Siskel & Ebert: Worst Of 1997 - The Man Who Knew Too Little, U-Turn, Wild America, Starship Troopers

[@billywiththebulgingbaloonb5105]

There's no easy way of making the kind of satire Verhoeven was going for without unintentionally coming off as a bad filmmaker. Starship Troopers is a masterpiece.

[@ScootyPuffSr7]

Just because something is intended as a satire doesn't make it smart. It was mean spirited and dumb.

[@craigwilson3532]

@@ScootyPuffSr7 n fun

[@luxi378]

@@ScootyPuffSr7 mean spirited i dont know... you mean towards the bugs? dumb? yes. and i agree with billy's comment. this was, in my opinion, a successful attempt at making a dumb scifi action flick. and not everybody got it, to this day.

[@Shorty_Lickens]

Yeah I keep trying to explain the brilliance of that movie to people and not many can understand. I admit I didnt understand the satire of Robocop at first. It had to be explained to me years later.

[@ricardocantoral7672]

I am astounded that Gone Fishin' is not on this list.

[@johnwanner1446]

Oh man was that terrible or what? I'm surprised that it didn't make the list also.

[@oldfashionedguy1368]

Gene Siskel: The biggest sin of course is remaking The Jackal, there is absolutely no need or reason on earth to remake Fred Zimmemann's great classic, The Day Of The Jackal.

[@keldonmcfarland2969]

I noticed that there are a lot of sequels/remakes on this list. It can't be a simple coincidence.

[@reneedennis2011]

The Day of the Jackal is great!

[@Shorty_Lickens]

As has been stated many times already: Stop remaking good shit. Find crap and remake that.

[@adamgrimsley2900]

John Travolta has been in so many flops it's incredible.

[@ekop1778]

SAW HIM IN SPEED KILLS IT SUCKED HE GETS SHOT AT THE END MOVIE WAS AWFUL HE SHOULD OF QUITTED AFTER SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER

[@billywiththebulgingbaloonb5105]

Shit actor who got lucky a few times.

[@GodWeenSatan]

​@@ekop1778 pulp fiction?

[@pokeysdad17]

robin williams says "hold my beer".

[@adamgrimsley2900]

@@pokeysdad17 very true

[@jfess1911]

I remember this year and was surprised that few reviewers realized that Starship Troopers was a satire. That puts it into a new light.

[@WilliamHerlihy-p4g]

If a reviewer is watching a satire and doesn't recognize it as a satire, is that a failure of the reviewer or the film?

[@jfess1911]

@@WilliamHerlihy-p4g To be honest it is a failure of the publicist. There is considerable overlap between a sincere over-the-top serious movie and a deadpan satire of the same subject. It gets even more complicated in films are intended to be propaganda or involve an extremest agenda like Starship Troopers. One of the problems faced by experienced movie critics is that they have seen earnest but bad movies. It is little like using off the wall jokes on unwitting emergency medical personnel. Many will assume the patient is delusional rather than witty unless told otherwise.

[@sebeku2]

Starship Troopers is a cult classic! MEDIC!!

[@colinrumford2265]

Love Starship Troopers and U Turn.

[@branagain]

I also liked Uturn. I saw it twice in the theater.

[@stevegeorge6880]

Even the big-budget bad Movies Were Somehow better back then. If they weren't genuinely fun, they would at least have you gasping in awe at how spectacularly wrong they went.

[@hungwilliam44]

That's totally true. Back in the 80s and 90s I was super excited about what I can see now is pure crap lol.

[@branagain]

Except Armageddon was as bad as they get. Even by today’s standards.

[@cuttygrass]

Did Roger re:review Starship Troopers? Seems so odd that he (in my opinion) got it so wrong. The satire is baked into the whole film - the excess of violence is the point, ironically, just as he said about Home Alone 3

[@erakfishfishfish]

He never did. A lot of critics missed the point of that movie when it came out. Their first hint should’ve been “directed by Paul Verhoeven”.

[@cuttygrass]

@@erakfishfishfish Indeed! Not a small clue either

[@dongeraci8599]

When did you come to appreciate the film? When it first came out or in the last 2-3 years like everyone else because someone explained it to you on youtube? No one talked about this film 10 years ago and now suddenly everyone claims to have always been "in on the joke".

[@cuttygrass]

@@dongeraci8599 I asked whether he had re reviewed it for this very reason. Despite that, he is a sharp and thoughtful person, the kind which usually latches onto and embraces satire. None of us think we are better or cooler than he; it's because we love and respect his opinions that we are surprised that this is one he missed. It speaks to his very high general standard more than anything else.

[@erakfishfishfish]

@@dongeraci8599 I saw it in the theaters when it first came out. My friends and I got the satire immediately. It’s not a subtle film. I mean, Doogie Howser is wearing an SS uniform at the end.

[@FoghornKenhorn]

The Man Who Knew Too Little is an awesome movie and their review makes me want to go watch it now. Tried to watch Father’s Day on a plane a while back and made it 5 mins in before I turned it off. Terrible.

[@smoothALOE]

Father’s Day is bad. I agree. It might be the least funny movie I can imagine, involving two of the all-time great comedic actors. Oddly enough, they each had an additional film from that year which was not considered good, either…incidentally, The Man Who Knew Too Little is free on YT right now.

[@correlated22]

But Bill Murray is trash

[@shombie2737]

Bomb reviews are my favorite kind

[@reneedennis2011]

Same here!

[@jalbert653]

I’ve always enjoyed these more than the Best Of shows

[@reneedennis2011]

@@jalbert653 Exactly 💯!

[@shombie2737]

@@reneedennis2011 😬 I read them on Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB, even for films I like

[@shombie2737]

@@jalbert653 schadenfreude or what

[@hungwilliam44]

"I know what to get you for your birthday now." HA. You have to wonder exactly which movie he was referring to.

[@footofjuniper8212]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="464">7:44</a> Gene doesn't like cats? Well, that clears up so much.

[@newwavepop]

what is the opposite of endearing someone to you? thats what his comment did to me.

[@stuffthings1417]

starship troopers worked for teens, early 20's guys. it was fun for us. crappy writing, unbelievable moments, annoying characters... make it a B movie.

[@ganglabesh]

Alien 4 was better than Home Alone 3 lol

[@unholyperiodza5442]

Better than Alien 3

[@russellst.martin4255]

I've been watching all of these and it feels like something from Adam Sandler, John Travolta, Robin Williams, or Eddie Murphy shows up every year.

[@unholyperiodza5442]

Sucks that Ebert gave Batman and Robin 2 out of 4 stars, didn't care about the ice puns and thought it was an okay popcorn flick.

[@kmetcalfe]

I'm embarrassed to admit that I bought The Jackal on laserdisc, and even listened to the (good) director's commentary. And somehow I've still never seen That Darn Cat. I was a big Ricci fan, and it must never have played on tv or something. Hard to believe that a year later she'd be in such adult films as Buffalo 66 and Opposite of Sex.

[@timfarfan9592]

Ahh, the annual Bruce Willis submission. He was awful in the 90’s save for Pulp Fiction and The Sixth Sense

[@lilyofthevalley2048]

I don’t know why *Flubber* was such a huge critical flop. I watched it a few weeks ago and thought it was a really funny and fun movie for kids.

[@ganglabesh]

the one funny thing in fathers day was mel gibsons cameo

[@clintonwilcox4690]

I tried to watch The Man Who Knew Too Little a few years ago because I had heard it was a good film, it starred Bill Murray, and I saw the comic potential in such a premise. But I couldn't make it past ten or twelve minutes in to the film. I'm glad to know I wasn't alone in thinking it was a bad movie.

[@WalterFrith]

Roger Ebert gave thumbs up to 'George of the Jungle' with Brendan Fraser in 1997. The fact that he couldn't see that as one of the worst films of 1997 still mystifies me.

[@kennethzinke9168]

Oliver Stone did not do good in U-Turn in 1997. Two years later, he bounced back in Any Given Sunday.

[@branagain]

I liked Uturn a whole lot more than Any Given Sunday.

[@reneedennis2011]

Yup. I like Any Given Sunday, too.

[@genozuzek7401]

TMWKTL gets WAAAAY too much hate. If you look at it like a live action cartoon, it's entertaining af! 🎉

[@danorthsidemang3834]

"MItsUbIsHI!"

[@coreyrapoza5959]

"Be a man!" - Gene Siskel

[@dialm4masala718]

alien resurection now being blamed for grotesque mutations in alien romulus (aug 16, 2024)

[@adamgrimsley2900]

Thanks for the upload.

[@adamgrimsley2900]

Although I would get rid of the doll

[@pokeysdad17]

for my money every movie robin williams stars in is awful.

[@DanielJamesEgan]

I’m watching this on my Apple Watch. The picture is the size of my pinky nail.

[@plaidchuck]

Nah sorry starship troopers sucked. It didnt work as a satire of Heinleins book and it didnt work as a straight sci fiction flick.

[@yuppiecake9097]

I like Starship Troopers, U-Turn, and Alien Resurrection.

[@basosz]

I respect Ebert and his views but he was *way* off the mark with Starship Troopers. That movie is pure genius

[@newwavepop]

i loved the show, never particularly cared about the two guys especially Gene. hearing him declare he does not like cats, enough for me to dislike him altogether.

[@logix6866]

The Man Who Knew Too Little gets reviewed by the Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much.

[@alexbain87]

The man who knew too little is frickin hilarious. These guys are clueless.

[@miltonyannis3719]

They've missed the point about 'The Man Who Knew Too Little'. So what does it matter that the movie revolves around one theme? If they were classical music critics, would they also hate 'Pachebel's Canon', with its one theme?

[@ricardocantoral7672]

They didn't say a theme, they said a joke.

[@iBelieveEverythingiSeeOnYoutub]

Any bear hibernating in August is a deadbeat bear.

[@alexinterconnects]

I like most of these films. 1997 was a strong year for films.

[@davidanspach1624]

Ebert absolutely destroyed that Jim Jarmusch documentary, God damn.

[@neilgodfrey2669]

Starship Troopers? WTF

[@slyjokerg]

I have never understood the hate for Alien Resurrection, or Alien 3, for that matter. Both were/are entertaining. Hell, I even got a kick out of the first Alien vs Predator. I think people too often compare those films to the first two in the series, which is an unfair standard.

[@todd3563]

"The man who knew too little" was funny.... I've always felt Roger Ebert didn't know comedy. He preferred pretentious movies.

[@NeoConnor1]

Ebert loved a number of comedies.

[@plaidchuck]

Nah. He just defended the intelligence of the audience and didnt tolerate crap dressed as pretentious. He more than Siskel understood when a movie didnt try to be more than it was

[@GodWeenSatan]

Worst? ...more like the BEST!

[@NeoConnor1]

🤨. In what world is Flubber in the best of ANY year? Or Home Alone 3?

[@Maniac1607]

The "Alien" films are like the genders: there are only two.