Best & Worst Films in 1997: Siskel & Ebert
Gene Siskel's 10 Favourite Movies of 1997:
1. The Ice Storm
2. LA Confidential
3. Wag the Dog
4. In the Company of Men
5. The End of Violence
6. The Full Monty
7. The Sweet Hereafter
8. Good Will Hunting
9. Mrs. Brown
10. As Good as it Gets
Roger Ebert's 10 Favourite Movies of 1997:
1. Eve's Bayou
2. The Sweet Hereafter
3. Boogie Nights
4. Maborosi
5. Jackie Brown
6. Fast, Cheap & Out of Control
7. LA Confidential
8. In the Company of Men
9. Titanic
10. Wag the Dog
Gene Siskel's Choices for Worst Movies of 1997:
Mad City
The Man Who Knew Too Little
Buddy
That Darn Cat
That Old Feeling
Home Alone 3
U Turn
Father's Day
and Gene Siskel's choice for worst movie of 1997...
Jungle 2 Jungle
Roger Ebert's Choices for Worst Movies of 1997:
The Jackal
A Thousand Acres
Wild America
The Second Jungle Book
Baps
Alien Resurrection
Starship Troopers
Flubber
and Roger Ebert's choice for worst movie of 1997...
Year of the Horse
by Anonymous | reply 88 | April 5, 2024 5:13 AM
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Jackie Brown is the only film that interests me now
by Anonymous | reply 1 | March 31, 2024 11:53 PM
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R1 is reductive. Look it up.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | March 31, 2024 11:54 PM
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Eve's Bayou is a fantastic movie and deserves that spot. I've never understood why it doesn't get more attention.
My only (though large) issues with these lists are
[quote]As Good as it Gets
This isn't a bad movie, but it isn't top 10. Yes it has a whiney gay character. NEXT.
[quote]Starship Troopers
The books are very much satire, and I believe Verhoeven did his best to bring that to the film while keeping it "commercial". It is in no way one of the worst movies of 1997. It certainly isn't in the top 10 either.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | March 31, 2024 11:56 PM
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Worst: A Thousand Acres with DL fave Jess Lange is spectacular and held up well, she got a GG nom, a bit soap opera/Lifetime, but better than 99% of films now. Starship Troopers accomplished what it set out to do and it’s very entertaining. Mad City and Buddy were actually good movies imo.
Best: Good Will Hunting and LA Con are so boring now. GWH has horrible dirty cinematography.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | April 1, 2024 12:01 AM
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BAPS has a certain "White Chicks" charm.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | April 1, 2024 12:07 AM
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[Quote]Best: Good Will Hunting and LA Con are so boring now. GWH has horrible dirty cinematography.
LA Confidential still holds up and should have won Best Picture instead of the boring Titanic
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 6 | April 1, 2024 12:14 AM
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My personal top 10 best films of 1997:
10. Chasing Amy
9. The Game
8. Titanic
7. Jackie Brown
6. The Rainmaker
5. Good Will Hunting
4. Eve's Bayou
3. Gattaca
2. LA Confidential
1. Boogie Nights
Honorable mentions: Liar Liar, Air Force One, As Good As It Gets, Wag the Dog, The Full Monty, Breakdown, The Ice Storm, Face/Off, Donnie Brasco
by Anonymous | reply 7 | April 1, 2024 12:21 AM
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R7 Top 10 worst/most hated of 1997:
10. Batman & Robin
9. A Smile Like Yours
8. Vegas Vacation
7. A Thousand Acres
6. Jungle 2 Jungle
5. Mr. Magoo
4. The Pest
3. The Postman
2. Father's Day
1. Money Talks
by Anonymous | reply 8 | April 1, 2024 12:39 AM
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I enjoyed The Jackal and Starship Troopers.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | April 1, 2024 12:45 AM
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I loved Donnie Brasco and Wag the Dog but Sweet Hereafter was my favorite.
by Anonymous | reply 10 | April 1, 2024 12:48 AM
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[quote] 1. Money Talks
Money Talks was funny as hell and far from the "worst" that year.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | April 1, 2024 12:52 AM
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My likes
Absolute Power
Lost Highway
The Daytrippers
Crash
Love! Valour! Compassion!
Mrs. Brown
In the Company of Men
Career Girls
Mimic
The Game
The Myth of Fingerprints
In & Out
The Edge
The Ice Storm
Kiss the Girls
Alien Resurrection
Deconstructing Harry
Titanic
Mad City
by Anonymous | reply 12 | April 1, 2024 1:04 AM
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Titanic is such a campfest; it’s hilarious.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | April 1, 2024 1:05 AM
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L.A. Confidential is fantastic
by Anonymous | reply 15 | April 1, 2024 1:07 AM
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Boogie Nights, LA Confidential, The Ice Storm, Sweet Hereafter. So many good movies that year.
by Anonymous | reply 16 | April 1, 2024 1:08 AM
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"The Sweet Hereafter" is a magnificent movie (very depressing)
by Anonymous | reply 17 | April 1, 2024 1:08 AM
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The 1st half of Titanic is so terrible, the only thing that makes it bearable is knowing they’re going to hit an iceberg.
by Anonymous | reply 18 | April 1, 2024 1:13 AM
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I could watch Jackie Brown, Chasing Amy and The Full Monty over and over again. Movies I liked at the time but have never wanted to see twice: LA Confidential, The Ice Storm, Good Will Hunting, Wag the Dog.
by Anonymous | reply 19 | April 1, 2024 1:19 AM
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Love, love, love Wag the Dog.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | April 1, 2024 1:20 AM
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Boogie Nights and Jackie Brown are two of my all-time favorites
by Anonymous | reply 21 | April 1, 2024 1:22 AM
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Dustin Hoffman was a scream in a brilliant comedic bravura performance.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | April 1, 2024 1:23 AM
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I thought I had quit going to movie theatres earlier than 1997, but I saw, and liked, a number of these:
Boogie Nights
Good Will Hunting
LA Confidential
The Ice Storm
The Full Monty
And some I waited to watch on VCR:
The Sweet Hereafter (one of a very few that were as good as the book)
Love, Valour, Compassion
In & Out
Wag the Dog
Best flogging scene:
Starship Troopers
Some I saw sucked:
Titanic
Donnie Brasco (ruined by Anne Heche's New Jersey accent)
Some I saw and barely remember:
The Myth of Fingerprints
In the Company of Men
by Anonymous | reply 23 | April 1, 2024 1:24 AM
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LA Confidential, Jackie Brown, Event Horizon, Men in Black (yes, seriously), The Full Monty, The Game, Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion, and Gattaca were some of my favorites that year. I was in high school then.
by Anonymous | reply 25 | April 1, 2024 1:30 AM
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I'm so interested in everyone's elaborate rankings of films released seventeen years ago!
Please, let's do it for every year.
by Anonymous | reply 26 | April 1, 2024 1:33 AM
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R26 everyone's invited. Not everyone has to go. Or stay.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | April 1, 2024 1:35 AM
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In the Company of Men is Neil LaBute's devastating take on misogyny in the workplace. Two yuppie guys decide to humiliate a deaf woman.
by Anonymous | reply 28 | April 1, 2024 1:49 AM
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^Great film. Introduced Aaron Eckhart.
by Anonymous | reply 29 | April 1, 2024 1:51 AM
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Lots of great films that year. Boogie Nights is my favorite. I’ve seen it many, many times.
Recently watched LA Confidential for the first time since 1997. I remember being underwhelmed at the time, but this time I really appreciated it and thought it was an excellent film. (But still pissed that Basinger beat Julianne for the Oscar)
This makes me want to see Eve’s Bayou and Wag the Dog again.
by Anonymous | reply 30 | April 1, 2024 1:54 AM
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The Ice Storm was atmospheric and so true to Fairfield County that I doubted it held much interest for Joe Average America.
Starship Trooper wasn't bad at all Casper Van Dien has always been undnerrated as an actor.
The Full Monty was lame. A Night in Heaven without the hunks and 14 years later when the world had changed.
Batman and Robin are so obviously gay I don't know why the film was even controversial
by Anonymous | reply 31 | April 1, 2024 1:57 AM
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I found Christina Ricci quite moving in Ice Storm. The extra weight really worked for that part and I thought she was a more interesting actress with some weight. When she stopped eating her wheelhouse changed.
by Anonymous | reply 32 | April 1, 2024 2:01 AM
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[quote] Boogie Nights is my favorite. I’ve seen it many, many times.
For this line, am I right?
“ yes I am upset, my wife has an ass in her cock!”
by Anonymous | reply 33 | April 1, 2024 2:25 AM
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Funny, I was just thinking about that year in movies and how good so many of them were. Why have movies gone to shit so badly now? We now have 10 best picture nominees and almost none of them are as good as the 5 that were nominated that year.
by Anonymous | reply 35 | April 1, 2024 2:42 AM
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r26 Glad you visited the thread, bumped it/drew more attention to it
by Anonymous | reply 36 | April 1, 2024 2:51 AM
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I was 10 years old in 1997, and my uncle took me to see Boogie Nights. I was shocked, horrified, disturbed. I didn't get it, of course. However, I knew I was gay then, and was so in awe of the huge fake dick. That's the only part I really remember.
by Anonymous | reply 37 | April 1, 2024 2:52 AM
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Great year for film.
Boogie Nights, Eye's Bayou, The Ice Storm, As Good as It Gets and The Company of Men are favorites.
by Anonymous | reply 38 | April 1, 2024 2:55 AM
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Chasing Amy spoke to me too. It's the only Kevin Smith film with real deft. Joey Lauren Adams has a great monologue in bed about not everyone gets a free map about who and what they are or words to that effect that I found pretty thoughtful. And the relationship between the two friends that may have consisted of more subtext on the part of the Jason Lee character. I hoped he might get some Oscar consideration for a really good piece acting using his usual schtick.
by Anonymous | reply 39 | April 1, 2024 2:59 AM
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[quote] I'm so interested in everyone's elaborate rankings of films released seventeen years ago!
R26 You have bigger problems if you think 1997 was 17 years ago.
by Anonymous | reply 40 | April 1, 2024 3:35 AM
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In The Company Of Men is dark.
Aaron Eckhart’s character represents about 95% of all straight men that I’ve encountered.
by Anonymous | reply 41 | April 1, 2024 4:03 AM
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Eve's Bayou was good, but like a Lifetime channel movie. The first time I saw Titanic I left about 20 minutes before the end. I was cold in the theater and falling asleep. I didn't realize they both didn't drown until I saw if years later on TV.
by Anonymous | reply 42 | April 1, 2024 4:08 AM
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The only thing I remember from LA Con is the vintage Christmas lights on that house. And who the hell is Guy Pearce who got a lead role?? Never seen before or since…
by Anonymous | reply 43 | April 1, 2024 7:20 AM
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Guy Pearce has been in a lot of things, actually
by Anonymous | reply 44 | April 1, 2024 7:26 AM
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Guy has been in Mildred Pierce and Mare of Easttown, The King’s Speech, Memento—just to name a few. Check out his Wiki page.
by Anonymous | reply 45 | April 1, 2024 7:40 AM
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[quote] 4. In the Company of Men
The gay porn that shares the same title is way better!
by Anonymous | reply 46 | April 1, 2024 7:44 AM
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1997 was the debut of Cate Blanchett, holding her own alongside Glenn and Frances in Paradise Road and equalling Ralph Fiennes in Oscar & Lucinda.
The Wings Of The Dove deserves a lot of praise,
by Anonymous | reply 47 | April 1, 2024 8:31 AM
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I loved The Wings of the Dove. Not really a Helena Bonham Carter fan but she's great in this
by Anonymous | reply 48 | April 1, 2024 8:40 AM
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The Wings of the Dove is really good. Very stylish.
by Anonymous | reply 49 | April 1, 2024 10:17 AM
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I never got the love for As Good As It Gets. It was so contrived.
by Anonymous | reply 50 | April 1, 2024 10:17 AM
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[Quote] I'm so interested in everyone's elaborate rankings of films released seventeen years ago!
[Quote] Please, let's do it for every year.
[Quote] —It's like being trapped in a room with John Cusack in "High Fidelity"
[Quote] [R26] You have bigger problems if you think 1997 was 17 years ago.
by Anonymous | reply 51 | April 1, 2024 10:55 AM
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Jackie Brown is a great favorite of mine. A nearly perfect film.
Gattaca, too, and Boogie Nights, and The Ice Storm. Not perfect but very fucking good.
The End of Violence is excellent. As is In the Company of Men, and The Sweet Hereafter.
That's seven terrific films. And many of the remaining ones of those two critics' lists are the equal or better than the best films of the past 7 years combined.
Films have gone to shit
by Anonymous | reply 52 | April 1, 2024 11:28 AM
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No Boogie Nights?
Yeah 1997 was an excepcional year, even for those days standards.
by Anonymous | reply 53 | April 1, 2024 11:57 AM
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I like LA Confidential but I don't know how anyone can compare it to Chinatown. The latter is in a completely different league with far more depth.
by Anonymous | reply 54 | April 1, 2024 12:40 PM
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Starship Troopers is a stealth masterpiece.
by Anonymous | reply 55 | April 1, 2024 1:59 PM
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[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 56 | April 1, 2024 2:11 PM
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R55, I think it's very good, it's hardly a bad film.
by Anonymous | reply 57 | April 1, 2024 2:39 PM
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R35 because now they sit around spending more time thinking about the ratio of ethnicities of the actors than the script, casting, direction, or acting.
by Anonymous | reply 58 | April 1, 2024 4:00 PM
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Ebert was way off in naming "Starship Troopers" one of the worst films. In the years since its release, that film has aged extremely well and is almost at classic status in the military science fiction genre.
by Anonymous | reply 59 | April 1, 2024 4:27 PM
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R59 films have become so bad that ST looks like Lawerence of Arabia now.
by Anonymous | reply 60 | April 1, 2024 4:32 PM
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As Good As It Gets has some funny dialogue, but the overall rom-com plot was hackneyed. Nicholson, Hunt, and Kinnear elevated it to be a better film than it deserved to be.
by Anonymous | reply 61 | April 1, 2024 5:57 PM
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R61 that’s why the Oscars were deserved. They took a throwaway romcom-dramedy and made it a classic. Sorry but that movie fantastic.
by Anonymous | reply 62 | April 1, 2024 6:03 PM
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Starship Troopers was a darkly cynical send-up of military propaganda (such as films), those who help create that propaganda (Hollywood, Leni R.) and those who fall for it (the public). It is pointedly and purposefully OTT.
However... does that make it an unsuccessful film since so much of the general public take it at face value - or - does the fact that the general public take it at face value prove its point?
by Anonymous | reply 63 | April 1, 2024 6:22 PM
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[quote] Ebert was way off in naming "Starship Troopers" one of the worst films.
Ebert seemed like a nice man but as a reviewer he was middlebrow at best, and it’s painfully obvious from reading many of his reviews that he often profoundly misunderstood the movies he was reviewing.
by Anonymous | reply 64 | April 1, 2024 6:39 PM
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R64, in that sense, he is no different from Pauline Kael. She was notorious for misinterpreting some classic movies. But we all have blind spots and we don't all connect with the material on screen in the same way.
by Anonymous | reply 65 | April 1, 2024 6:52 PM
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Roger Ebert liked Home Alone 3 better than the first two:
One of my favorite siskel & ebert exchanges-
Ebert: Well this is gonna surprise you Gene but I actually liked the movie-
Siskel: That DOES surprise me, are you ok?
Ebert: Well, better than you were the day you liked Starship Troopers.
by Anonymous | reply 66 | April 1, 2024 6:54 PM
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Perhaps r65 but seriously, she was Einstein compared to Ebert. I’m not talking about Czech neorealist films, I’m talking mainstream Hollywood. I’d read some of his reviews and laugh at his interpretation of storyline.
by Anonymous | reply 67 | April 1, 2024 6:54 PM
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^ Which films are you talking about?
by Anonymous | reply 68 | April 1, 2024 6:55 PM
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R67, but Pauline would do the same thing. She would misinterpret Hollywood movies too. Usually, it was the result of her disliking an actor or the director. Like Kubrick. I don't think she understood a single Kubrick film she saw (aside from Lolita).But in terms of WRITING, yes, she is absolutely superior to Ebert. I read her mostly for the writing versus her actual opinions on the film.
by Anonymous | reply 69 | April 1, 2024 7:01 PM
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Spawn was a POS and Ebert made no sense liking it.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 70 | April 1, 2024 7:03 PM
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R70, the animated series on HBO was very good, highly recommended. I'm sad it ended abruptly.
by Anonymous | reply 71 | April 1, 2024 7:05 PM
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Ah, 1997... everyone was still young.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 73 | April 1, 2024 7:53 PM
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[quote] Pauline would do the same thing. She would misinterpret Hollywood movies too. Usually, it was the result of her disliking an actor or the director. Like Kubrick. I don't think she understood a single Kubrick film she saw (aside from Lolita).
I don't think she misunderstood Kubrick. She wasn't a fan of White Elephant Art (to steal a term of Manny Farber) from Hollywood or abroad and felt that Kubrick took himself too seriously as a filmmaker and "thinker." She often gets singled out for disliking Kubrick, but her contemporaries, John Simon, Andrew Sarris, and Stanley Kauffman, also didn't care much for him as a director.
by Anonymous | reply 74 | April 1, 2024 8:03 PM
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R74, I really don't think she understood 2001. And I think Pauline does deserve blame for trash culture becoming THE culture. Most of the blame is probably due to Star Wars though.
by Anonymous | reply 76 | April 2, 2024 2:50 PM
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[quote]Pauline does deserve blame for trash culture becoming THE culture. Most of the blame is probably due to Star Wars though.
Started with Jaws, IMO.
by Anonymous | reply 77 | April 2, 2024 3:07 PM
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R77, that could be true but I do think that Jaws is a more intelligent movie than any of the first three Star Wars movies. And I don't even like Spielberg.
by Anonymous | reply 78 | April 2, 2024 6:40 PM
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[quote] And I think Pauline does deserve blame for trash culture becoming THE culture
This has always been the case. The Greatest Show On Earth won best picture.
by Anonymous | reply 79 | April 3, 2024 3:29 PM
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funny Siskel didn't cotton to BOOGIE NIGHTS. That shows that Ebert was always a **little** ahead of Siskel, taste-wise.
by Anonymous | reply 80 | April 3, 2024 6:44 PM
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R79, there is a big difference between mediocrity and straight up trash. Basically, it's the difference between Sheryl Crow and Cardi B.
by Anonymous | reply 81 | April 3, 2024 7:39 PM
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[quote] And I think Pauline does deserve blame for trash culture becoming THE culture. Most of the blame is probably due to Star Wars though.
She did concede to this and even admitted Star Wars was the beginning of the end of intelligent filmmaking in Hollywood:
[quote] Kael: Star Wars set us back in a lot of ways. Even though I thought the second film in the trilogy was really quite good, as a commercial phenomenon it set us back. And the Indiana Jones movie added to that even though I like the second one of that series also, but what they represented in terms of moviemaking was that the studios realized that the audiences didn’t mind being treated like kids at a Saturday afternoon serial.
by Anonymous | reply 82 | April 3, 2024 9:57 PM
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[quote] I was 10 years old in 1997, and my uncle took me to see Boogie Nights.
What uncle takes a 10-year-old to see "Boogie Nights"? Was Bryan Singer your uncle?
by Anonymous | reply 83 | April 4, 2024 5:48 AM
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[quote] I never got the love for As Good As It Gets. It was so contrived.
As Good As It Gets probably was popular with the fraus.
by Anonymous | reply 84 | April 4, 2024 5:51 AM
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Gene Siskel was a hack. Ebert was a little bit better but who cares about these dinosaurs. They spat out reviews like they were god and they didn't know any better than me or you.
by Anonymous | reply 85 | April 4, 2024 5:57 AM
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R82, it's really true. She would have an aneurism if she witnessed the Marvel craze.
by Anonymous | reply 86 | April 4, 2024 12:38 PM
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I haven't seen any of the films in their top 10s. The closet one I've seen was Titanic but I couldn't sit thru it all so I turned my tv (& the VCR tape) off as the ending was plastered countless times by E.T., Access H., Extra, E! News & everything else with a production team.
Can someone give me a top 5 films from S. & Ebert that still would hold up by today's standards? Thanks in advance.
by Anonymous | reply 87 | April 5, 2024 4:48 AM
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1992 is pretty good. I liked all the films listed, which is rare...
Siskel:
1. One False Move
2. The Player
3. Howards End
4. The Crying Game
5. Malcolm X
Ebert:
1. Malcolm X
2. One False Move
3. Howards End
4. Flirting
5. The Crying Game
by Anonymous | reply 88 | April 5, 2024 5:13 AM
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