Siskel & Ebert Classics 4/15/89 - Field of Dreams, Say Anything 

I am flabbergasted that neither mentioned Field of Dreams ultimately being about fathers and sons...and reconciliation...

This episode encapsulates everything that made Siskel and Ebert so compelling. They could praise small cinematic miracles like "Say Anything" and absolutely destroy tripe like "She's Out Of Control" in a ten minute span.

"And when I saw _She's Out of Control_ I became so depressed I actually thought about quitting my job as a film critic." 😄

Boy did Gene miss it on Field of Dreams, one of the best movies ever!

R.I.P Siskel, Ebert, Ray Liotta, and Burt Lancaster.

Imagine being the director of She's Out of Control and watching this .

I really loved Field Of Dreams i saw the film soon after my father died and was very moved.

I'm with Roger on Field Of Dreams, excellent and magical.

Thank you for sharing this. I love Say Anything. It'll always be in my top10 but I didn't know it was so well respected by these gentlemen

Damn, they went off on that Tony Danza movie lmao

Say Anything and Field of Dreams - I just happened to watch these two movies. How convenient to have them reviewed together 30 years ago.

This is a really wonderful episode that encapsulates everything good about the show and also highlights a strong pre-summer period at the movies in 1989. Here we have a strong disagreement among the critics, citing of a movie rule that was broken, reviews of what would become known as one of the best and worst movies of the year, and at least two movies still remembered as significant if not classics today. We also have movies with some up-and-coming stars who would get much bigger later and movies with some stars who were on their way down.

I related to Say Anything. It starts off with the characters graduating from High School & so did i that year in 1989. I did see it in a theater in Seattle where it was also filmed. I remember writer/Director Cameron Crowe said back then that Say Anything was his apology to teenagers for writing Fast Times.

Say Anything is an amazing film that has aged very well. I never minded the silly, raunchy teen flicks because they can be quite funny, but SA is such a realistic view of the way young people act in situations of love, heartbreak and anxiety.

This is an all-time classic episode. Siskel's existential crisis after seeing She's Out of Control is one of the most memorable moments the show ever had. He was dead wrong about Field of Dreams, though. It seems like he didn't like the movie simply because it wasn't Bull Durham, even though it was trying to be a completely different movie.

Most people had enough sense to avoid Tony Danza in any film.

2 classics in the same week.

Say Anything. Best teen drama ever?

AMAZING! Thank you for posting brother!

2 ends of the spectrum this episode 2 movies at 11% on Rotten Tomatoes & 3 movies at 83% or higher on RT

I love how Cusack whips out names from the then-new idea of kickboxing*, and goes on to have Benny Urquidez play opposite him in, 'Gross Pointe Blank.' Just something surprisingly authentic about that. *And he was right. That MMA thing really took off. If only he was more of a grappler/Judo guy..

I like that this show introuces me to movies I never heard of like winter people

LOL, the Cole rule. I never heard that one.

She's Out of Control must have been a REAL stinker. Siskel said it was one the worst experiences of his career and made him contemplate quitting his job, and Ebert talked about it being "less than nothing" that "robbed life" from him. "A wrong" done to them, "which could never be righted." Wowee.

its so crazy that she actually told her dad that lol

The order they review movies is always interesting. Usually the lead movie is the one that's considered the week's Big Release. Here forgotten Winter People gets the nod over future classics Field Of Dreams and Say Anything. There's another one where Die Hard is like the last movie they review.

So it's two thumbs up for "She's out of control" then? 🤣

3 great films, would be great if there were a popular show like this telling us which new netflix films are worth a damn

Field of Dreams was a good movie

I love Russell, but Winter People was a bomb. I did laugh at Siskel’s exasperation with it, relating it to Ivanhoe lol

OMG! Gene, this movie is NOT ABOUT Baseball! Baseball is just a vehicle for the story.

Damn, Rog eviscerates WINTER PEOPLE. I kind of want to see it now. But not really; life's too short.

If you film it, critics will come to sh*t on it

Field of Dreams and Say Anything would make Elbert’s yearly best list, but this episode is all about She’s Out of Control.

I like Shes Outta Control... watched it as a kid tho...

FOD is the greatest movie of all times for people that have a heart....evidently, some people do not...

only movie i remember ever walking out on was the astronauts wife. prolly a lot more i should have though lol

Say Anything is a classic. I can recite most of it

Siskel and Ebert getting pissed off about "She's Out of Control", to me, just makes the movie even funnier. Especially the Beach sequence where Tony Danza is looking at everyone in a close up slow motion. :))) The film is not that bad.

How did Gene Sisco get so far off base on field of dreams which is considered an icon of movies one of the best ever written and acted looking at it now it’s hard to imagine

OMG was Gene Siskel the tin man who needed a heart? HOW CAN YOU NOT GET FIELD OF DREAMS???

The Cole Rule is epic.

HUGE WHIFF GENE!!!

There's some ass pan-and-scanning in WINTER PEOPLE and full-frame shittery in DEAD CALM. DVD was a godsend to cineastes.

The TOP GUN sequel opening the same week as Ray Liotta's death? Synchronicity.

The young actress who plays Danza's daughter isn't terrible.

Seven bucks in New York City!

Field of Dreams was too ambitious?!?! Wow Gene, I wish he could see all the reactors crying on YT watching it. One of the great endings in movie history.

Odd that Siskel and Ebert both focus on the baseball aspect of the story as if that's what it's about, rather than the story of a man reconciling with his father, with baseball merely as a backdrop. If it's just a baseball movie, then Rocky is just a boxing movie.

Wow; how did they both get this so wrong? This film was not really about baseball at all.

I was waiting for Gene to hate on FOD and he did not disappoint 😢

What the hell was going on with Kelly Mc Gillis' accent?!?

I can kind of see Gene’s point on Field of Dreams. I enjoy the nerve-jangling drama and the creeping dread of the playoffs, but I don’t like baseball for the reasons this film does. I don’t care about that schmaltzy ritual of dads passing the game down to their sons. My hometown didn’t have an MLB team until I was already in college, so that wasn’t even possible for me. Field of Dreams is certainly not a bad movie but you have to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy it. It isn’t for everyone.

Siskel probably hated frank Capra films too!

Gene was way off on field of dreams. Bull Durham is good but field of dreams is great

Gene always misses on movies . It’s like he isn’t watching the same movies

Field of Dreams 👍🌟🌟🌟 Dead Calm 👍🌟🌟🌟🌟 Say Anything 👍🌟🌟🌟🌟 Winter People 👎🌟🌟 She's out of control 👎🌟

Siskel was just dead wrong about “Field of Dreams.”

As history goes, Siskel’s review on Field Of Dreams was so bad. He simply didn’t get it.

Gosh…soooo…I actually liked “She’s Out of Control” when I was a kid.😬 Prob still would today. Only movies I recall walking out on, at the theatre: “The Birdcage” and ‘97’s “Godzilla” (when they started shooting the monster who was just trying to protect her babies.)

For the second time in as many days I've watched a video in which Gene badly misses in a way that I cannot fathom. How a man who was a professional film critic could possibly have watched Field of Dreams and then went on TV and not recommended it is just beyond embarrassing. Sorry Gene but you really missed the boat here!

Trying to hard? There's barley a plot. Damn it Siskel.

I feel the jeans with a great movie I’m sorry gene I think you’re way off

Apparently Gene has no soul, if this film didn't do it for him!

My reviews: out of 5 1 " Winter People " 2 out of 5 👎 2 " Say Anything " 3 out of 5 👍 3 " Field of Dreams " 4.5 out of 5 👍 4 " She's out of Control " 1.5 out of 5 👎 5 " Dead Calm " 4 out of 5 👍

Siskel sometimes had a strange tendency to dislike excellent movies, even a few that have become classics. He didn't like Field of Dreams, The Big Lebowski, Casino, The Silence of the Lambs...

Two Thumbs Up WAY Down for She's Out of Control the teen comedy that we both agree is one of the worst experiences of our professional lives.

Say Anything 3.5/4 👍 Field of Dreams 3/4 👍 She's Out of Control 1/4 👎

She's Out of Control is the perfect movie that shows up on your TV when you're a teenager full of hormones. It's stupid, you find the girl hot, there's a story in the midst of it and you probably don't watch it all. Back in the day they released so many movies in theater when really a lot of them were made for TV. Most of them probably all bombed. lol

Gene's take on Field of Dreams may lose any credibility forever.

A dreary story about boring people who live in a wretched neck of the woods and are ruled by ignorance and prejudice.

It was not surprising that Siskel preferred Bull Durham to FoD. Bull Durham was a chick flick disguised as a baseball movie. Sarandon got people to pay to watch her lecture grown men on her ideas of how to act.

Siskel is right about Field of Dreams.

Siskel had a weird habit of not liking great films. Field of Dreams?! And then there were Casino and Silence of the Lambs, just to name a few. Oh, and The Big Lebowski.

Gene missed the mark on several notable movies. But his negative review for Field Of Dreams may take the top spot. Possibly challenged by his one for Apocalypse Now.

Siskel never likes anything lol

She’s out of control was brilliant. Just kidding total dreck from beginning to end.

I don't think these 2 gentlemen could believe what is happening on netflix production for last 5 years if they were alive...in terms of woke bullsh.and stupidity

Seriously?! A movie he didn´t like would make Gene to retire as a movie critics. I don´t get that. Sounds both stupid and very unprofessional on a movie like this.

I absolutely HATE baseball. There is nothing more a waste of time on a hot afternoon than baseball. I will not watch this piece of garbage. There is nothing sacred about baseball.

Field of Dreams is so pathetically overrated, just like The Natural. The Bad News Bears is the greatest baseball and sports film of all time.

I don't think Gene Siskel has a soul. You can watch the pattern of his reviews...anything that has any kind of magic behind it is a film he doesn't like

"Kevin Costner has visions of baseball glory" is a weird description for Field of Dreams.