Siskel & Ebert (TV Series)

Planes, Trains and Automobiles/Cinderella/Three Men and a Baby/Date with an Angel/Teen Wolf Too (1987)

Roger Ebert: Self - Host

Quotes 

• Roger Ebert - Host : [reviewing "Date with an Angel"]  The most impressive thing about this movie is the way that Emmanuelle Béart is actually able to play a convincing angel. I was convinced, and if it's not an angel, then at least it's certainly a beautiful blonde with wings. On some kind of a basic level, I liked her performance. In fact, I think you can even guess what that basic level probably was.

  Gene Siskel - Host : Sexual.

  Roger Ebert - Host : I liked a lot of the details of her relationship with Michael E. Knight, which is basically pure and idealistic, no matter what it looks like to other people, like Mr. Siskel here.

  Gene Siskel - Host : Or yourself.

  Roger Ebert - Host : What I could've done without in this movie is all the details about scandalized parents, the best buddies who want to exploit the angel, and Phoebe Cates playing dumb all the time as the girlfriend, when actually, she's a very intelligent actress. This had good stuff in the movie from time to time, Emmanuelle Béart is a major new star, kind of a teenage Catherine Deneuve, but thumbs down.

  Gene Siskel - Host : I think you are being SO kind. I think this movie is garbage, I mean, flat out. It'll be one of my worst movies of the year, I have a feeling. First of all, I- it's a simple rip-off of "Splash", only instead of fins, you got wings. I didn't think she was convincing, I didn't think it was magical, I didn't think the characters surrounding her were interesting. All she does is chirp. Uh, at least, uh, the, uh, mermaid had to do some interesting things, eating lobster, this woman does NOTHING interesting, she just chirps a bit. Phoebe Cates is an interesting actress, I've never seen her more boring, she plays a whiny, snotty brat, even that's dull. I liked NOTHING about this picture, you must've been in a VERY good mood...

  Roger Ebert - Host : Iiiiii see. Well, if I had been the script doctor on the picture, I would've recommended that Emmanuelle Béart eat some lobster, and then it would've been a better film.

  Gene Siskel - Host : Okay.

  Roger Ebert - Host : She is a beautiful woman, Gene.

  Gene Siskel - Host : So what? There's lots of beautiful women in the world.

  Roger Ebert - Host : There are not that many.

  Gene Siskel - Host : Yeah...

  Roger Ebert - Host : There are not that many.

  Gene Siskel - Host : There are not- there are few movies that are as bad as this one. Go on.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Isn't there some kind of a basic human level upon which you can respond to beauty of this nature...

  Gene Siskel - Host : Yes.

  Roger Ebert - Host : ...Without having to just always be a critic all the time and see how dumb the movie is? Isn't there something pretty to look at?

  Gene Siskel - Host : Yes, and then the- then the movie starts rolling. Take a still picture of her; don't look at the film.

• Gene Siskel - Host : The problem with "Teen Wolf Too" is that it's just an overstuffed gimmick film. The characters who want him to win the boxing title compete with time for the love story, and THAT story, as predictable as it is, is much more interesting than the wolf scenes, the boring boxing finale, which is a "Rocky" imitation, it's just not a good film.

  Roger Ebert - Host : It's a lousy film, in fact, I know why they had it- why he was a boxer, because you need to hire fewer extras to be in the crowd than if you were a football player. Now, I wanna put it to ya.

  Gene Siskel - Host : Okay, go ahead.

  Roger Ebert - Host : I'm gonna sentence you to see another movie tonight: Which one will it be: "Teen Wolf Too" or "Date with an Angel"?

  Gene Siskel - Host : ...I would not go to either one.

  Roger Ebert - Host : But you're sentenced! You don't have any choice! I'm gonna make you see one or the other...

  Gene Siskel - Host : What are you, the philosopher king?

  Roger Ebert - Host : I'm trying to point out- we just found, one film later, we found a worse film than "Date with an Angel", and I'll tell you why: They are both equally stupid, but this one does not have Emmanuelle Béart in it.

  Gene Siskel - Host : Oh my God, you're still keeping on...

  Roger Ebert - Host : There's got to be some kind of a- I'm serious. There has to be...

  Gene Siskel - Host : Roger.

  Roger Ebert - Host : At some point, a person is watching the movie, and the person reacts to what they see on the screen.

  Gene Siskel - Host : As I once said...

  Roger Ebert - Host : ...As bad as the plot may be.

  Gene Siskel - Host : As I once said to you on another film many years ago: Date her, don't give the movie a positive review.

  Roger Ebert - Host : You know, if criticism ever gets tiring to you, Gene, you can always open a lonely hearts agency.