I never felt old but knowing I'm 3 years behind Wilford Brimley (he's 50) in Cocoon really makes it set in. Sure he's playing a guy who is probably like 20 older than he is, but dang.
I thought D.A.R.Y.L. was exceptionally well-crafted, and Siskel should have respected the fact that this _was_ , fundamentally, both a sci-fi movie and a family movie. The science was technically robust, and the scripting, character-development, acting was excellent, and excluded most of the cloying schmaltz that infects every Spielberg flick.
You know how Antenna TV is broadcasting the old Johnny Carson shows? A few weeks ago, I caught one where Johnny had on Don Ameche. Don must've been one of the most unassuming guys in Hollywood. Johnny showed some clips of Don's diving from _Cocoon_, but what I was really delighted by was Johnny's playing of an excerpt from _The Bickersons_, one of the funniest of those old-time radio programs. Check it out here on YT. That show set the standard for every....well, "bickering married couple" show that's been on radio and TV since then.
Let's be fair here: the original Wizard of Oz terrified generations of kids too, so much so that the episode of Sesame Street with the Wicked Witch was run once and thought lost for decades because Margaret Hamilton was the greatest cinema villain ever.
I have never disagreed so much with Siskel and Ebert than on their opinion on Return to Oz. I almost always agreed with them on everything they reviewed too.
I re-watched _Return to Oz_ recently, and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I was amused by how (just a little) prophetic it was, at least in terms of the characters. The Gump, for instance--where might we have seen another character with a similar name? Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King, _seems_ to have been inspired by Jack Pumpkinhead (and, of course, there happens to be a movie monster with that name). And doesn't Tik-Tok kind of remind you of another spherical robot from a recent film? EDIT: I've gotta say, though, that I enjoyed Syfy's miniseries _Tin Man_ a lot more.
@@patrickshields5251 the Judy Garland movie is so respected and Return To Oz is so the polar opposite in tone. I think critics at the time might have regarded Return To Oz as some sort of attack on The Wizard Of Oz.
@@patrickshields5251 I agree with you. I think a lot of critics at the time might have felt offended that Return To Oz is so different from The Wizard Of Oz. So much darker.
Wouldn't it be great to have a sequel to D.A.R.Y.L., starring Barret Oliver as he looks now? Google him and you'll see what I mean. The only problem is, he's not an actor anymore--he's a creative photographer. So it's not likely he'd take the role.
The mistake the filmmakers commit with Return To Oz is being timid and unclear in their marketed it as a sequel to The Wizard Of Oz. They should have marketed as “another ‘wonderful’ story in L. Frank Baum’s classic OZ saga!!!”
(11:02) Oh yeah? Well Guess what Gene? In 2013, a Wizard of Oz prequel (that was also produced by Disney) called Oz the Great and Powerful came out, and it's also not a musical.
I love how Siskel says "you'll guess" the boy is not normal in the first five minutes, as if it were trying to portray him as anything different. The movie is ABOUT how abnormal he is. The reveal that Siskel dismissively praised is the entire point of the movie. Remind me again why these guys that HATED every movie we loved for stupid reasons like this...remind me why other than nostalgia they are so loved...
I agree that Diana Ross was miscast in The Wiz. She was in her mid-30s at the time the film was made. Not saying she was bad in the role, just not quite right. Maybe Irene Cara or Janet Jackson or even Stephanie Mills who did the Broadway show would've been better at the time...
I love the movie D.A.R.Y.L. I seriously think it's an underrated movie from the 80s and I think the plot in that movie has a similar plot to the movie Short Circuit that came out a year later (which I really like too) except D.A.R.Y.L doesn't have the Comedy that Short Circuit had but other than that they both have plots about military robots that seem to have sentience and are being chased by the evil military whose mission is to destroy them both and D.A.R.Y.L of course is a robot that is a human being with a computer brain while Johnny Five in Short Circuit is an actual robot drone with a binocular shaped head and treads to move. I think both movies are very underrated and the only difference in D.A.R.Y.L and Short Circuit other than how the robots are different kinds of robots D.A.R.Y.L doesn't have the Comedy that Short Circuit has.
Whether or not you agree with them on Return to Oz, I agree with Gene on remaking films. Don't remake classic films remake bad films. Remake a film that was bad and see if you can make it better with the remake.
I definitely agree with Gene Siskel, leave the classics alone I remember my mom rented Return to Oz in the 80's and The Wiz on video, I like The Wiz a whole lot better than Return to Oz and yes, I wasn't impressed with Return to Oz and Dorothy Gale didn't have any feelings like Judy Garland's Dorothy
They had already made The Wizard Of Oz. L. Frank Baum’s books are much darker than what they could make in 1939. Bad nostalgia guided Siskel & Ebert’s Return To Oz review.
If they were alive to see Oz the Great and Powerful, they would’ve been so much kinder to this film. Return to Oz didn’t even copyright sidestep like Oz the Great and Powerful did.
1. They are old enough to know that other Oz books exist. 2. As reviewers, they could have done research. There were behind the scenes documentaries before the film was released. 3. This movie is perfect like the 1939 film. It’s just scarier in some places. And pays perfect homage to the 1939 film when it can. 4. The use of the Ruby slippers may have been a problem but many were mainly familiar with the Ruby slippers rather than the silver shoes so…. Their review is just… stupid? And I like them. 🙄
Jesus, they went the extra mile to diss Return to Oz. They should have actually judged the film on its own merits and not “It’s not The Wizard of Oz!” I still love and miss these guys though.
pft! i adore that they had to actually _speed_ that terribly TERRIBLY unimpressive video game many times up for the scene in _DARYL_ to work at all. someone should do a re-dit where the game's slowed back down to normal pace and the inspiring music is replaced with just the awful beeps and boops of the game.
RETURN TO OZ is the best Oz adaptation. The most faithful to the books, and something that never condescends to its young audience. This review is so narrow and backward-looking.
I saw return to oz as a kid in 1985 at the cinema with my parents and boy I hated it wholeheartedly. But I was totally refreshed and relieved when I saw Back To The Future afterwards which is a much better movie
Jeahav Valentin I saw it as a child too and it scared the hell out of me. I actually thought it was just a figment of my imagination for 15 years of my life until the internet confirmed it was real.
16:07 I saw it when I was in high school on HBO ... yeah, it seemed a bit strong for a young audience. I'm not sure why this film was made. Maybe to loop in young kids or just girls who had psychiatric issues.
The real reason why you and they hated this movie so much is because you didn't bother to read the source material. What Walter Murch was doing was following the source material while also adding his own material. Return to Oz is an underrated film that only got bad reviews because of their lack of real research and true knowledge of the source materail.
@@tf692 You should have some knowledge of the source materail. With their complaints of Return to Oz not being a family friendly musical, they show that they have no knowledge if the book.
Gene was never more wrong than here, about Return to Oz. I saw it at age 7 and was totally enchanted by it. Scared, my ass. I still love that film. And I don't care for the 1939 picture.
The real reason why Return to Oz was hated back in 1985 is because the critics didn't bother to read the source material. The L Frank Baum books have some scary moments too.
@@Nathan-gd7xq But their complaints about the dark imagery in Return to Oz shows that they have never read the books they were based on. In their Worst of 1985 episode, Gene callled Tik Tok a rip off of C-3PO, which is not true because he's from the books and he exactly looks like that in the books.
