Siskel & Ebert review (1993): Falling Down, The Temp & Army of Darkness

[@HarbingerOfBattle]

As much as I love Gene Siskel, he dropped the ball on Falling Down. I find it to be an compelling film about two men who are responding in their own differing ways to the same situation, a changing of the times.

[@redadamearth]

I'm pretty sure that's the only time Bruce Campbell has been accused of having "not enough personality". lol

[@exiles_dot_tv]

9:51 I'm sure you could probably say a lot of things about Bruce Campbell, but I can't imagine somebody saying he lacks personality. HA!

[@mrbee4life182]

😂🤣😭 He is a Stiff! Siskel that was rich coming from you im sure he could enjoy films for what they are unlike you who just wants to dump on them and Bruce Campbell is fuckin awesome in the film as he was in all of them "Hail to the king, baby." "Well hello Mister Fancypants. Well, I've got news for you pal, you ain't leadin' but two things, right now: Jack and shit... and Jack left town." "Groovy"

[@daytripperhd]

i was shocked! how could they miss raw talent.

[@cinemight]

Jack Lemmon was excellent in Glengarry Glen Ross. I’m glad they spent so much time on that snub. I think it’s Lemmon’s best work. He’s my favorite part of that movie.

[@georgieramone]

Siskel: Bruce Campbell lacks personality. Me: What the fuck?

[@sharont2009]

Can u stop using the “f “ word. Please?!!! Not needed or wanted

[@mrbee4life182]

Exactly Siskel liked to dump on people for no reason the man was a grump but hey Roger acknowledged his performance and he was right he delivered exactly what was needed 👍🏻

[@xybervox]

@@sharont2009 Are you fucking kidding me?

[@WaitingtoHit]

@@sharont2009 Wow, we're really fucking sorry.

[@Locadel2003]

Army of darkness was both scary and hilarious, also great action and many dark comedy elements

[@Danimal77]

The original Evil Dead from 1981 was the only movie of the franchise that was actually scary.

[@mrbee4life182]

I did and still do like it but Evil Dead 2 is the best one

[@cactusjackNV]

Saw it for the first time today. Not even close to scary and I laughed at 1 K-mart joke. So much wrong with this movie.

[@johnszczerba9979]

​@cactusjackNV it's not even trying to be scary. It's a goofy comedy

[@jymihawk2740]

They blew all the films reviewed....idiots

[@timbartschwolfman]

Ash Williams--"Well Hello Mr Fancy Pants"

[@uppercutgrandma4425]

"Someone must've made a bunch of those books (the book of the dead)" he's absolutely correct.

[@Stevensonnnnnn]

Love Falling Down. Particularly enjoy watching Duvall steal the movie.

[@mrbee4life182]

Him and Douglas were the best things about the film

[@ricardocantoral7672]

Duvall didn't steal the movie. This is definitely Michael Douglas's story and it's unfortunate that the film copped out and became a dumb action movie.

[@steelionx9255]

I agree with Ricardo that Duvall didn't steal the film as it is Michael Douglas's film the whole time but I definitely disagree about it being a dumb action film as it is nowhere near that. Not to me at least.

[@stevejohnson1577]

army of darkness is a cult classic

[@brianc3761]

Thanks Captain Obvious

[@malichitte]

Has great promo art.

[@mrbee4life182]

​@@brianc3761 lmfao 😂😂😂

[@Clambamthankyoumam]

So is Falling Down!

[@Jessery]

I think Falling Down was satire but in my experience, when people mention it, they're usually identifying with Michael Douglas and I think that fundamentally misses the point. It's been a long time since I've seen it though so I could be totally wrong.

[@ricardocantoral7672]

Douglas's character is basically the Archie Bunker or Joe of the 1990's, the frustrated white, heterosexual male that felt stepped on by society.

[@Dear1Stupit1Dog]

Exactly, the movie is a satire. Nearly everything that happens to the Douglas character is his own fault. The guy is Temperamental and abusive (see how he treated his wife). And if you identify with him, you got problems.

[@guidosanchez5695]

What da?! "Army of Darkness" is hilarious!

[@Jbaxter85]

Far as I can tell, Falling Down & The Crying Game are only movies to see.

[@reneedennis2011]

I agree.

[@darrenhood4033]

Unforgiven is a great film don't get me wrong, but Siskel and Ebert were right in that it was the predictable Hollywood front runner for the 1992 best picture. The Crying Game was the best picture released that year and because of its subject matter that was the only reason the academy voters refused to back it. They gave it the nomination, sure but like Spike Lee, the biases of its members refused to acknowledge greatness.

[@davidnelson6874]

I think Falling Down is a masterpiece. One walks away from the film wanting to talk about almost every scene for one reason or another. This movie was basically a dark comedy and yet it had a heart because the Michael Douglas character was definitely not all bad in any sense. One can rightly or wrongly ask, “What happened to him?” Obviously Siskel & Ebert see it very differently. Which makes the point.

[@KernelHughes]

Doesn't justify his character's actions. Clearly took a dark turn and took his shit out on other people

[@michaelblaine6494]

I went and saw that movie 3 weeks in a row back in middle school,I don’t know why I related so well as a 13 year old😅

[@MilesBellas]

"Lessons of Darkness" directed by Werner Herzog =sublime and apocalyptic imagery.

[@curseofyig6727]

A thousand times better than Back to the Future, come on guy.

[@mrbee4life182]

BTTF was a total classic but to totally right off AOD is so wrong it was and still is a very good film and both are different films despite dealing with time travel both should be enjoyed on their own merits

[@pman8478]

I just saw the temp and absolutely loved it. Its so funny they want the obvious storylines cause i thought the movie used the paranoia of timothy hutton's character brilliantly i just wish they had leaned even further into the paranoia and not ended it on a note that suggests the villain gets their comeuppance. I hate when noir devolves into neo slasher territory but thought it was done well there. Ive seen literally hundreds of noirs and neos since film school and The Temp is one of those movies im excited to see get rediscovered.

[@johnszczerba9979]

Their take on army of darkness hurts my heart. At least Elbert said Bruce did what the part called for. The movie is exactly what it aims to be...fun and ridiculous

[@daytripperhd]

ebert was so right on evil dead 2🎉

[@JunebugPresents]

The point of Falling Down (1993) went airborne over Siskel's head.

[@ricardocantoral7672]

No he didn't. He got the point because he mentioned a similar film, Joe.

[@TheJameslehr]

Falling Down more similar in plot to Homer's Odyssey than Brother Where Art Thou?. Also a good source of Soundbites for songs like Front Line Assembly would be using.

[@christopherkim7549]

I hate hate to admit it, but I WAS that Korean grocer and some (emphasis on some) of the things portrayed on that scene is true. Of course that does not mean violence is the answer.

[@sha11235]

The Documentary scandal continues even to this day.

[@warnegoodman]

It was funny to me that they complained that documentaries that find mainstream success get snubbed. That's because I remember going to a screening of the 2006 documentary "This Film is Not Yet Rated" at the IFC Center in Manhattan, where Kirby Dick, the film's director, who himself has been twice oscar nominated, spoke after the screening. The Oscar nominations has just been announced a few days earlier, and his film was not nominated, but Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth" had been nominated, and he went on a long rant about how stupid that was, and named off several films made by real documentarians that he thought were more deserving than "Al Gore's powerpoint presentation", and then that film won the award.

[@paulharker7184]

Show these two guys an absolute stone-cold classic movie, something destined to be held up as one of the finest examples of the art, and they'd always hate it.

[@yellowjackboots2624]

Tbh I thought Army Of Darkness was the best of the three. The other two start to sag around the halfway point.

[@erakfishfishfish]

The first half of Evil Dead II is the best horror comedy ever made, but yeah, when it stops being a one-man show with Bruce Campbell, it loses all of its momentum.

[@mrbee4life182]

Disagree with both of those comments tho the third is good and also more light hearted and doesn't take itself too seriously the first two are the best with the second standing out for me as the very best out of them and in no way loses anything in the final act and while it's awesome with Bruce doing the one Man thing you can't really have a film with just one character in it all the way through and the other characters had to be introduced as it was crucial to the ending of the film and to tie into the third one imho

[@warnegoodman]

@@erakfishfishfish I think he meant the three being army of darkness, the temp, and falling down. Not the three evil dead movies.

[@ricardocantoral7672]

Falling Down is a case of a great performance in a bad movie.

[@crandy7658]

Ah, I don't know man. There were some great and frankly funny scenes in there. Coke, 12 ounces... 50 cents

[@ricardocantoral7672]

@@crandy7658 There were some good scenes and I love it when a genuinely bewildered Douglas said "I am the bad guy ?". However the movie screws itself over with it's violence which starts with plausible and ends up being cartoonish. Had I written this film, I would have basically made it Dog Day Afternoon. Have Douglas take hostages so he could get his five minutes in front of the camera and vent about all the "injustices" he suffered.

[@mrbee4life182]

​@@ricardocantoral7672 Well it's a good job you didn't mate as the film did perfectly well on its own! And if you thought that was cartoonish you have been watching a different film my friend 🙄

[@ricardocantoral7672]

​​@@mrbee4life182 Please explain how it didn't become a cartoonish farce? Too many over the top characters of an artificial nature, a rocket launcher? A dumb Mexican standoff? There should have been more commentary, less action. The film could have been a lot smarter but it lost confidence and became rather dumb.

[@mrbee4life182]

@@ricardocantoral7672 Your opinion is valid but it's still only your opinion im afraid 🙄

[@mrbee4life182]

Why did Gene Siskel trash another classic film and Michael Douglas performance who was awesome in it and he was just doing what most of us wish we could do kick off about price increases of products in shops and especially that scene in the fast food restaurant which i thought was really clever saying about what the burger is supposed to look like and what you actually get are two different things ok you probably wouldn't take out a gun and threaten them but Douglas portrayed a man pretty much on the edge divorced from his wife sacked from his job angry with whats going on in his city etc he portrayed that superbly Gene didn't get it and it was different from a lot of the usual films at least Roger realized it i just think Gene maybe had bad things going on in his life and was down on most things at the time

[@YouTube-tied]

Bro, you need to either up your dose or stop skipping your Olanzapine.

[@mrbee4life182]

@@KZbin-tied Yeah i have a dose for you right here it's a dose of shut the hell up fool! 😡

[@patrickc3419]

Plan 9 From Outer Space is a “so bad it’s good”. Army of Darkness, as I look back now, was just bad.

[@humanice2]

How can you say that, Army of Darkness definitely holds up, the movie might have received more favorable reviews at the time if Sam Raimi got to keep his original ending, the Directors Cut is far superior to what cinema goers saw at the time

[@vigilante8374]

@@humanice2 Eh, the original ending is ok to see once or twice but the theatrical ending is more entertaining. Also, if I recall correctly, the Director's Cut screws up one of the best lines in the movie ("...I'm the guy with the gun") and replaces it with something completely forgettable.

[@roshieifra]

It seems like the academy went from one extreme to another in their nominations, at least from what I'm hearing here.