t know. But when people go to RogerEbert dot com, they expect to read the movie reviews of Roger Ebert. Not Susan Wloszczyna. No disrespect to Susan Wloszczyna, she may well be a fine writer and knowledgeable about cinema but I’m there to see what Roger Ebert thinks of the movie.
After Roger Ebert died, they continued with these guest writers. Obviously, Roger was no longer in a position to write any reviews. But I just don’t think that anybody went to the site after he died. And this was the idea in getting the guest writers to come in but it just didn’t work.
I’m looking at the site now. I haven’t gone there in years. And this old crew from ten years ago of Susan Wloszczyna and whatever other writers are all gone. Now the site is all about black writers, black movies, and the blog of “Chaz”, who is Roger Ebert’s black widow.
Come on. This woman is so about black empowerment that she married a white man.
And is this what people are going to RogerEbert dot com for? They want to read this militant black bullshit like it’s the 1970s? This is a disgrace to Roger Ebert’s memory. This woman should be ashamed of herself.
I’m not saying that the writers aren’t capable, I’m not suggesting that they shouldn’t review movies with predominantly black casts, I’m saying why not create an inclusive website where people of all races and ethnicities can write about all types of movies?
Can’t do it. Because “Chaz”, who married an old white man, is all about that 1970s racist black nationalist bullshit that hasn’t been in vogue for 50 years.
And they’re so desperate to review “black films” that they review OLD movies. White Men Can’t Jump got a recent review.
It’s just offensive on so many levels. It’s implying that black people are only interested in films that star black people. And are only capable of writing about films that star black people. It’s not the case. Any idiot knows this.
Back to The Ideas Man. This guest reviewer is known as “Old School”. I don’t think that this is his given name. And he drank about 50 Red Bulls before recording this.
I think that what Newt is doing is finding people who are so off-putting that it makes you appreciate when Newt is doing a review. Newt looks competent and engaging in comparision to these guest reviewers.
“Old School” is a man in his mid to late 40s, I’d guess. He’s standing in front of a bunch of shelves that have toys from the 1980s and 1990s on them. Like any normal man his age would have.
0:30 – “So real quick, if you don’t know. I don’t actually script my reviews.”
I’m beginning to see the problem. Maybe you should.
This guy is fucking awful. I’m sorry. He needs to tone it WAY down. I know what he’s going for. He wants to bring some energy and excitement into the video. But this is too much. This is fake and annoying.
He says “dude” constantly. He also had the unusual pairing of ending a sentence with “man, dude”. You know. Like how some people will end a sentence with “man” like, “That was really awesome, man.” Or they’ll end the sentence with “dude”, same premise, “That was really awesome, dude.” But this guy was so hyped that he combined them. “That was really awesome, man, dude.”
It’s awful. This is unwatchable. If I wasn’t writing a review, I would have turned this off within the first five seconds.
He also has a tattoo of a smiley face on the back of his hand. Oh, and he’s wearing a baseball cap indoors. Because he’s bald and self-conscious.
He also says “schlock” a lot because he’s trying to incorporate Newt’s AWFUL name for his channel. Or his “movie studio” or whatever Newt considers this. Production company. The Schlock and Awe empire.
I’m three minutes in. I don’t even know what to say. This guy needs to take a Xanax or something. He’s going to have a heart attack if he keeps up like this. This is not a young man, in spite of his desperate attempts to appear as such.
3:30 – He starts talking about Bill Burr for some…unknown reason. I’m not following any of this. He’s just really loud and annoying. Just like his hero Bill Burr.
I just noticed that this guy has a wedding ring on. How? What woman would marry this guy? Well, maybe it’s not a woman.
Ummm…so I’ve managed to watch the rest of this video. I don’t know. It’s a movie about a monster who attacks the Chrysler Building and there are police in the movie too. This guy enjoyed the movie. So…that was something.
He suggests that you check out his channel. As here:
https://www.youtube.com/@oldschoolpresents/videos
He’s been making videos for 11 years. His recent videos seem to be mostly in his car. They’re in the same style as this video that I just “reviewed”. He talks non-stop, at a fast pace, and there are a lot of edits where he removes any time when he takes a breath so that he can make the video even more frantic. The videos struggle to get 50 views.
There’s no market for this. Why do it?
And I know that I’m basically saying that there’s no market for this guy’s personality and that sounds harsh but it’s true. It would be the same if I made videos. Nobody would watch them, people would say that I’m boring and can’t string two words together, and that the videos are unwatchable.
But it’s not really an attack on me as a person or an attack on this guy as a person. It’s just…the videos are unwatchable. That doesn’t mean that you don’t have positive qualities and you might be a nice person to hang out with. It’s just…not on Youtube. That’s all I’m saying. Youtube is not your forte. And that’s okay.
Doing these videos for 11 years and struggling to get 50 views. He’s obviously just doing it because he enjoys it. But why does he enjoy it? Nobody is watching the videos. He’s just making these for himself. This is his legacy. If he has children, maybe one day his child will show Old School’s grandchildren these videos and say, “Here are 200 videos of grandpa reviewing shitty old horror movies.” And the grandchild will say, “Why is grandpa so hyper?” To which the response will be, “It’s just how he was. He was a passionate guy. I really miss him. But at least we have these 200 videos to remind ourselves of him.”
So it’s nice in that sense, I guess. But as media that a human being not related to this guy would want to watch? No. Unwatchable.
Do you remember the main characters in that movie named “Dude, where’s my car?”.
Those guys were portraying an exaggerated version of a “young, cool guy”.
Well, this video is as if I am watching them but 30 years later. OldSchool even have the same voice tone and movements. No signs of personal growth.
There was a noticable lack of personal growth.