These are the original reviews of Scanners & Altered States by Siskel & Ebert on "Sneak Previews" in 1981. All of the segments pertaining to the movies have been included.
@@diaz5292 Dude....Why can’t one use the words “a lot.” Duh? I guess we are not as smart as you! The point is the early Siskel and Ebert shows are priceless for movie fans but you probably are too smart to understand that point. Duh!
I saw it on Showtime in the early 80s when I was about age 11 or 12. I barely remember it. Mostly, I just remember that it was very unsettling, and that Thaao Penghlis is in it. He's a longtime cast member of "Days of Our Lives," which my maternal grandmother watched zealously.
I have seen that movie before and it was one of the most strangest films that I have ever seen. Its one of those movies that you're only going to want to watch once.
I saw it for the first time a month or so ago, and it blew me away. I thought it was as good as any movie today. Really great performances in that film. Can't believe it's so under the radar
I love Scanners. Those early Cronenberg movies wow. Gritty, grey and cheap are still amazing movies. Scanners, Rabid, the Brood, Shivers. He later on made one of my favourite movies, the dead zone.
I loved Altered States. It had some of the most psychedelic and duality behind it, combined with groundbreaking special effects, much like the first Matrix movie.
Did these guys even mention the name "Ken Russell" in their talk of Altered States? I seem to have missed it if they did. Ken Russell was a mad genius. Altered States is a reflection of that mad genius.
@@ZIALANDER63 - Funny that Chayefsky disassociated himself from the production, crediting his given name Sidney Aaron. I read his script... it's practically verbatim. His issue was with how Russell used the actor's to deliver the dialogue and thought the material should have been taken more seriously. He was a genius but Russell was the perfect director for the material. The story was way too outrageous to be told straightforward.
S&E were both right and wrong: BOTH films were great! Both movies were so unlike anything anybody had ever really seen before, that even if only for their originality they should be applauded.
Siskel was wrong about William Hurt, though. He was made to be the leading man in a Cronenberg movie, and I'm amazed it took so long for them to do a movie together.
I don't know what it is about this show of theirs, but every time I start watching their classic eps, I feel they are still alive. I have to remind myself that they have both sadly passed away. I always loved their shows and them.
Altered States in 70-millimeter on the widest cinema screen in town in 1981 was quite a spectacular and memorable experience. It launched careers for two then-unknowns, William Hurt and Blair Brown.
It was the actual screen début of a young actress. She wasn't credited her first role till she was 12. Mind you she was three in this movie. Drew Barrymore. She the toddler at the dinner party.
I remember watching this review as a kid. It made me want to see these movies (although I didn’t until a couple of years later, I was 9 when they came out). I miss this show.
Bittersweet memories of when going to the movies was a real event. Now with covid social distancing, live streaming and torrent downloads people mostly watch at home alone. Sad.
I agree. It's a shame the movie-going experience is dead, because it was a brilliant way to get a really thrilling experience on a giant screen, and be out in a social environment. A real social environment, not a virtual one. Unfortunately, many theatres turned into slums in many communities, and the experience of seeing a movie was not a pleasant one toward the end of the decade anyway. It will be interesting to see if theatres can survive after covid, and if people will still be interested in going. Even before covid, it was starting to become very, very expensive for an experience that might not have been as fun as it once was. There are some movies though that would shine that much more if you see it on a huge screen, but I see people perfectly happy watching a movie on their iphones now, which is idiotic to me.
Seriously altered states has segments that you can tell were written by scientists. The author actually studied sensory deprivation. Mainly the scenes where the scientists interact together. They speak and exist at a much higher intelligence level and thats obvious even when they're at parties making chit chat. Then 3/4 of the way through it becomes an all out 80s horror style movie with the early man escape scene. Then at the end it's basically 2001 a space odyssey
Thanks for uploading this old gem! I enjoy listening to those two guys talking back in 1981 about one of my favorite horror franchises Scanners and reviewing it. Little they know that "a young director" David Cronenberg would become one of the best and well known in the horror movie genre, alongside with big names like Wes Craven and John Carpenter.
Altered States was one of the first DVD’s I ever bought, 20 years ago. Along with Yellow Submarine, Austin Powers The Spy Who Shagged me, and I think The Entire series of Spawn the Animated Series. Was BLOWN AWAY when I saw AS!!!!!
Saw Altered States with my friends in high school, wow what a trip. Very 1960s premise that doing drugs and sensory deprivation can alter reality. Scanners was awesome, although admittedly Stephen Lack's acting was wooden. Loved the final mind duel between Vale and Revok at the end! "We're gonna do this the scanner way. I'm going to suck your brain dry!"
Neither of them mentions that Altered States is a Paddy Chayefsky script, the same writer as Network. The dialog sparkles in Altered States. Wish our horror movies were that intellectual now.
I always enjoyed when Linda Hamilton in her SNL monologue showed how things tended to blow up in her life (cut to the clip of the bald guy blowing up in Scanners as her manager).
Ebert didn't believe in they idea that these humans can scan other humans? its a sci-fi movie Roger. "The Scanner's" only exist in the picture! The same would apply to The Terminator, Blade Runner or Alien, how is it possible that there was aliens with acid for blood and androids with super strength and robots that travel though time.
Scanners was a pretty good movie but Altered States was so much better. The premise of a scientist using psychedelics and sensory deprivation to unlock an ancient dormant gene in his body which causes his regression into a quasi simian being (Hence the theory of evolution) is imo far more fascinating than people with telekinetic powers.
Scanners is genius. Stephen Lack & Michael Ironside are fascinating in their acting choices. Best practical effects of any film, especially the finale.
@@sonnyblack0870 I feel like his disaffected cold acting was on purpose. He could have been boring, but his character is supposed to be disconnected with people. I think he works perfectly for what Scanners is going for honestly.
@@SleepFan771 Yeah I dunno. I initially speculated he was giving a stiff lifeless performance on purpose because he’s a scanner, but then I realized he’s probably just a bad actor since his weak performance sticks out compared to the rest of the cast, to the point I found it a bit distracting throughout the film tbh. I think he gets away with it a little bit here tho because of, as you say, the overall tone of Scanners, but really I think he’s just a bad actor.
Those 1970s soda machines I remember. I hated those machines. Not only do they tend to tilt and unable to fill your soda, they don’t fill it all the way up.
I remember all these, thanks for posting them. I also remember that in Summer of 1980 Sneak Previews was briefly off the air thus we didn't get reviews of Airplane, Caddyshack, The Shining and Bronco Billy to name a few. Are these available?
I’m destined to see both of these movies, but I’m really looking forward to seeing Altered States, since it is gruesome and disturbing, but then again, it’s not like Scanners where it feels that way, even though I’d like to see that one, too. It was actually a lot of fun seeing that both of these guys defended each of these movies together, in their own ways, possible.
Altered States does have some fantastic and events scary hallucination scenes. One sequence even conveys perhaps a convincing and relentless "bad trip". The actual premise and some of the events that occur are... I'm much less of a fan.
Back when you could show four minutes of a movie you're reviewing. Now we have RU-vid, where reviewers live in fear of showing stills from the trailers.
They used to use way way longer clips in the earlier shows...it’s a pity American tv shows get shorter the more popular they are because it means more commercials during the half hour...
I saw both these films in the theater as a teen, what a great time in film I feel lucky that I lived in those times as compared to now where you can what any kinda movie you want as long as it’s a superhero movie 👎🏻
What an interesting side by side comparison. "Scanners" was too slow for me, but has some terrific gross out scenes. "Altered States" is the better film..
Altered States was such a commercial failure that it essentially ended Russel's feature film career. TV movies and docs was his destiny moving forward..R.I.P
I'm with Gene on this - absolutely loved Scanners because of the premise of the film and because of the action and Christ that soundtrack was wonderful but I just couldn't get into Altered States at all. Great light effects and definitely some good scenes but I just felt that it felt a little too hokey for my liking. Ultimately they are two cult films for a reason and I wouldn't argue against either.
I agree much more with Roger on "Altered States", but honestly they both miss the point about the film: It's a love story. Dr. Jessup is so obsessed with his research that he can't fully comprehend how much Emily loves him: even his proposal to her was more about logic than emotion. It was her love for him that brought him back from the edge, it was his realizing his love for her that rescued her. That the last words of the film are "I love you" is telling.
The film opened in New York and Los Angeles on Christmas of that year and the next year went into much wider release. According to newspapers.com, its premiere in Chicago, where each of the two critics were from, was on January 23, 1981. By March, it was playing in all fifty states.
How could Roger be so wrong yet again with Scanners thats another classic he really didn't get what the films were going for but hey because he didn't like them made others see it to find out what the controversy was all about why exactly he hated it and then they found out he was totally wrong and the movie was great after all so well done Roger
Hurt's character takes shrooms and sits in an isolation tank and physically reverts to ab earlier hominid? Then breaks into a zoo and eats an animal? That's the writing of a 15 year old stoner. The hallucinations are actually spectacular though.
Not shocked that Siskel liked Scanners and did not like Altered States. Such a cold fish. :D BTW Cronenberg made Scanners and will make The Fly in the late 80s which was sort of his version of Altered States.
