I am not a fan of "Three Amigos," but Rex Reed's self-satisfied takedown of it raises my eyebrows. In the clip below, he claims that everyone at his press screening walked out, leaving only himself and the projectionist--and the projectionist was snoozing!
He's full of it here, right? He doesn't make it clear he's joking. The projectionist part is obviously meant to be a punchline, but the rest of it...?
He makes it sound like a bunch of professional critics found "Three Amigos" so reprehensible that virtually all of them violated their codes of conduct and departed the screening before it was over. Actually, he doesn't say professional critics, just critics, so maybe he has some wiggle room here. The main thing Reed wants to do is be funny and trash the movie, and I have to admit he does it in a way that gets my attention.
I have said it before, and I will say it again: The more I see the Siskel & Ebert imitators, the more I appreciate the originals and how they could pan even popular movies but still be likable.
(For what it's worth, in their print columns, Ebert gave the movie one star, and Siskel called it boring, but neither claimed to have attended a critic screening at which everyone else left early.)
On the third day of watching, my true love gave to me: 4 lousy movies.
On this December 1985 edition of At the Movies, Siskel and Ebert pan all 4 new releases. Not all are Christmas releases, but lest you think they are Scrooges, they hate one of the non-Xmas movies most of all!
I have only seen one of these movies, though I know I saw bits of Santa Claus: The Movie. The lads here don't make me anxious to catch up. The stinker of the show is a gambling movie called Fever Pitch, with Ryan O'Neal and BOTNS-iverse players Catherine Hicks and Chad Everett in a story written and directed by Richard Brooks.
Hey, wait a minute!
Considering they talk at length about how the film is a low point of the distinguished career of Brooks (Elmer Gantry, In Cold Blood) and how flip the story treats the serious issue of gambling addiction, let's just move on to the next selection. All I will say is, hey, the studio was on my back the whole time.
One Magic Christmas is a 1985 Disney misfire that features Harry Dean Stanton as a craggy guardian angel. Well, the craggy part checks, but Siskel points out how miscast he is in this role. Apparently one bad thing after another happens to the family that Stanton is protecting, to the point of absurdity. The guys don't like this one, either, and I think I will skip it.
Remember the blockbuster that was to be Santa Claus: The Movie? I recall a big marketing campaign dedicated to the Tri-Star bomb. Lithgow's performance (not as Santa) looks like a riot.
The highlight of this segment on the show is the guys trading ideas of how to make this a decent movie. Gene's pitch sounds a lot like The Nightmare Before Christmas!
Finally, Roger and Gene take a look at the ambitious Starchaser: The Legend of Orin. Mike exposed me to this movie a while back. Maybe I should say he infected me with it. No, it's worth seeing, and it has many ideas from the mind of screenwriter and Robert Pine Genius winner Jeffrey Scott. Siskel and Ebert happen to think too many of those ideas come from Star Wars, so that's another pan from the pair.
So 4 up, 4 down on this December episode of the show. Maybe we will find some more Christmas joy tomorrow in our third day of watching! Come back and join me...if you can find it in your heart this holiday season to forgive me for Fever Pitch.
The fourth episode of our latest season focused on movies--that is, reviews of movies by TV critics, with a particular focus on Siskel and Ebert. We built the episode around a great 1989 installment of the two critics' long-running program, one that looked at Batman, Ghostbusters II, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, and Kung Fu Fighter. That's 3 blockbusters and a really, really cringy-sounding "art film" that is made by an acclaimed filmmaker and so Siskel and Ebert try to find meaning in it.
Anonymous Batty Insider says: "This was a fun episode that provided something a little different--too different to win Battys? Could one be nominated for something without the other? It'd be nice to see S&E get something, but smart money doesn't see a lot of opportunities."
We're doing something a little different this week: Instead of spotlighting a video in this week's Siskel and Ebert playlist, we are presenting two distinct but connected videos. Here are two movie review shows from the same weekend in May 1985, At the Movies with Gene and Roger...
and Sneak Previews from PBS with Jeffrey Lyons and Neal Gabler:
Note that the movie selection isn't identical, but you do get to see both shows look at Rambo and Brewster's Millions. I want to let you judge for yourself, but to me you can really see the difference in connection with the viewing audience and likability. And how about Gabler criticizing Brewster's Millions because Richard Pryor "isn't Black" in it?!
This week's list is a little different direction: I rank movies of the 1970s and 1980s (mostly 1980s) I want to see Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert review on their TV program, or maybe see them review again. I compiled a list of flicks about which I was curious and didn't remember what they had said at the time. I don't necessarily want to see the films again, and I may not even like some of them, but I want to see the segments.
Where I could find them, I included links to the episodes or segments that did have the reviews, so maybe we can watch these together! And if you want to see them all (or the ones that I found) in one playlist, you can head to the bottom for the embedded link. Here you go:
1) Megaforce: The bizarre would-be franchise from Hal Needham is a fun, if not good, sci-fi/action epic. But what do Gene and Roger think? Do they, too, wish there were a big line of tie-in toys?
2) One Crazy Summer: No review found! One of those off-kilter wacky movies of the time period from Savage Steve Holland and starring a young John Cusack. Did they even cover the movie at the time?
3) Superman II: When preparing for the podcast, I did see and enjoy their review of the first movie, but I need to see what they thought about the sequel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfvyLWdfnr8
4) Back to the Future:Of course this is one of the big, big movies of the era. Did Roger and Gene foresee what a huge smash it would become?
5) Top Gun:I don't expect Tarantino-esque analysis of the subtext, but especially given the upcoming sequel, I want to know how Siskel and Ebert talked about this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq2RvwMvqJ0
6) Fast Times at Ridgemont High: No review found! The iconic Amy Heckerling movie really defines a certain aspect of Eighties culture, and I'd love to see how Gene and Roger
7) The Breakfast Club:Seminal 1980s movie, no doubt, but if I recall correctly, it was not critically appreciated nor even much of a thing until after its initial release. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_LeBWlgEcc (actually a solo Ebert review)
8) Grease:This is a sentimental favorite of mine from the ABC screenings, and I am curious how the lads viewed it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXTjgBc_Tnk (actually from the 1998 re-release)
9) Eight Men Out:No review found! One of my favorite baseball movies of all time and a fine picture in its own right, but I can't locate a contemporary S&E look on the John Sayles film about the infamous Black Sox scandal that rocked baseball after the 1919 World Series.
10) The Jerk:I happen to think this is one of the funniest movies of its era, and I have fond memories of it being on HBO 15 times a week.
*The video playlist for this week's podcast, featuring the episode we discuss, is available below! The very first PBS version of Siskel and Ebert is there as well. You will also find talk show appearances, promos, trailers, and more!
Note that this one contains more full episodes than usual (including the very first Siskel and Ebert show on PBS, the two "They'll Do It Every Time" episodes, and the full Entertainment Tonight we mention near the end), so it's a bit longer than most.
*This episode of Siskel and Ebert premiered Saturday, June 24, 1989 in most markets. Other syndicated programs airing in syndication that day include Charles in Charge, Superboy, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Learning the Ropes, It's a Living, and Tales from the Darkside! And don't forget...Sneak Previews!
*Their movie review program began as the monthly Opening Soon at a Theater Near You on Chicago PBS station WTTW in 1975. In 1977, it became Sneak Previews, a weekly program syndicated on member stations across the country. Then they left PBS and signed a deal with Tribune to make the syndicated At the Movies in 1982. In 1986, they jumped to Buena Vista (Disney) to create Siskel and Ebert & the Movies, but by 1989, the show was called Siskel &Ebert. It continued until Gene Siskel's death in 1999, and Ebert continued the franchise with guest hosts until his own death in 2013.
*Enemies: A Love Story is available from Amazon as a Kindle Single.
*The book I mention by Jerry Roberts is called The Complete History of American Film Criticism.
*"They'll Do it Every Time," created by Jimmy Hatlo, was a syndicated daily comic panel that ran 1929-2008 (image below taken from ebay).
*Comics Scene was published 1982-1983 by the makers of Starlog and was revived for another go from 1987-1996. A few more issues came out in 2000.
*Batman premiered June 23, 1989 and had a $40 million opening weekend on its way to grossing well over $251 million ($400 million worldwide) at the box office. The Tim Burton film stars Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, and Kim Basinger.
*Honey, I Shrunk the Kids premiered at the same time as and finished behind Batman with a $14 million opening weekend on the way to $130 million domestic. That first weekend was Disney's biggest ever up to that point.
*Ghostbusters 2's debut was June 16, 1989, and it opened to over $29 million on the way to a domestic total of $112.5 million--far less than the original despite that opener exceeding that of the first movie.
*Agnes Varda's Kung Fu Master (not to be confused with the 1980s arcade game, though it features prominently in the film) had a French release a year before Gene and Roger showcased it on their program. The New York Times review from this weekend is titled, "She's 40. He's 15. Hmmm."
*Eddie and the Cruisers II bombed when it debuted in 1989.
The thumbs, the tension, the balcony--who can forget Siskel and Ebert and their various movie review shows? They helped create a new TV format and defined and dominated it with their winning personalities and unique dynamics. We take a look at an episode fron 1989 and also discuss some of their competitors and imitators.
