@@samuelstephens6163 yes. The boys were grumpy with stuff like that. I saw it as a teenager and loved it. The production design is original and visually smooth. The only thing comparable to Star wars was the robots... big deal. I love Star Wars and always welcomed the rip offs and clones. A lot of them are fun....
Lite yet enjoyable look at my favorite genre. Their various shows over the years were among the highlights of my TV week for around 20 years. Miss them. Thanks also to the various people who preserved them on VHS and are sharing them now. I don't mind the crappy quality too much and enjoy the commercials when they are left in.
Roger Ebert was a bonafide science fiction fan and he showed it in the special. Siskel underrated the science fiction films of the Fifties as too many did at the time.
2001 - One of the most audacious opening sequences of all time. But, it works. When I saw this clip from Close Encounters, I realized for the 1st time that it is presenting music as the universal language. Alien - is still my favorite Sci-Fi film of all time. Honorable mention to Arrival. For George Melies - see Hugo, a great family film.
It confused me even as a kid in 1980 when I first saw this episode. "Wait. 'Star Trek' and 'Black Hole' I get. But 'Alien'? They both praised it last year. Sure they said even then it was a glorified haunted house movie but one that was really well done and genuinely terrifying." Pick a lane, boys.
@@habovay3 I feel like these specials had to be scripted out, unlike their normal reviews. They probably had staff working on the script to make their overall points, but the exact language may not have been their own. One reason I say this, sometimes one critic will voice an opinion that was actually said by the other critic about the movie on an older episode. So I think a staff member is basing the script on what they said before, but reshaping it to fit with the theme of this special episode.
The War of the Worlds (1953) is honestly one of my favourite movies ever made. I think the fifties was when they finally had the effects knowledge worthy to make science fiction films from classics like The Day The Earth Stood Still and The War of the Worlds, to another, more schlocky stuff like The Thing From Another World and only the lord knows how many creature features and even Invasion of the Body Snatchers, all of which can be read as metaphors for what was happening in the world at the time.
I like the remake of the thing and war of the worlds more. The only bad thing about the war of the worlds remake is the stupid son. His storyline was so forced and it just didn't work. The first appearance of one of the tripods is fn awesome though. What did you think of the remakes?
@@HonkeyKong54 sorry If I’m late on this, but I would like to say that I am actually a fan of Spielberg’s remake of War of the Worlds. I find it interesting that we always seem to get versions of the tale in times of crisis and they’re often adapted to our modern time. The film isn’t perfect, but I find it a worthy adaptation and as a film is a lot of fun, especially to see a more small scale interpretation of an alien invasion story.
Little did they know at the time how "Star Wars" had begun a revolution in the visuals and special effects of sci-fi, fantasy and most other movie genres that hasn't slowed down to this day. Almost as revolutionary as sound in movies.
I think they were actually reviewing Star Wars as a special effects laden action film. I think that's what they mean about the "hardware". 3 years later, with Return of the Jedi approaching theaters at the time, did a special show devoted to the Star Wars trilogy and even analysed both the special effects and how they blend genres, myths, and legends to create their own stories.
I grew up watching Vermont ETV; it was one of three channels we could receive up in the mountains. Great to hear it named at the beginning of this program :)
Star Trek The Motion Picture and Aliens have aged very well. Both are considered classics now. I think Siskel and Ebert (RIP, love them both) were a little short-sighted in their reviews.
I love the original Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. Kevin McCarthy gives a just ever so slightly over the top performance, which ratchets up the tension perfectly. I thought the movie was ultimately about the fight against conformity.
Roger Ebert completely contradicted himself when he talked about the Sci Fi films of 1979 because he actually liked Alien and Star Trek The Motion Picture when they hit theaters. The only one he didn't like was The Black Hole. Gene Siskel only liked Alien and didn't like Star Trek and The Black Hole. Now how do I know this? Because I've seen these reviews on the Sneak Previews IMDb page.
Peter As for their review of Star Wars, while they clearly enjoyed the film for its popcorn value, they didn't explore the mythology of the film but they later did that in a 1983 episode about Star Wars. My favorite part of the episode is their praise of 2001. Do you have the 1985 episode where they talked about Sci Fi again after 1984's crop?
@@patrickshields5251 I don't know. Alien was a different film from the 1977 rousing crowd-pleasers, because it was a horror movie. Not fair to lump it with Star Trek or Black Hole. The first Star Trek was a crashing bore and Black Hole was pretty, um, empty. I was 14 when Star Wars came out, and of course I was dazzled. The mythology was made more clear in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. That made me appreciate that trilogy a lot more.
Clifford Shafran I remember on the old site when one comment said that they also missed the point of Star Wars because it was hardly the "gadgets" that made Star Wars great. I think that they're really praising Star Wars for being a crowd pleaser though that's really part of the big deal on what made Star Wars successful. And they actually knew this because 3 years later, they did a "think piece" episode on the original Star Wars trilogy and went into detail on the mythology.
In case anyone doesnt know, Ebert initially gave Star Wars a bad review but changed it a little later, and in the years since he only said good things about it and all web sites with his reviews only show the positive one.
What did Roger Ebert expect as far as the Black Hole being blue tinted. Nothing can escape one not even light so if they didn't have it colored somehow it would be invisible.
"doesn't go along with law of physics that I ever heard about" - Roger Ebert I wish that some astrophysicist could have explained to him what a black hole's 'accretion disk' is. And speaking of 'law of physics', it's hilarious about it not pertaining to Star Wars that he loves so much, while for the Black Hole it's a major complaint. It's also a shame that the both of them lump the classic ALIEN in the disappointments of 1979, too, while liking Rambo III and Die Hard 2.
Roger was kind of nuts. First he was just lukewarm on Alien, then he seems to dismiss it, later he praises it with four stars and puts it as a must see film of the seventies. But he never changed his mind about his positive review of Stop or My Mom With Shoot.
They both were nuts at times. I mean, "Purple Rain" on BOTH their 10 Best lists for 1984? Purple Rain?! Even the black audience I saw the film with heckled it.
I understand where they are coming from in their unfavourable comparison of Alien to the three blockbuster Sci Fi movies they were talking about, but I think they were a little unfair to suggest that there weren't any intellectual ideas in the film. The idea that a beacon is detected and the ship being re-routed to gather the specimen for military purposes at the crews expense seems to me a true "idea." Is Alien in the intellectual league of 2001? Obviously not, but I believe it is intellectually superior to Star Wars (which I like) and not that far behind (intellectually, that is) Close Encounters.
@@bareknuckles2u As someone once said, "If Star Wars is the Beatles, Alien is the Rolling Stones." I'd also mix in a little Pink Floyd, given the Giger factor.
Gene was in love with those "small family pitchures, about real people with real problems." He's like a therapist who likes to psychoanalyze his subjects. If the subjects don't offer him the symptoms, he's likely to dismiss them.
@trha2222 I think he was right for not liking Aliens: it was a stupid movie! I did like it when I first saw it, but when you think about it afterwards, there was no end to the stupid in that movie.
@@Peter_739 It actually mixes a lot of genres and other sources of storytelling. So by praising this film primarily on it's special effects and action set pieces, this is actually a surface level review.
