Critics really do suck.
Look at TIME's recent list of the All-Time 100 best movies. What's amazing is how many of the movies were badly reviewed by TIME when they first came out. For instance, Taxi Driver got ripped one, and Martin Scorsese was basically written off by them as a director who couldn't handle relevent commentary.
Now, here's the funny thing. In the entry under the 100 best films, it reads "TIME hated the movie when it came out ("thoroughly depressing realism" was the best it could say)." Now, here's the thing. This list was compiled and written up by one Richard Schickel. Guess who wrote that early review of Taxi Driver, the one Richard Schickel just criticized?
That's right. Richard Schickel himself.
So apparently, unless there are two Richard Schickels, his opinion on the film took a radical turn in the time since he first saw Taxi Driver (from a movie that apparently goes "disastrously wrong" to one of the hundred best) or one of Sir Richard Schickel's opinions is total bull****.
You choose.