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Later on Siskel would recommend the fluffier stuff while Ebert become more critical.
Ebert really liked good sci-fi. He called Dark City (1998) and Minority Report (2002) the best films of their respective years.
Though I watched their various review shows (Sneak Previews, At The Movies, etc.) only once on their original broadcasts I can pretty much remember every review of theirs. Especially the films I was interested in. I even went to see one film based on their glowing review - Blood Simple. I liked it.
Yes, they were great. When they reviewed a movie, I had a pretty good idea whether or not I would like the movie. Regardless of what their opinion was. Because that's they key to a good review: does it help me decide whether I want to see a movie?
Especially today, all too many people seem to mistake "reviewing" a movie with giving your opinion about whether you liked it, but that's not it. It's giving an account about what and why you liked or disliked and putting it in context (film historically and with your own opinions etc.), so that it helps the viewer/reader to understand whether the movie is something he or she would want to see.
Siskel and Ebert were great, really great at that. Always watched their show when I was in California. Thumbs up.
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I remember watching Siskel & Ebert religiously as a young kid in the late 70's & early 80's... If memory serves correctly, the first time that I must have watched them was in late 1976. I would have just turned 10 years old, when they were reviewing King Kong, one of the very FIRST films that I ever saw in a theatre that really "blew me away". I'm sure that I watched them again a few months later for their Star Wars review, too (Sadly, that very 1st review isn't up on Youtube... Too bad, as I'd LOVE to again see their ORIGINAL review of my FAVORITE movie of all time!). I always made a point to watch them back in the day because AT THE TIME that was basically the ONLY WAY that I could see ANY FOOTAGE of my favorite films again without having to go back to the movie theatre ("Thank God" for the invention of the VCR!). And if they liked a movie that I liked as a kid, I would be CLAPPING AWAY at the TV!
The first thing that always comes to my mind about watching Siskel & Ebert in those early days when I first started watching them is that ALMOST EVERY MOVIE that I was "in love with" at the time as a kid always seemed to get "dumped on" by at least ONE of them... MOST of the time, it was Siskel being the "stick in the mud"... Ebert was more appreciative of Sci-fi/Fantasy films, but NOT Siskel. Now, to be fair, they DID BOTH praise some of my favorite Sci-fi/Fantasy films like Star Wars, Close Encounters, Superman, Alien, The Empire Strikes Back, Superman ll, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Trek ll, Road Warrior, and Return of the Jedi ...But Siskel would ALWAYS "dump on" other favorites of mine like King Kong, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker (he ALWAYS "trashed" on Moore as 007... "Really, Siskel? What a dope!"), Star Trek: TMP, The Black Hole, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Outland, Poltergeist, and Blade Runner... Siskel SURE DID know how to "rain on my parade" and get me "hot under the collar" when I was a very young person! (But then, as I recall, Siskel actually LIKED Escape from New York and The Thing... and Ebert DIDN'T... So go figure!). In any event, I always enjoyed watching them, and continued to do so for MANY more years to come.
My brother and I got to see S&E live in 1991... We were in the audience at the Disney MGM Studios in Orlando for the taping of their "If We Picked the Winners" 1991 Oscars show... I always remember the moment when Ebert referred to the nominated song from Home Alone (Somewhere in My Memory) as "that awful dirge"... and the entire audience turned on him like a vicious pack of WILD DOGS with groans and "boos"... It actually got pretty ugly!...And being MEGA-HUGE John Williams fans, my brother and I were "booing" right along with everyone else! Man, did they touch a nerve with the audience with THAT negative remark! It was amazing how beloved that score was (the movie, too) by the masses back in the day...And the negative feedback from the crowd was MUCH MORE than just the one woman that was shown responding to them on the final edited TV broadcast... It was obviously cut down for time, but MANY people rebutted the comments from S&E about the song... So obviously, my brother and I weren't the ONLY fans of John Williams in the audience... So funny! That broadcast is up on Youtube, and we just watched it again together recently. It brought back those amusing memories! It was so much fun seeing S&E live. They were quite an act. TWO THUMBS UP!
PS: Watch this HILARIOUS 1983 interview from ABC's News Nightline where Siskel & Ebert defended the Star Wars Movies against "square blockhead" critic John Simon, who calls them" malodorous offal"... What an unbelievable "KNOB" this guy is! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8Kprihx2z0
Here are S&E in 1997 discussing Star Wars and the Saga's cultural impact on its 20th Anniversary (By the way... I LOVE the Special Editions, and they kept getting BETTER as Lucas revisited them!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu8w9pABm5I
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My brother and I got to see them live in 1991... We were in the audience at the Disney MGM Studios in Orlando for the taping of their "If We Picked the Winners" 1991 Oscars show... I always remember the moment when Ebert referred to the nominated song from Home Alone (Somewhere in My Memory) as "that awful dirge"... and the entire audience turned on him like a vicious pack of WILD DOGS with groans and boos
IIRC, they both did not think much of the movie either, which nevertheless became one of the big box office hits that year. I think in an unusual move, they even re-visited HOME ALONE on one of their next shows and re-examined their own and the audience's reaction to it, as it had become such a big hit and they had been so dismissive about the movie.
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