Kurtis is the best in the business. There is absolutely NO REASON why anyone else should be doing Roger's voice. When I first heard him I was thrilled, I thought he was the permanent voice of Roger. But for the past 2 weeks they've had a different guy and he isn't NEARLY as good. Please get rid of this guy and make Bill Kurtis permanent, he's awesome.
shareOut of all the voices they've had for Roger so far Kurtis is my favorite, though having Werner Herzog do it was pretty funny.
I watched Ebert's TED talk and from that I gather that the reason they don't use the digitally reconstructed voice he debuted on Oprah on his show is because it doesn't get all of the inflections right and that they're still fine tuning it. What I like about Kurtis is that he really GETS how to read Ebert's reviews. Ebert writes in really short sentences and that would probably throw some people off, but Kurtis has the rhythm down just right.
I agree that Bill Kurtis is a good voice for Roger. In addition to Bill Kurtis being a great narrator, I find that I don't mix his voice up with that of one of the actors in a film being reviewed when the review and movie excerpt alternate during the review.
There was one place where I'm not sure that he pronounced a word correctly during the most recent (13 May 2011) program. There was a point in Roger's text where the word "biopic" was spoken. Bill Kurtis pronounced the word to rhyme with "myopic," with the emphasis on the 2nd syllable. I would have pronounced it as "bio-pick" (as in biographical picture). Maybe I'm incorrect here, but if not, this is where an editor (or Roger) could have offered a suggestion to Bill. Am I the one who has it wrong?
I'm very happy this program is back. I like the current critics, and am especially happy that Roger can continue to contribute his reviews on television.
I've heard it pronounced both ways, though I think your "bio-pick" pronunciation is right. At least that's the way I pronounce it...
shareNo, his pronunciation was correct I believe, only because he was using the word as an adjective. For instance, a "biopic film" rather than a "film that is a biopic."
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Ha ha, I agree with you about Magneto, someone should have told him.
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