At the Movies 1984-Streets of Fire, Once Upon a Time in America (2of2)

[AtorTheFlyingEagle]

Weird. Siskel doesn't seem to care for either version of Once Upon a Time in America, yet he goes on to name it best film of 1984 later that year. I wonder what made him radically reassess it.

[marcha2510]

@AtorTheFlyingEagle He is only reviewing the short version (they both are), ignoring the longer one, only mentioning that it's much better. He even emphasized it. He also had a little rant later that year about OUATIA not being nominated for a single Oscar. If interested, go to siskelandebert org and search for "if we picked the oscars 1984" starts at around 9min 30sec (can't put on a proper link for some reason, so thats the best guidance I can give hehe)

[tdv123456]

Streets Of Fire looks like a real 80's movie. Bad acting, lots of fighting & a heavy metal band.

[catherinefan32]

Once upon a time in america was amzing.

[wrabit79]

this is the movie i felt in love with diane lane

[inrwizards]

has anyone seen roger ebert presents at the movies? it sux! :(

the guy is an obnoxious snob and the chick is shameless fan girl

i guess they should stop trying to recreate something as special as siskel and ebert

for anyone who loves movies theres still ebert's written reviews and roeper writes too and hes not bad either

[textthing]

Ridiculous though the scene is, that hair at 1.39 deserved a beatdown.

[Rodney17302]

thought the movie sucked... Totally agree with Siskel. I thought all the characters were dry and there were hardly enough songs in it to be considered a musical... and to top it off, Rick Moranis playing an unlikeable character!?? Thumbs down!

[Rodney17302]

thought the movie sucked... Totally agree with Siskel. I thought all the characters were dry and there were hardly enough songs in it to be considered a musical... and to top it off, Rick Moranis playing an unlikeable character!?? Thumbs down!

[killik2099]

@2112murphy he liked the long version, was in his top ten of the decade

[WCWite]

Streets of Fire is a treasure to me maybe because I saw it so young, I agree about Once Upon A Time in America it it too weird I tried to like it but couldn't because the movie and the end was a mystery.

[ErmineskinCreelov]

Oh, wow, Beat Street! What a teaser.

[Skrikles]

Moranis got pwned

[Neonman78]

Ugh, the short version of Once Upon a Time in America sounds so crap. Can't believe they made the narrative linear; the timeline transitions and contrasts of the long version was what made the movie so great.

And yet ... I'm still rather curious to see this short version, just to see how bad it is.

[treadman28]

@Neonman78 In the summer of 2002, AMC actually ran the 135 minute short version, the 225 minute long version and the 189 minute NBC-TV version of the film. I actually sat through all three because of my curiosity. The long version remains the ONLY one worth seeing. The short version is laughably hysterical in its' incomprehensible awfulness.

[jiltedkiller]

@2112murphy

No he included it in his best of the '80's (the long version). A brilliant choice!

[timetravelingtheater]

@2112murphy

Yes they were indeed very tough on "Once Upon A Time" but that was their job, to be super critical. And remember these guys do this for a living so they have seen an enormous amount of films, and have a real background of knowing quality and great performances. This is why so many great films were made in this period people expected more. "Once Upon A Time" is though to be a classic now. But in the 80s it was just another movie among many classics of the 80s.

[textthing]

@timetravelingtheater

They were talking about the shorter, re-edited version which was released in the US at the time. Leone had nothing to do with the editing job, which made the movie into total nonsense.

[MrDamian12345]

I really like Streets of Fire, it has a 19-year-old Diane Lane (yum), and Jim Steinman music; how could one not. And, of course, the long version of Once Upon a Time in America is a masterpiece.

[acholl980]

Yes they are.

[ausvideocollection]

my bad they say it lol. i love how they are bagging out the butchered version, fuck the distributers were stupid