Siskel & Ebert (TV Series)

Batman/Honey, I Shrunk the Kids/Tummy Trouble/Ghostbusters II/Kung-Fu Master! (1989)

Gene Siskel: Self - Host

Quotes 

• Gene Siskel - Host : [reviewing "Batman"]  Director Tim Burton obviously wants to recall the original comic book look, as well as tell a more adult kind of story. And that adult approach is what I found so refreshing about this "Batman" movie. We have so many films these days that are being made for the teenage audience, films that look like overblown TV shows. Here's a picture with adult stars, troubled characters, and a dark look. It's a shame that approach has to be considered a risk these days, but I'm certainly glad the approach was taken. I enjoyed this Batman.

  Roger Ebert - Host : You say you enjoyed it more than any of the other entertainment pictures this summer. I certainly didn't think it was as much fun as the Indiana Jones film.

  Gene Siskel - Host : More- more for me.

  Roger Ebert - Host : And, uh...

  Gene Siskel - Host : I felt like I had been through that one before.

  Roger Ebert - Host : As I looked at it, the thing that struck me most of all was the art direction.

  Gene Siskel - Host : Absolutely.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Gotham City, in this movie, is one of the original places in the movies. I thought it was very well done. It reminded me of places like Metropolis...

  Gene Siskel - Host : Right.

  Roger Ebert - Host : ...In the movie by Fritz Lang. Or, the futuristic Los Angeles like in the movie "Blade Runner" by Ridley Scott. So I thought that the art direction was sensational. I thought the special effects were good. I thought those buildings went up a mile and a half into the sky. I thought that the dark, film noir look of the film was very nice, but I DIDN'T CARE about anything that happened in the film. I never found that these characters became people that I could get involved with. I felt that Jack Nicholson...

  Gene Siskel - Host : What about...

  Roger Ebert - Host : ...As the Joker, went on way too long. He was on too often, he was doing the same thing over and over. I found the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Vicki Vale didn't work at all, Kim Basinger and Michael Keaton. In fact, when she is in the Bat Cave and she sees for the first time that Bruce Wayne is, in fact, Batman, do you remember what her reaction was?

  Gene Siskel - Host : Uh...

  Roger Ebert - Host : She HAD no reaction.

  Gene Siskel - Host : I think she...

  Roger Ebert - Host : They left the reaction out of the film! They didn't even care that she was surprised.

  Gene Siskel - Host : No, she knew. I think there are indications throughout the picture, these people know who they are in other lives, in other... alter egos, kind of situations.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Well, I don't...

  Gene Siskel - Host : It's very true between Batman and Jack Napier at the beginning of the film, when they give each other knowing looks, they're setting up a battle for the future.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Well, Gene, the thing, whether she knew who he was or not, is part of the suspen- and these movies, uh, all of these movies, the superhero wears a mask...

  Gene Siskel - Host : Right.

  Roger Ebert - Host : ...That covers the top half of his face, it's like "RoboCop".

  Gene Siskel - Host : Right.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Well ANYONE can see that it's Michael Keaton! But the whole deal in the movie is that you're not supposed to notice that until the person takes off the mask...

  Gene Siskel - Host : But I thought...

  Roger Ebert - Host : "Oh my God, it's Bruce Wayne!" So she DIDN'T know.

  Gene Siskel - Host : But that isn't the whole, that isn't the whole business of the picture.

  Roger Ebert - Host : No.

  Gene Siskel - Host : I thought that the Bruce Wayne character was a fascinating guy. Rather than playing this as a, uh, strong man, I thought it was interesting to show this guy as sort of... conflicted and nervous about it, and that's why he goes into this big...

  Roger Ebert - Host : Well that's a modern, uh, uh, touch that I wasn't surprised, but I'll tell you this much about the film: It's a very, not only a dark film, which you were right about, a film noir, but also there's a great deal of hostility and anger in this film, a great deal of bad feeling in it. And it's not a film for children.

  Gene Siskel - Host : No.

  Roger Ebert - Host : And you called it an adult film...

  Gene Siskel - Host : Yes.

  Roger Ebert - Host : ...Another way to put it is: It's NOT for kids.

  Gene Siskel - Host : Oh, I don't think so.

  Roger Ebert - Host : It's an extremely...

  Gene Siskel - Host : But don't you find that- well, wait a minute. Aren't you glad to be disturbed? And you know how I mean that.

  Roger Ebert - Host : I would've been glad to be disturbed by a film that made me care, that was able to, to, not only use its special effects, but to encompass and surpass special effects with a story, because the one thing Spielberg knows in his special effects pictures is, you've got to have strong characters and a strong story, or the special effects simply become something nice to look at.

  Gene Siskel - Host : Well, I felt I had entered a complete world, a psychological world, and a visual world, I bought it. The ending runs on too long, that I agree with you in story structure, it's that problem with the third act that a lot of action pictures have.

• Gene Siskel - Host : [after the recap]  And I think you're off on "Batman", I think you had a better time, you know it's a smarter movie, a more... you felt like you were being directed, didn't you?

  Roger Ebert - Host : You know, Gene, if you're so good at telling me I had a better time and what I felt and how I thought, I don't know why it's necessary for me to be here on this show...

  Gene Siskel - Host : I've thought about that, too.

  Roger Ebert - Host : ...Because obviously, I'm wrong about my opinions, and you know exactly what I REALLY thought.

  Gene Siskel - Host : No no, but...

  Roger Ebert - Host : I'm telling you this: One of the things a movie can gi- one of the things that movies can give us is a thing or a place or an experience we haven't had before, and I got that out of "Batman".

  Gene Siskel - Host : Okay, that's something.

  Roger Ebert - Host : I love the look of Gotham City, I'm just telling you that the drama wasn't equal to the production.

  Gene Siskel - Host : I think the look of the film is stronger, but the story is good enough.

• Gene Siskel - Host : The Ghostbusters seemed tired of what's going on; the special effects seemed all too familiar. I know it isn't true, but the movie comes across as if the guys were filming the first draft of a script.

  Roger Ebert - Host : I agree with you completely. This movie is a total disappointment. No thought went into it, no effort went into it, there's no comedy in it. And it's not just a critic sitting there in, you know I don't believe in reviewing the audience. You and I both think that you know we have our own opinions, but I did go to see it in a real movie theater in Michigan with several hundred people and they sat through the entire movie, they were there to have a good time, there was ONE laugh... ONE laugh in two hours. This movie...

  Gene Siskel - Host : I only laughed once, I laughed at the line about Laura Antonelli, I thought that was funny, but...

  Roger Ebert - Host : That's a movie, that's a real joke, sure I, you know I know who she is, but...

  Gene Siskel - Host : Right.

  Roger Ebert - Host : ...how many Ghostbusters fans necessarily do? This movie is a complete disappointment. This is a demonstration of the bankruptcy of sequels. If you're going to make a sequel you have to think it through, you just don't want to repeat it, you don't want to do the same thing again and...

  Gene Siskel - Host : I was very surprised because...

  Roger Ebert - Host : I was shocked.

  Gene Siskel - Host : ...I figure, "Where's the effort?"

  Roger Ebert - Host : Yeah.

  Gene Siskel - Host : You know, you know you have a home run going in if you make a decent picture. How cynical to not even try?