Gene passed about 14 years after this in 99, he was only 53. i turned 52 yesterday, and i can go all the way back to the first episodes in the 70s and he had that big mustache and even then i think he looks older than i do now.
Commando was Arnold spoofing himself and action movies, with Rae Dawn providing the wonderful commentary -- "You guys eat too much red meat" during the motel room brawl, for example, is one of my favorite bits of dialogue. Hilarious movie.
One of the rare occasions I agreed with both Siskel AND Ebert. . . On The Journey of Natty Gann, which is a delightful film with two great performances by Cusack and Salinger. The supporting cast is also quite good, particularly John Finnegan, who was perfectly cast as the logging boss. Delightful.
And Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Valley Girl, BTTF II, Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge, so many others. Sherman Oaks Galleria was like the Vasquez Rocks of malls.
Saw it in theater. I was in love with Merideth Salenger as a boy. It was also one of the first Cusack performances, along with the classic Better Off Dead, that I remember seeing. 👍
Thank you for posting these old Siskel & Ebert reviews! I love Commando. I know it is dumb and improbable, but it is so much fun. They also did not like Cobra and Tango & Cash, two others I love. I wonder what they would think of today's action films, or today's movies for that matter. A "thumbs up" would probably be rare.
So cool!! Thanks for this. Was just looking for some Natty Gann clips, and ended up in an awesome time machine with commercials to boot. Love these guys!! And they even showed my favorite scene from "Giant". I'll take the 80's anyday of the week. 😊
Funny thing about BOD. I saw One Crazy Summer the next year in the theater, which was by the same director, and hours later, I couldn't remember the story.
They're so off-base about _Better Off Dead_, it's unbelievable. Did they not realize that it's a parody of all those dumb teen movies and afterschool specials? If they did, then why are they treating it like it was a serious-minded film with a serious story to tell? It's like criticizing _Airplane!_ by saying it's just another one of those "airplane disaster" movies, or _The Naked Gun_ by saying "Frank Drebin is a cop who has to stop a terrorist organization from assassinating a world leader, a plot we've all seen done before and better."
gspendlove No doubt! Just with the newspaper boy(2 dollars!) and the animation sequences, one can see the surreal take. The ski contest and foreign girl tropes, are spoofed really well imo.
@@RobertJRoman I read about that, and I'm baffled by Cusack's reaction. (For those who don't know, Savage Steve Holland said in an interview that Cusack angrily walked out of a special screening of _BOD_ after twenty minutes, saying that the movie was the worst thing he'd ever seen, that Holland had tricked him and made him look like a fool, and swore he'd never work with Holland again.) I have no idea why Cusack felt that way, but I really don't think he was fair to judge the whole movie after only watching twenty minutes' worth of it. This movie came out when I was in high school (I'm betraying my age here, but wtf, who cares), and I can't remember a single one of my classmates ever saying they didn't like it or didn't think it was funny. And I wonder if Cusack's opinion on it has softened over the years. We may never know.
BOD took some risks and was different from other teen films. I liked. Commando was the dumbest...most implausible...most kick-ass, awesome movie ever made!
That's kinda funny that they had to cut that brief shot where you see Sully (or the dummy that doubles for him) plummet off the cliff in the 'Commando' clips. I wonder why that was too offensive to broadcast, considering it's fully in-tact on any network television airing.
Know what? The clip they show of BOD is not the whole scene. They cut some of it. The part where Ricky's mom is mentioning that it seems like Monique and Ricky are in love is not there.
Hey, in Better Off Dead, the dad reacting to the paperboy missing is funny! "You MISSED! You missed this time you little F-..... Menace!" And so many other parts
I liked Natty Gann when it came out. And, I like it even more today compared to what is being excreted by Hollyweird today. Shoot, even the commercials back then are high art compared to movies today. I'm surprised that Meredith Salenger did not become a bigger star than she did. Maybe she stayed away from the Hollyweirdos with grabby hands.
thanks, I had no idea they reviewed Better Off Dead, not at all surprised at the two thumbs down (most of the critics were tough on BOD when it was released). I'm curious; do you have their review of Blue City from 86?
+Shawn Powell It isn't really a good movie. There are a few laughs, but compare it to the John Hughes teen comedies and it stinks. I don't remember them reviewing Blue City, but I didn't watch the show religiously back then.
There's a kidnapper running around the Mall shooting wildly into crowds of people and the idiot Mall Cops are chasing and fighting with the guy trying to stop him! 🤣
amen. here's an interview with them from 1991 in which Ebert is SAVAGE to Siskel. Growing up I thought it was the other way around, but now I realize, Ebert was BRUTAL to Siskel. reprints.longform.org/playboy-interview-gene-siskel-and-roger-ebert
this review of "Better Off Dead" shows exactly why i liked the show but never cared about or respected their opinions, they were such snobby middle class liberals that wanted to be part of the upper class pretentious art scene. and hey i find Fellini films tedious so to each their own, but they want to watch their artsy foreign films and go to the opera and try to be intellectuals yet make their living reviewing films for the average audience. when they did not understand the average audience.
80's action homoeroticism-according to siskel and ebert, I love it lol! They were full of shit to be clear but still hilarious seeing them interpret Commando that way.
"....That villain there who was almost unmistakably a leather homosexual type...." "Absolutely, no question...As if Arnold had to prove he was a man by fighting him..." WTF? Lol
I love "Better Off Dead", but I have to admit the particular prolonged clip they showed would make me confident that the movie sucked, _if that's all I saw or heard about it._ Obviously not every moment in any comedy is going to cook. There will be some weaker passages or misses. _"We hate the movie. And to prove the whole movie sucks, here's a clip focusing on the least compelling character in the movie, doing her very weakest bit of the movie."_ When a movie is TRYING to be wildly absurd, it's a kind of a dirty trick to clip a particularly slow bit, over-study that one clip, then pretend that's a fair representative sample of the movie. I guess you could pick the weakest bit in the comedy juggernaut "Airplane", then claim the whole movie sucks. It wouldn't be an accurate or even an ethical review though. Go ahead and tell me it sucks, if that's what you really think. But be man enough to show me one of the stronger scenes, too. Let me decide if we even agree on what humor is.
...Not to mention the intentionally massive cringe of that scene was *supposed to be* the suddenly very slow paced, hyper-awkwardness, of their dysfunctional little get-together, highlighted by the unfunniness of the crazy mom's attempts at humor. Our two protagonists don't even want to be there. And we are supposed to feel that familiar kind of social dread with them. To show this clip isolated, with no acknowledgement that is SUPPOSED TO BE stripping your gears as an awful cringe-ball is, like I said, unethical.
