Siskel and Ebert divide their "worst of" for the year into categories:
BIG STARS IN BIG BOMBS:
Loose Cannons - Gene Hackman playing dumb.
Ghost Dad - No longer the worst thing Bill Cosby ever did.
Graffitti Bridge - Meow, Meow, Meow?? What is that noise they are making?? The big star here is Prince.
NOT AGAIN:
Robocop II - Siskel abhors the violence, but I actually saw this one and liked it. The idea of a drug addict as a robocop versus a deceased good guy was interesting.
Another 48 Hours - I didn't like the first one. Take one four letter word away from the the dialog and it is 15 minutes long. To me, "Trading Places" is what made Eddie Murphy a star.
Childs Play II - Who wants to sit through two hours of a child being tormented?
REMAKES
Desperate Hours - You're remaking Garfield and Bogart??? With Mickey Rourke??
Narrow Margin - Looks dated. Hackman playing dumb again
Night of the Living Dead - George Romero did this. Why would he remake his perfect original? To prove it's not scary in color?
Siskel and Ebert comments - Nobody would stand for doing Casablanca again. Why not hide this "remake" material in a different film so that it is NOT technically a remake.
UNFUNNY COMEDIES:
Funny about love - Not funny. Gene Siskel found it painful.
Short Time - Dabney Coleman as a cop with a terminal illness who wants to get killed in action so his family can get a higher life insurance payout.
Sibling Rivalry - Was there a curse on the leading ladies of Cheers when it came to movie careers? That would be my comment, not theirs.
BAD CHILDREN'S FILMS:
Courage Mountain - Heroine is just too chipper to suit Roger.
Jetsons The Movie - Painful to see this material adapted to the 1990s from the 1960s. And if you don't have George O'Hanion as the voice of George Jetson then you've got nothing. You might as well not use the voice of Tim Allen for Buzz Light year. Oh, wait...
Nutcracker Prince - The picture went out and neither of them bothered to tell the projectionist. It was that bad.
Two absurd entries:
Wild Orchid - Demeans women with careers and the sex part is boring. Gene Siskel says Mickey Rourke needs to get over himself. He should have followed that advice.
The Guardian - The attack of the killer tree? Directed by William Friedkin??? Siskel & Ebert say that actually the film is competently directed, it is just the idea itself that is inane.
Roger asks the interesting question - Which of these would you like to sit through again the least???
Robocop II, Funny about Love - Gene Siskel
Courage Mountain - Roger Ebert.
My comments: I was actually a big movie goer during this time, and I've never heard of lots of these films. The ones I did hear about AND see I also commented about - Robocop II and Sibling Rivalry. I think Gene Siskel missed the point about Robocop II which was a bad guy, addicted to drugs as Robocop versus a good guy. As for Sibling Rivalry, I liked it but then I could see what they were doing was just adapting Kirstie Alley's Cheers persona to the big screen, which maybe did not work for lots of people.
BIG STARS IN BIG BOMBS:
Loose Cannons - Gene Hackman playing dumb.
Ghost Dad - No longer the worst thing Bill Cosby ever did.
Graffitti Bridge - Meow, Meow, Meow?? What is that noise they are making?? The big star here is Prince.
NOT AGAIN:
Robocop II - Siskel abhors the violence, but I actually saw this one and liked it. The idea of a drug addict as a robocop versus a deceased good guy was interesting.
Another 48 Hours - I didn't like the first one. Take one four letter word away from the the dialog and it is 15 minutes long. To me, "Trading Places" is what made Eddie Murphy a star.
Childs Play II - Who wants to sit through two hours of a child being tormented?
REMAKES
Desperate Hours - You're remaking Garfield and Bogart??? With Mickey Rourke??
Narrow Margin - Looks dated. Hackman playing dumb again
Night of the Living Dead - George Romero did this. Why would he remake his perfect original? To prove it's not scary in color?
Siskel and Ebert comments - Nobody would stand for doing Casablanca again. Why not hide this "remake" material in a different film so that it is NOT technically a remake.
UNFUNNY COMEDIES:
Funny about love - Not funny. Gene Siskel found it painful.
Short Time - Dabney Coleman as a cop with a terminal illness who wants to get killed in action so his family can get a higher life insurance payout.
Sibling Rivalry - Was there a curse on the leading ladies of Cheers when it came to movie careers? That would be my comment, not theirs.
BAD CHILDREN'S FILMS:
Courage Mountain - Heroine is just too chipper to suit Roger.
Jetsons The Movie - Painful to see this material adapted to the 1990s from the 1960s. And if you don't have George O'Hanion as the voice of George Jetson then you've got nothing. You might as well not use the voice of Tim Allen for Buzz Light year. Oh, wait...
Nutcracker Prince - The picture went out and neither of them bothered to tell the projectionist. It was that bad.
Two absurd entries:
Wild Orchid - Demeans women with careers and the sex part is boring. Gene Siskel says Mickey Rourke needs to get over himself. He should have followed that advice.
The Guardian - The attack of the killer tree? Directed by William Friedkin??? Siskel & Ebert say that actually the film is competently directed, it is just the idea itself that is inane.
Roger asks the interesting question - Which of these would you like to sit through again the least???
Robocop II, Funny about Love - Gene Siskel
Courage Mountain - Roger Ebert.
My comments: I was actually a big movie goer during this time, and I've never heard of lots of these films. The ones I did hear about AND see I also commented about - Robocop II and Sibling Rivalry. I think Gene Siskel missed the point about Robocop II which was a bad guy, addicted to drugs as Robocop versus a good guy. As for Sibling Rivalry, I liked it but then I could see what they were doing was just adapting Kirstie Alley's Cheers persona to the big screen, which maybe did not work for lots of people.
