Siskel & Ebert (TV Series)

Made in America/Menace II Society/Cliffhanger/Hot Shots! Part Deux/The Long Day Closes (1993)

Roger Ebert: Self - Host

Quotes 

• Gene Siskel - Host : [reviewing "Made in America"]  Here's a film that is so caught up with being politically correct that it doesn't have the guts to write truly funny, believable dialogue about such a potent situation. Will Smith is relegated to playing an eye-popping clown, Ted Danson looks wasted and stiff, Whoopi Goldberg overacts, only Nia Long is a fresh face as the perfect daughter. "Made in America" is a TV pilot masquerading as a movie, safe and warm and boring as it can be.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Y'know, that's funny, because I liked it a whole lot more than you did.

  Gene Siskel - Host : I can't believe it.

  Roger Ebert - Host : And I thought that, in particular, you're zeroing in on Ted Danson. In the beginning, his character was wildly overwritten in terms of the, uh, obnoxious car dealer behavior...

  Gene Siskel - Host : Well, it's...

  Roger Ebert - Host : ...But toward the end of the film, toward the last hour of the film, there's a lot of gentleness and a lot of warmth that comes in here, and I felt that it really did work.

  Gene Siskel - Host : Guys like this, these car dealers, are very sharp people. Okay. Why not have him write real sharp, and try to figure out a way to get out of this, and run from it. You know what I'm saying?

  Roger Ebert - Host : I can easily think of ways to make this movie better.

  Gene Siskel - Host : Oh, yes.

  Roger Ebert - Host : In fact, Gene, when you were saying the movie is predictable, if we didn't want to go to any movies unless they were unpredictable, we wouldn't have very many movies to go to. Because in Hollywood today, the whole formula for making a movie is just to combine parts from other movies. So that there hasn't been an original screenplay, not one screenplay in twenty is original, but I did feel that as unoriginal material, this DID work.

  Gene Siskel - Host : [chuckles]  What a heck of a compliment.

  Roger Ebert - Host : How many other original movies have you seen this year? From America? Not many.

  Gene Siskel - Host : Not many, but I don't give THEM positive reviews either.

  [pause] 

  Gene Siskel - Host : Go ahead.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Okay, I will. Our next movie

  ["Menace 2 Society"] 

  Roger Ebert - Host : IS an original movie, how's that?

  Gene Siskel - Host : Yes, it is.

• Gene Siskel - Host : "Cliffhanger" has all of the impact of one of those car commercials where they stick the automobile on top of a peak, leaving you to wonder it got there and how it's gonna be brought down. I assume they do it with a helicopter, and that's how the people in this movie probably got where they go, too. I just wonder why they went to all that effort without a compelling story. The villains are dull, and Stallone and his fellow climbers are even worse.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Gee, I dunno, Gene, uh...

  Gene Siskel - Host : Oh, no no no.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Yes, yes, yes! First of all, to call John Lithgow dull, I think, is an insult. He's very good...

  Gene Siskel - Host : Oh, just compare him with the villain in "Die Hard 2", another...

  Roger Ebert - Host : I liked John Lithgow very much in this film. But another thing, and maybe it's because I have a special relationship to heights, because I'm afraid of them, but I thought the mountain climbing stuff in this movie was truly sensational. It was well-made, the special effects, if that's what they were, were well done, there are shots where you can see it's really Stallone up there, because they use a telephoto lens. And I got a feeling of vertigo, I got a feeling of involvement and fear, and the movie DID work for me.

  Gene Siskel - Host : Roger...

  Roger Ebert - Host : It worked!

  Gene Siskel - Host : Roger, That stuff is stunt work. It- that's a stunt.

  Roger Ebert - Host : I don't care.

  Gene Siskel - Host : It's not a story, it's not a story.

  Roger Ebert - Host : If you're gonna tell- you don't like any movie that uses stunt work? You just said you liked "Die Hard 2", that was stunt work. In fact, you know what? That wasn't a real building...

  Gene Siskel - Host : Lemme explain...

  Roger Ebert - Host : ...Or that was the first "Die Hard", but never mind.

  Gene Siskel - Host : Wait a second. I SAID, that's stunt work. They don't have a story. "Die Hard 2" had a story.

  Roger Ebert - Host : I don't care. I don't care. I really don't care, because what I'm involved with from moment to moment is the fact that they're on the mountain, they're fighting with each other, and if they're not careful, they're gonna fall off. And I'm in my seat, and I hope they don't fall off, because I'm scared. Now that's, on that level...

  Gene Siskel - Host : No, no.

  Roger Ebert - Host : ...The movie works, and I think that's the level...

  Gene Siskel - Host : I think...

  Roger Ebert - Host : ...That most people will go to see it!

  Gene Siskel - Host : No no no.

  Roger Ebert - Host : They're not gonna sit there and say, "Oh, this is stunt work."

  Gene Siskel - Host : No no no, Roger, the reason why I say "It is stunt work", it is stunt work. My point is, there's no story supporting it.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Oh, there is...

  Gene Siskel - Host : No, Roger. You're supp- praising this movie for not having a story...

  Roger Ebert - Host : I'm praising the movie for what it's about, and you're criticizing it for what doesn't matter.

  Gene Siskel - Host : No- the s- since when is a movie, story doesn't matter, except for your review of "Made in America" where it didn't matter, either.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Gene, I, if I had more time, I'd be happy to help you with this.