Funny thing is he doesn't even disagree that it's bad, he just seems to think it falls into the right spot of completely ridiculous bad that he funds it funny in its ridiculousness.
Yeah, and specifically you can tell he's having a bit of a hard time speaking and there's a bit of sluring since I imagine without looking it up, he'd had a minor stroke by this point. But even still, he seems so happy to just enjoy some movies, even bad ones.
@@heavysystemsinc. He had brain surgery for a tumor about two months prior to this. He did the show by phone for several episodes after that. This was his third episode in studio after the surgery.
It's rough watching these episodes when Siskel was sick. I miss these guys. They used to air at 7:30 PM on Saturday in our local Boston ABC affiliate. I used to stay home and watch them. My friends thought I was weird. Armageddon is admittedly a terrible guilty pleasure :).
Armageddon was an insult to my intelligence. Corny & lame. I had to stop watching it when the shuttle was dodging the asteroid. This film makes Space Cowboys look like an Oscar contender.
This was when Gene's health started to deteriorate. Really a shame that he left us so soon. Once again, he gives an odd thumbs up to a movie Roger voted as worst of the year. But, this was missing the loud, acrimonious arguing with Gene's poor health.
Sometimes movies are like that. For example I generally hate Adam Sandler movies yet I enjoyed Grown Ups 2. It was just a dumb comedy, but it made me laugh. Some would say it makes no sense that you couldn't pay me to watch most of his crap, but If enjoy Grown Ups2.
@@sha11235 yep at the end of the day we like what we like and our tastes dont line up. There is a smug film critic I like named Alonso duralde. He rips everything yet somehow loved movie 43. People are never fully consistent.
@@ricardocantoral7672 When he says things like a "strange" thumbs up, I'm afraid we're seeing the effects of the tumor and brain surgery. He would never have given such an oblique rationale for liking a movie before. On many of Siskel's last episodes Ebert really seems baffled by Gene's arguments.
Ebert tried to talk about the propaganda elements in Gone With the Wind and Siskel immediately changed the topic of conversation to something far less interesting.
That Aerosmith song. I remember that being the official death knell for that band. Having previously reemerged with that massive career comeback and lengthy string of wildly-successful records ('Permanent Vacation', 'Pump', 'Get A Grip', 'Nine Lives'), they were pretty much a tour de force, in an era of music that would've normally bulldozed any "dad" band into oblivion. They consistently proved they still had it; that they could still rock. So what do they do? Well, they get into the studio with the songwriting powerhouse behind Celine Dion and LeAnn Rimes, of course. Nothing says "Rock n' roll" more than that. You heard it everywhere--everywhere--around the time it was released, tirelessly chipping away at our psyches as it promoted its big-budgeted garbage ass Michael Bay explosion-fest movie companion. Bludgeoning us with heavy rotation on MTV, all day, everyday. You put on the radio: it was playing. The song debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts--their highest charting single of all time--yet you somehow never knew of or met an Aerosmith fan who liked it. It was a nauseatingly sappy ballad of horseshit that made itself even worse by hopping on that trend of "hard-rock-meets-orchestra" that couldn't go away fast enough. A few years later, 'Just Push Play' dropped, and while it sold well, the consensus was in: Aerosmith fucking sucked now (again).
Hambone Jones Basically, the song was an encapsulation of Armageddon as a whole: overhyped, overproduced, overly sappy, and was the favorite for people who didn’t understand the medium whatsoever.
They couldn't have known that Bay would make Armageddon seem like a silent film when he made the Transformer movies. I actually went to another movie opening night of one of those movies (I think #3) and the audio bleed into our theater was ridiculous! I could hear Transformers better than the movie I was actually watching!
Yes, there were several big action movies of that time that in some theaters, the sound would shake the walls at in opportune times if you were watching almost literally any other movie. A slow dialogue scene? Oh, man, you couldn't pay attention from the rumbling going on through the walls. Very annoying. I think modern theaters do better to dampen and contain the soundtracks to the theater it's intended to be heard in, but back then when there was upgrading of sound systems and these new big epic movies were taking advantage of digital sound, the old theaters really couldn't contain it.
@@franksmith613 I'm talking about him saying that if you go to a multiplex and you see Armageddon is playing there, don't see a film playing next door to it because there will be tremendous audio bleed.
Siskel was pretty sweet in his Armageddon review. I think he nailed it. It’s noisy and absurd, but there is also a beating heart that insists it all works.
No there isn’t. Michael Bay is a nihilistic filmmaker who hates everyone and everything in his movies. Don’t think for one second that ANY emotions in his films are genuine in any way, because they’re not.
No, there isn’t. Michael Bay is a nihilistic filmmaker who hates everyone and everything in his movies. Don’t think for one second that ANY emotions in his films are genuine in any way, because they’re not.
Unfortunately, I think Siskel's judgement was impaired by his medical condition...he actually gave Armageddon a thumbs up!....lol And Ebert, in kindness to his friend, did not call him out on it.
@@sha11235 There is a transcript of their review of Mulan on IMDB from the first episode Siskel came back to after surgery. Siskel pans it for confusing reasons. His reviews were often shaky and not well explained after the surgery.
correct...Armageddon was a piece of shit...There were 3 movies about the end of the world at the time, this, Deep Impact and Last Night...Last Night was by far the best.
i hate him too, and a lot of it has to do with the fact his movies are nothing but noise fests. he is the perfect director for the new generation of moviegoer: the one with a short attention span who hates dialogue.
I'd rather watch Armageddon again than that depressing and overwrought mess that was Deep Impact which is pretty much the same story including the kamazike sacrifice scene by the space shuttle in that film! And...Siskel liked that one too. Ebert didn't and Ebert did have a great point which was that if the writers Bruce Joel Rubin and Michael Tolkin who are great writers were just let loose pretty much like the hundred writers on Armageddon (J.J. Abrams included) that would've been the better of the two comet disaster films. As such, Armageddon, with it's noise and MTV style editing is still the best of the two films.
...Back when liberals were sophisticated enough to contextualize history and approve of art made in the days of “Gone with the Wind” and its period subject.
It seems you singled out two movies you like that they happened to disagree on. So what? People in general aren't always going to agree with movie critics and they don't always agree with each other.
The asteroid in Armageddon that just HAPPENED to know exactly which series of selected man-made cultural monuments and historical landmarks to hit and destroy around the World lol it's true, it's so absurd and ridiculous, it's almost a comedy or disaster movie parody that's just pretending to be an action/adventure flick. 🤣 It's an exercise in manic shaky-cam and cringe dialogue tolerance, and has never ONCE inspired me to give it a re-watch since that one very first, (and last,) time I ever had. 👎 👎 from me.
Hey, I wasn't the only who despised Armageddon. Oil riggers saving the earth but yet, their product (oil) is killing the earth anyway! At least the comet would be quick.
Oil's not killing the earth. That's just a lot of mass hysteria and propaganda from politicians who want to frighten you so you give them more and more money and power.
I always fantasized that being a critic on their show would be a great job until they got to the foreign films and I'd imagine having to sit through them and trying to form an opinion on them.
Ebert's dead pause at 3:41 after Siskel gave Armageddon a positive review made me laugh.
Sometimes one of 'em gets it wrong. Siskel is very wrong here.
Funny thing is he doesn't even disagree that it's bad, he just seems to think it falls into the right spot of completely ridiculous bad that he funds it funny in its ridiculousness.
You can tell that he really hated it, but he also went easy on Gene because he didn't want to dogpile on him while he was ailing
Poor Gene, he looked so tired. I know he was dying and that makes all the more sad. ;(
Yeah, and specifically you can tell he's having a bit of a hard time speaking and there's a bit of sluring since I imagine without looking it up, he'd had a minor stroke by this point. But even still, he seems so happy to just enjoy some movies, even bad ones.
@@heavysystemsinc. He had brain surgery for a tumor about two months prior to this. He did the show by phone for several episodes after that. This was his third episode in studio after the surgery.
Are you implicating Michael bay in the death of Gene siskel? If so, I'm available to testify to that effect.
It's rough watching these episodes when Siskel was sick. I miss these guys. They used to air at 7:30 PM on Saturday in our local Boston ABC affiliate. I used to stay home and watch them. My friends thought I was weird. Armageddon is admittedly a terrible guilty pleasure :).
If only they knew how loud Michael bay would get
Armageddon was an insult to my intelligence. Corny & lame. I had to stop watching it when the shuttle was dodging the asteroid. This film makes Space Cowboys look like an Oscar contender.
Space Cowboys was actually an Oscar contender for Sound Design.
Armageddon was just plain dumb. What an awful movie.
Notice they shook hands at the end?
Yup.
I felt like it was a 2 hour beer commercial.
Sad that Gene never saw the year 2000
Cancer sucks.
No crazy astronaut stuff?
The fact that Siskel gave Armageddon a thumbs up is everything you need to know about him as a "critic".
I hate that movie too, but we mustn't talk that way. it isn't warranted. You're not always going to like what critics have to say.
1:26 I love Ebert's snickering
'This could have been the movie that was shown to Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange to make him sick of violence.'
This was when Gene's health started to deteriorate. Really a shame that he left us so soon. Once again, he gives an odd thumbs up to a movie Roger voted as worst of the year. But, this was missing the loud, acrimonious arguing with Gene's poor health.
This had to be one of the WORST popular movies ever made.
Siskel has no consistency to his reviews. I can't believe he gave this thumbs up!
Sometimes movies are like that. For example I generally hate Adam Sandler movies yet I enjoyed Grown Ups 2. It was just a dumb comedy, but it made me laugh. Some would say it makes no sense that you couldn't pay me to watch most of his crap, but If enjoy Grown Ups2.
He gave each film the benefit of the doubt. There were films he liked that you might think, WTF?
There isn't any consistency in film reviews.
@@sha11235 yep at the end of the day we like what we like and our tastes dont line up. There is a smug film critic I like named Alonso duralde. He rips everything yet somehow loved movie 43. People are never fully consistent.
In Siskel's defense, he really isn't praising the film. He found it to be hilariously stupid.
@@ricardocantoral7672 When he says things like a "strange" thumbs up, I'm afraid we're seeing the effects of the tumor and brain surgery. He would never have given such an oblique rationale for liking a movie before. On many of Siskel's last episodes Ebert really seems baffled by Gene's arguments.
Ebert tried to talk about the propaganda elements in Gone With the Wind and Siskel immediately changed the topic of conversation to something far less interesting.
That movie sucked so bad! Basically a three hour Aerosmith video for there song i hate the most!
That Aerosmith song. I remember that being the official death knell for that band. Having previously reemerged with that massive career comeback and lengthy string of wildly-successful records ('Permanent Vacation', 'Pump', 'Get A Grip', 'Nine Lives'), they were pretty much a tour de force, in an era of music that would've normally bulldozed any "dad" band into oblivion. They consistently proved they still had it; that they could still rock.
So what do they do? Well, they get into the studio with the songwriting powerhouse behind Celine Dion and LeAnn Rimes, of course. Nothing says "Rock n' roll" more than that. You heard it everywhere--everywhere--around the time it was released, tirelessly chipping away at our psyches as it promoted its big-budgeted garbage ass Michael Bay explosion-fest movie companion. Bludgeoning us with heavy rotation on MTV, all day, everyday. You put on the radio: it was playing. The song debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts--their highest charting single of all time--yet you somehow never knew of or met an Aerosmith fan who liked it.
It was a nauseatingly sappy ballad of horseshit that made itself even worse by hopping on that trend of "hard-rock-meets-orchestra" that couldn't go away fast enough. A few years later, 'Just Push Play' dropped, and while it sold well, the consensus was in: Aerosmith fucking sucked now (again).
Hambone Jones Basically, the song was an encapsulation of Armageddon as a whole: overhyped, overproduced, overly sappy, and was the favorite for people who didn’t understand the medium whatsoever.
Indeed. The film and that song are cringey as hell.
They couldn't have known that Bay would make Armageddon seem like a silent film when he made the Transformer movies. I actually went to another movie opening night of one of those movies (I think #3) and the audio bleed into our theater was ridiculous! I could hear Transformers better than the movie I was actually watching!
What were you watching?
Was it Ebert's comment about Henry Fool seeing the world at an oblique angle that inspired the director to film the sequel entirely in Dutch angles?
Incidentally, I found Henry Fool far more entertaining than Buffalo 66
Good thing he didn't say he saw the world in black and white terms.
At least Buffalo 66 and Henry Fool were halfway interesting. There were a lot of cool indie movies like that in the '90s.
Ebert's always right when they disagree.
Probably, but people will challenge you on that with Die Hard, Batman, Cop and a Half, Home Alone 3, Spaceballs, Vacation and Fatal Attraction.
Man, Siskel gave Armageddon a thumbs up but gave Highlander a thumbs down? Gene, RIP - we lost you way too early - but I dont get that.
I wonder what he would have thought about Pearl Harbor.
Highlander was hot garbage. Armageddon was slightly less offensive.
All of the films in this episode are worth talking about. Even if just because of how ridiculous they are like Armageddon and Passion in the Desert.
I remember seeing Armageddon in the theater in the summer of 1998. Gotta agree with Ebert. It’s one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen.
I didn't see Armageddon in the theaters, but was what Gene's advice true?
sha11235 No, it wasn't. ARMAGEDDON sucked ass. And not the good kind.
It wasn't true or false. It was his opinion. So, opinion can't be true or false.
Yes, there were several big action movies of that time that in some theaters, the sound would shake the walls at in opportune times if you were watching almost literally any other movie. A slow dialogue scene? Oh, man, you couldn't pay attention from the rumbling going on through the walls. Very annoying. I think modern theaters do better to dampen and contain the soundtracks to the theater it's intended to be heard in, but back then when there was upgrading of sound systems and these new big epic movies were taking advantage of digital sound, the old theaters really couldn't contain it.
@@franksmith613 I'm talking about him saying that if you go to a multiplex and you see Armageddon is playing there, don't see a film playing next door to it because there will be tremendous audio bleed.
GONE WITH THE WIND - CLASSIC ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Nights of cabiri - outstanding ⭐⭐⭐
BUFFALO 66 - GREAT ⭐⭐⭐
@armageddon Why didnt they train astronauts to drill rather than drillers all the space stuff. One would think drilling would be much easier
This is explained in the film.
Drilling is especially easy with Kim Basinger.
Now, today's program schedule.
Buffalo 66 is a great movie. Compelling from beginning to end.
Armageddon is as atrocious as Bay's other blockbuster, Pearl Harbour.
I remember seeing Armageddon in the theater as a teenager in the summer of 1998; agree with you; it is awful.
and about a year after this Siskel was dead.
He died about seven months after this.
Siskel was pretty sweet in his Armageddon review. I think he nailed it. It’s noisy and absurd, but there is also a beating heart that insists it all works.
No there isn’t. Michael Bay is a nihilistic filmmaker who hates everyone and everything in his movies. Don’t think for one second that ANY emotions in his films are genuine in any way, because they’re not.
No, there isn’t. Michael Bay is a nihilistic filmmaker who hates everyone and everything in his movies. Don’t think for one second that ANY emotions in his films are genuine in any way, because they’re not.
I would have liked it if their program had lasted a full hour. It sometimes seems like they rush through their reviews.
I liked their assessment of “Gone With The Wind.”
you could had buffalo 66 to the titel maybe
Unfortunately, I think Siskel's judgement was impaired by his medical condition...he actually gave Armageddon a thumbs up!....lol And Ebert, in kindness to his friend, did not call him out on it.
I don't think that is true.
He voted "Patch Adams" for worst movie and "Babe: Pig in the City" for best movie. Take it for what it's worth.
@@sha11235 There is a transcript of their review of Mulan on IMDB from the first episode Siskel came back to after surgery. Siskel pans it for confusing reasons. His reviews were often shaky and not well explained after the surgery.
Insensitive comment
Siskel&Ebert.org-the Siskel&Ebert Archives.,
Roger thinks he is looking at death. Death is looking right back at him.
Armageddon wasn't a masterpiece but eons better than Cop and a Half!
They're both TRASH
Armageddon is still one of the worst movies ever made. It represents everything wrong with Hollywood. I hate Michael Bay.
correct...Armageddon was a piece of shit...There were 3 movies about the end of the world at the time, this, Deep Impact and Last Night...Last Night was by far the best.
brunswickphoto It’s not even one of the worst Michael Bay movies ever made.
Reading this in the voice of Zapp Brannigan makes me laugh a lot.
i hate him too, and a lot of it has to do with the fact his movies are nothing but noise fests. he is the perfect director for the new generation of moviegoer: the one with a short attention span who hates dialogue.
@@crazymaner2003 Isn't that a scary thought
_Nights of Cabiria_ is a gorgeous film!
Michael Bay is like a Hollywood freak To be fair "The Rock" was a good film.
Henry Fool! 🖤
Great character study.
I'd rather watch Armageddon again than that depressing and overwrought mess that was Deep Impact which is pretty much the same story including the kamazike sacrifice scene by the space shuttle in that film! And...Siskel liked that one too. Ebert didn't and Ebert did have a great point which was that if the writers Bruce Joel Rubin and Michael Tolkin who are great writers were just let loose pretty much like the hundred writers on Armageddon (J.J. Abrams included) that would've been the better of the two comet disaster films. As such, Armageddon, with it's noise and MTV style editing is still the best of the two films.
...Back when liberals were sophisticated enough to contextualize history and approve of art made in the days of “Gone with the Wind” and its period subject.
Those days are over and we are stuck with libs who want to erase history because it offends their fragile feelings
Oh come on, this movie is so much fun and emotional sometimes. It was the highest grossing movie of 1998
That doesn’t make it good
That didn't make it the best film of the year. I thought the best film of that year was Saving Private Ryan.
Teen Christina Ricci =Forbidden Fruit.
first half of Armageddon is fun...second half is obnoxiously, loud and inept like most Bay`s films.....Bay looooovvvvvessss slow motion shots
I agree with Gene here. Armageddon is very fun.
Siskel hated The Rock and Ebert liked
Siskel liked Armageddon and Ebert hated
They looked like a marriage. Always saying and thinking the opposite
It seems you singled out two movies you like that they happened to disagree on. So what? People in general aren't always going to agree with movie critics and they don't always agree with each other.
Armageddon is ridiculous, but it is kinda fun.
The asteroid in Armageddon that just HAPPENED to know exactly which series of selected man-made cultural monuments and historical landmarks to hit and destroy around the World lol it's true, it's so absurd and ridiculous, it's almost a comedy or disaster movie parody that's just pretending to be an action/adventure flick. 🤣
It's an exercise in manic shaky-cam and cringe dialogue tolerance, and has never ONCE inspired me to give it a re-watch since that one very first, (and last,) time I ever had.
👎 👎 from me.
Willis = unctuous
unwatchable
I think Siskel's been in combat. lol
(Yeah with cancer, RIP).
Mental combat 😆
Fellini was pretentious nonsense!
Hey, I wasn't the only who despised Armageddon. Oil riggers saving the earth but yet, their product (oil) is killing the earth anyway! At least the comet would be quick.
Oil's not killing the earth. That's just a lot of mass hysteria and propaganda from politicians who want to frighten you so you give them more and more money and power.
An extremely dumb movie, maybe you can enjoy it though if you are in the right mood....
Armageddon was a stupid movie.
I always found the foreign film section on S & E was pretentious.
I always fantasized that being a critic on their show would be a great job until they got to the foreign films and I'd imagine having to sit through them and trying to form an opinion on them.
meryl streep is severely overrated
Just like your momma.
You're unrated.
Meryl Streep is not overrated. She's a brilliant actress. Unfortunately in real life, she's just another idiot liberal hypocrite.
Trump is a piece of trash.
All I care about is that he's a great president. And so far, he is.