People enjoyed musings about the movie business from the Chicago native and Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper Wednesday night at the Community Center Theater for the fourth installment of the Sacramento Speaker Series.

He said people often come up to him at parties and say, “I want your job. You get to watch movies all day then talk about them.” What they mean is, “Any idiot can do you job.”

After annually reviewing 250 films, many run together, he said. However, the last movie he saw in a theater was the classic 1946 masterpiece “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

“Great movies really didn’t have a life beyond the theater or TV,” he said. Today you can find movies three months later on DVD or Blu-Ray. Films that did well from the 40s and 50s are classics because they were played a lot on TV, like “Gone with the Wind” and “The Wizard of Oz.”

When “Star Wars” first came out in the ’70s it took 12 days for the first review to come out.

“The culture was different then,” he said. “There wasn’t as much blockbuster journalism.”

The surge of interest in the filmmaking process has come in the last 15 years or so with the rise of the Internet. These days film speculation and hype is expected weeks or months before a movie is released in theaters and studios know by the first Friday of opening weekend if the film with be a flop or not.

Kelly Brothers from KCRA moderated the question-and-answer portion of the talk.

With the 84th Annual Academy Awards at the end of Febrary at least 10 people wanted to know, “Who are your picks for this year’s Oscars?”

He responded:
• Actor in a supporting role: Christopher Plummer, “Beginner”
• Actress in a supporting role: Melissa McCarthy, “Bridesmaids”
• Actor in a leading role: Jean Dujardin, “The Artist”
• Actress in a leading role: Viola Davis, “The Help”

Roeper addressed that Sacramento has been home to filmmakers like director Joe Carnahan — “He is so skilled that he gets in his own way... He should mute it down.” — and Greta Gerwig — “She’s quirky enough that she can crossover from independents to blockbusters and back easily.”

What about the writer Nicholas Sparks?

“Why does he put those people through so much?”

And who is a breakout young actor?

Elizabeth Olsen, the younger sister of the twins Mary-Kate and Ashley, is “the real deal.”

Finally, what is Roeper’s favorite movie of all time?

“The Godfather.” But if it’s late at night and he is channel surfing, “Goodfellas” will suffice.