This is crazy-good news. Roger Ebert announced at his site today that the film review show 'At the Movies' will return in January.

The official title of the show will be 'Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies' and will be produced by Ebert and his wife Chaz at WTTW, the same station where the show started back in 1975. The show will be seen on various stations nationwide.

Ebert is not going to be one of the hosts of the show, however. Who will be in front of the camera every week? A couple of film critics you might know (and a couple you might not...)

One of the two main critics will be Elvis Mitchell, who reviews films for National Public Radio and is a former critic for The New York Times. He filled in on 'At The Movies' when Gene Siskel passed away. Mitchell will be joined by Christy Lemire, film critic for The Associated Press.

Of course, this being a different time, a time of the web and online video and micro-blogging and all that, the format is going to be tweaked a bit. They're still going to be using the "Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down" system -- it's actually a registered trademark! -- but the two main hosts will be joined by other film critics and bloggers, including Kim Morgan of SunsetGun.com and Omar Moore of PopcornReel.com. There will also be a companion website where you'll be able to watch the show and get a bunch of content that won't be on the show.

Ebert dropped out of 'At the Movies' in 2006 to undergo thyroid cancer treatment. Various critics subbed in for him, until 2008, when Ben Lyons of E! Entertainment and Ben Mankiewicz of Turner Classic Movies took over as the hosts. They were dropped just a year later due to low ratings, and then the show was canceled altogether this past March. After 24 years in national syndication, 'At the Movies' aired its last episode in August.

Perhaps the best part of revival of the show is that Ebert himself will appear in every single episode. He won't host, but he will contribute in a segment titled Roger's Office, where he will discuss various films of his choosing. Ebert will use the computer voice that was developed especially for him, which he demonstrated on Oprah's show earlier this year.

Here's why this is such good news: It's one thing to say that there are tons of film sites -- like our sister site, Moviefone -- and there are many outlets where you can find film criticism and discussion. But we also need a film review show on television. Not just the quickie film reviews you might see on one of the cable news stations or on your local newscast (a segment most local newscasts don't even have anymore), but a weekly, 30-minute show that is devoted to real discussion of new films and old films.

In the pilot for the show, they not only discuss new shows like 'Iron Man 2' (this is just a test show so that's why the movies are several months old), but Morgan also does a segment on the classic film noir 'The Third Man.' How cool is that? Personally, I'd watch an entire show devoted to just film noir, but you're probably not going to see that on television. The fact that it is included in the pilot (along with Moore's discussion of the web and how it is affecting indie film distribution) is very encouraging indeed.

Maybe we can finally erase the memory of that whole Ben Lyons thing once and for all.

Here's a video that gives a little history of the show and gives a little sampling of what we can expect from the new version. I'm looking forward to this, even if Mitchell does get in a dig at 'The Golden Girls' for some reason. Ebert takes film seriously, and with him at the helm you know it's going to be worth watching every single week.

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