Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert review five new movies and recommend several videos. They have a major quarrel over Oliver Stone's ambitious rock biopic,
The Doors (1991). Both agree it's brilliantly made and features an uncanny performance from Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison, but Ebert found the experience to be relentlessly depressing and can't recommend it. Siskel briefly reviews three home videos:
The Doors: Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1987),
The Doors: Live in Europe 1968 (1990) and
The Doors: Dance on Fire (1985). He recommends the first two, but not the last. The two critics give thumbs down to the routine rodeo melodrama,
My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys (1991), although both liked Ben Johnson. They give two thumbs up for the disarming and non-formulaic
Iron & Silk (1990) with its autobiographical performance from Mark Salzman. They split on the documentary,
Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol (1990). Siskel complains that we learn nothing about Warhol; Ebert responds that it's possible no one knows what's behind the facade. Siskel's "Video Pick of the Week" is the underrated sequel to
Chinatown (1974):
The Two Jakes (1990).
—J. Spurlin