Siskel & Ebert (TV Series)

Striptease/Cold Fever/The Nutty Professor/A Perfect Candidate/Maybe, Maybe Not (1996)

Gene Siskel: Self - Host

Quotes 

• Roger Ebert - Host : [reviewing "Striptease"]  My guess is that everybody laughed at the original Carl Hiaasen novel, and then they started rewriting it a little to make the Demi Moore character more positive, and that was a not a good idea, because her character should be just as much the target of humor as everybody else in the movie. And they made her into a plucky heroine of the sort that Sally Field plays. This confuses the tone in a lot of scenes, where you have some actors going for laughs, and the heroine playing it too straight. Thumbs down for me for "Striptease".

  Gene Siskel - Host : Thumbs WAY down for me, I mean, the writing is awful. I didn't read the book, so I didn't have that insight...

  Roger Ebert - Host : Great book. I loved the book.

  Gene Siskel - Host : ...Uh, well, I can appreciate the criticism you're giving it, because that now makes sense. Her character is DEADLY boring. Let's face it: As constructed, the only reason to look at this picture is to see her body. She's continuing a progression in which, I don't know what's next for her, if you think about it. Y'know, Demi, y'know, has a baby on camera? I mean, that's about IT, where she seems to be going. Um, that's the level. And I'm criticizing it on the level, because THAT'S what everybody's thinking about when they watch this picture. It is a study in her body. Burt Reynolds... I admire the attempt at self-parody at some level. But... he actually is ripping off what Charles Durning did a whole better in Reynolds's picture, "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas".

  Roger Ebert - Host : Well, I liked Burt Reynolds, and I liked most everybody else in the movie, too, but I did feel that, uh, it should be a raucous laugh riot, it's a COMEDY.

  Gene Siskel - Host : The whole notion of her...

  Roger Ebert - Host : It's not a remake...

  Gene Siskel - Host : It's a "Scarlet Letter", almost, in the same way.

  Roger Ebert - Host : You're right.

  Gene Siskel - Host : It's what she's doing. Ridiculous.

• Roger Ebert - Host : Eddie Murphy's career has been in a slump, but with "The Nutty Professor", the slump is over. This is a very funny movie that makes good use of Eddie Murphy's talent for disguising himself in many different characters. Jada Pinkett is a good straight man for Murphy here, and she helps the sweeter side of Professor Klump as it emerges. The bottom line: Eddie Murphy is back.

  Gene Siskel - Host : He IS, and it is a spectacularly funny picture.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Yes it is.

  Gene Siskel - Host : It is really, laugh- you know the old movie phrase that the publicists used to say, "laugh riot"? This is one of those things. It is that funny. And I think part of the secret is: Eddie Murphy has been in a slump for a lot of reasons. He's been picking terrible scripts, he's also been playing guys that aren't really that nice.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Mm-hmm.

  Gene Siskel - Host : The fat professor is a wonderful guy.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Yes, he is.

  Gene Siskel - Host : You love him, and you want him to be happy. And you feel his pain, and you root for him. So there's a rooting interest.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Mm-hmm.

  Gene Siskel - Host : Which we used to have in the early days of Eddie Murphy, and now we have it again here.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Y'know, there's even a kind of subtle moment in the movie where he apologizes for being Buddy Love, and he says "I thought that's what people wanted me to be"...

  Gene Siskel - Host : Right.

  Roger Ebert - Host : "And I was wrong." When you think about it, Buddy Love isn't too different from some of the characters he plays...

  Gene Siskel - Host : That's exact- that is exactly right.

  Roger Ebert - Host : ...In these other movies. And it's almost like he's telling us, "Hey, maybe I should get back to the Sherman Klump side of my personality."

  Gene Siskel - Host : The nicer guy. That is absolutely- now, think about that, I had the same insight, and I will tell you, to put that into a big, funny comedy, is wonderful screenwriting.