10 Times Film Critics Actually Changed Their Mind
2. Lou Lumenick Admitted He Was Wrong About Raiders Of The Lost Ark... 30 Years Later
Years before he became the chief film critic for the New York Post, Lou Lumenick wrote for the New Jersey newspaper The Record, and after just two months working as a professional film reviewer, found himself beating down what would become one of the most beloved blockbusters of all time.
In 1981, Lumenick issued a lukewarm review to Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark, calling it "a very entertaining junk-food movie that will be forgotten long before [Spielberg or George Lucas'] previous work."
Lumenick went on:
"Raiders is almost totally derivative, a technically proficient but empty-headed homage to movie serials of the 1930s and 1940s that has absolutely nothing of its own to say. While the film is a great deal of fun, it lacks the creative sparkle of Spielberg’s earlier efforts... Kids will probably love it, but its campy humor is much less satisfying for adults than Superman II."
He also called the premise "deliberately hokey," the dialogue "corny," the humour "hamfisted," Harrison Ford "hardly memorable," and complained about Spielberg's "excesses as a director."
As reviews that aged like milk go, it's tough to beat this one. 30 years later, Lumenick expressed regret over "dissing" the film, and in a spot of good humour even republished his original review, which otherwise isn't available online.