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From: gradepoint
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  • "It was not an upbeat children's film." Well, in what book is that rule written, "Every children's film must be upbeat"? Some kids like the scary, unpleasant stuff. I know I did. "Return to Oz" may not be the greatest kids' film of all time, but it holds a soft spot in my heart.

  • 8:02 - :15 Smart man.

  • Dorothy getting shock treatment ?? Hmmmm, .. . sounds interesting to me!

  • Always loved S&E, but even I have to disagree w/most of their choices for worst films of 85...would say that Perfect was def one of them, though!

  • The "rip off" robot was actually in Frank L. Baum's book long before George Lucas ripped off the John Carter of Mars books for Star Wars. So FAIL Baldy and Fat Guy.

  • @Ramubay No shit! Why do people always accuse a flick of "riping off Star Wars" everytime they ever see a damn robot anyway ?!

  • Return to Oz is awesome too! What wrong with you two?!?!

  • Oh fuck you! Pee-Wee's Big Adventure is amazing!

  • St. Elmo's Fire was not a bad movie. Siskel and Ebert can say and think what they want, but they are nothing but opinionated blowhards who do not speak for all of us. Besides, the box office receipts tell a different story. As far as I'm concerned, the best way to find out what movies people want to see is to look at the numbers.

  • @smalltownman73 I hear you, but do you honestly want another Transformers movie? The first one was good, but the numbers are having the wrong say in that case. Just saying, yes, the numbers are good, but not always right, just like these two aren't always right.

  • @smalltownman73 Haven't you listened to what Gene said 'bout that scene? I have and don't blame him.

  • I was so surprised when they said that Return To Oz was on their worst film list. It is a BRILLIANT film, and I honestly can't think why they didn't like it. I mean its no good comparing it to the original film because it wasn't meant to be like the Judy Garland film, so what the hell are they complaining about?!

  • I got syphilis form Ebert in 1965

  • he said the original 1956 film, but godzilla was made in 1954.

  • @peacocksandwhich Is that the original, or the Americanized version with Raymond Burr?

  • @peacocksandwhich My understanding is that it was released first in Japan in 54 and then made it's debute in the U.S.A. two years later in 56 .

  • 'Pee-Wee's Big Adventure' is on this list...: The bastardly slime-balls!!!

  • Return to Oz plays out how the book plays out. The book is dark and so is the movie.

  • How much does Godzilla get paid? XD

  • Siskel was such a SNOB

  • Its funny because for YEARS the opening of Siskel & Ebert showed Ebert working in his office with a "Godzilla 1985" One Sheet prominently displayed.

  • RETURN TO OZ WAS KOOL.

  • Great to see S & E in their prime. Both were well suited to TV and both had this great ability to simply sound like they were having a relaxed conversation about something they really cared about.

  • I liked Return to Oz.

  • They were really good. I'd forgotten how good Gene was.

  • S&E were brilliant together. Thanks for uploading.

  • Aww I like Return to Oz.

  • did you tape the worst movies special every year? that's awesome man

  • Awwww... Peewee's Big Adventure was weird and surreal to me, but it was such a fun movie to watch as a kid.

  • Not Peewee!!!

  • What??? What????  Pee Wee's Big Adventure is a classic!!! I have it on DVD and my kids and I watch it as regularly as we watch any Disney/Pixar movie!! I'll admit, that movie COULD have been a disaster, it has all the makings (low budget, unlikely story, over-the-top characters) but, they freakin' pull it off!!! It's hilarious and fun as hell to watch!!

  • @steved8878 I completely agree.

  • What's Perry Mason doing here?  And why is he channeling Donald Pleasance?

  • Siskel are you effin' kidding me? Pee Wee's Big Adventure one of the WORST? That's one of my all-time favorite films. You obviously just did not get it. Now look at you, all dead and stuff. Pffft.

  • sorry pee wee is funny

  • I love siskel and ebert, but I hate how these guys say things like "this movie stole 2 hours of my life!". getting to watch movies for a living is a great job, even if you have to watch bad ones sometimes. I mean, isn't it better than digging ditches? stop complaining!

  • @NotNamedJones Siskel often talked about how being a film critic is the easiest job in the world. I think the joke about certain movies stealing time from his life is meant simply to convey the experience of anyone sitting through trash cinema.

  • 8:03 - :14 "And it got me very angry. First of all, I don't think drunk-driving jokes are funny at 'all,' and you see they're 'laughing' in the background and congradulating him in some way and 'not' taking him 'seriously,' that's-that's really 'rotten."

  • How DARE Siskel name Pee-Wee's Big Adventure as one of the worst films of '85!

  • @JarshMaul I agree!"Pee Wee's big Adventure"was probably one of the BEST movies of 1985! S&E missed the boat here.

  • @JarshMaul I know! I am actually mad. PWBA is a classic. Now, maybe Big Top Pee Wee is another story, but Big Adventure is friggin' awesome.

  • interesting to hear gene talk about his funeral

  • Boy Siskel, you were right, Return to Oz is still a piece of shit!! Remember seeing that as a child where the nurse changes her head, going WTF this have to do with OZ!!

  • I love these guys alot, I really do, but this year...WERE THEY HIGH?!? I mean, Pee Wee's Big Adventure? Godzilla 1985? St. Elmo Fire? Return to Oz?? What the hell those movies aren't bad!

  • @TheSonomaDude Either you being sarcastic or you have the worst taste in movies that exists... Wich one is it?

  • @zbarneyz Gee, I didnt know I as allowed to have FUN while watching a movie. Not every movie has to be Citizen Kane. I'm guessing you some old british dude who hates to have fun, or just an idiot...which one is it?

  • @TheSonomaDude Fun!? What's fucking fun with Return To Oz? What's fun in watching shitty movies at all? Well, Pee Wee's Big Adventure could be called fun if you're high but other than that i dont really get your point.... And just mentioning Citizen Kane in that context is a disgrace...I bet my ass you havent even seen Citizen Kane,

  • @zbarneyz Chill, bro. No need to toss f-bombs. Pee Wee's Big Adventure is a fun, hilarios movie made by a young Tim Burton, who did a good job with his first feature legnth movie. Mainly, Return to Oz, Godzilla 1985, and Pee Wee are all big peices of nostalgia. I love them all.

    And yes, I've seen Citizen Kane. Orsen Wells's best film. You just lost your ass.

  • @TheSonomaDude What? Nostalgia? You werent even born when these movies came out. Stop posing dude, seriously...You aint fooling anyone.

  • @zbarneyz I watched them as a kid, THATS NOSTALGIA. I really dont get what your talkin about, bro! Who cares if they were already 10 years old, I still watched them as a kid!

  • Hey--Pee Wee's Big Adventure was AWESOME! Just steer clear of the almost-unwatchable Big Top Pee Wee.

  • Pee Wee's Big Adventure, people still watch that one, to this day

  • how'd they know Siskel would die first?

  • Ripoff robot from Star Wars?! That's Tik Tok, he was invented in the early 1900's in the kids books!

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  • 1:47 - I hope Roger remembered that.

  • Siskel screwed up with this one. Maybe Pee Wee wasn't a big hit with the critics when it was first released? I wasn't born yet when it was released, but I remember enjoying it as a young kid on VHS. Hell, I remember Pee Wee, Beetlejuice, and Scissorhands were popular and well liked in the 90s.

  • return to oz...yeah total garbage. didnt even like it as a kid/st. elmos fire....not too much better, but demi moore was hot with long hair/pee wees big adventure, one of the greatest films of all time.

  • I really hate the brat pack, rich whiny selfish shitheads would have been a better name for them.

  • @blakiecakes419 Except for Judd Nelson. He was harsh.

  • I have only seen original japanese version of this Godzilla 1985 movie, and to me it was good. And far better than american version.

  • The show wasn't cancelled, rodimus. Ebert had tumors removed and lost the ability to speak and Siskel died of a brain tumor, so...technically, they quit. Ebert wrote about having to leave bc of the cancer surgery and not being cancelled. You don't have your revenge. And yes, these movies do suck. If it weren't for the nostalgia most of you feel for these movies, the sentimentality factor, and you watched these movies today, there's a big chance you would see them for what they are. Garbage.

  • Say what you want about Godzilla 1985, but give the original Japanese film, Gojira, the one without Raymond Burr, it's due.

  • They made a sequel to "Wizard of Oz"? FAIL

  • @lbm1985 yeah they did.

  • @lbm1985 It was a lot better than you'd expect. It was incredibly dark compared to the original, but it was incredibly well made with some of the coolest looking characters and sets I've ever seen in a movie. And it's not like they were the first ones to make a sequel to the Wizard of Oz. L. Frank Baum himself- who wrote the original Wizard of Oz book- put out a plethora of sequels to it (Return to Oz was based on the 2nd and 3rd), and another author even did several more after his death.

  • I hate St. Elmo's fire! I hate yuppies.

  • ..a first i liked St. Elmo's fire.. than later hated it lol.. the brat pack were all so unlikeable a holes in the movie..

  • Return to Oz was a great movie, it freaked me out. The movies I remember most from my childhood are those with relatively dark themes, The Dark Crystal, The Neverending Story (only because of the scene where the horse dies in the swamp) and Return to Oz. Hollywood will never make kiddie films like this again, the closest thing that I have seen recently to affect me as much is Pans Labyrinth because it touches on the cornerstones of childlike terror I experienced in my youth due to these films

  • @VonKlitzing Would you compare Return to Oz to the great 1939 classic

  • Godzilla IS precious! You bastards!

  • @QuatermassMan But Gamera is a friend ofl children!

  • @QuatermassMan But Gamera is a friend ol children!

  • Big Adventure was genius. These fuckers are retards.

  • I remember thinking Return to Oz was really good when I was younger. Haven't seen it since then, but still, I remember enjoying how dark it was.

  • C'mon!!!...Perfect,st elmos fire and return to oz arent so bad!!!!...

  • GODZILLA 1985??? How could they? 

  • @eveningtsar You saw that clip and your still wondering? The dialog is stiff, and the characters pause for too long before a response. Anyone with half a brain knows that's downright idiotic. As it is, most of the movie is centered around the big Lizard walking through the city, none of the human characters have an arch of their own. That's why the movie is on the worst films of the year list.

  • @goji2099

    Dude, you've clearly got no sense of humour, and don't get monster movies.

    For the record, I've not only seen the clip, I own the movie and have memorized every scene.

  • @eveningtsar You do realize my name is GOJI 2099, right? I've seen the movie, a long with every other film in the Godzilla Franchise a dozen times. I met my girlfriend at a Godzilla convention. Don't pull that "You don't get it" shit on me.

    Watch Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster or Godzilla King of the Monsters, or eGodzilla Final Wars. They work much better as movies BECAUSE they give you hilarious giant monster chaos with a human story that does at least the bare minimum. This can't even do that

  • Return of OZ was TERRIBLE! PEE WEE SUCKS!

  • I saw St Elmo's Fire in 1985. My God, what a pile of shit.

  • Dude croaked. It happens.

  • Not foreboding. Everyone dies.

  • @CipherMind117 . i agree, wasn't like he dropped dead on the way home from the taping. he died 16 years later.

  • I did not like Return to Oz when I saw it as a kid, but I really like it now, and appreciate the darkness of it.

  • LOL Pee Wee's Big Adventure and St. Elmos Fire -- two of the worst movies of '85 !???

    Gene could really be bat-sh*t sometimes LOL

  • I didn't like Return to Oz either.

  • Oh jesus...these two...St. Elmos Fire is not meant to be send a frickin' message! Aside from most of the character being "priviledged" and upper class, I would say that a fair amount of people could relate to it. Many young people, myself included, found myself saying, "Okay. College is over. But I still love to party and so do my friends. I am expected to find some boring desk job and facing the REAL WORLD?!?" That transition isn't easy nor is it welcomed.

  • Most often, the films that these two found to be the "worst," I actually enjoy on some level. C'mon, "St. Elmos Fire" !!! Is it cheesy, cliche and melodramatic? YES! But it is charming and it is pure 80's indulgence with some of my favorite actors of that time. I need to see what these two have to say about my favorite John Hughes films! There isn't a Hughes film that I don't ADORE.

  • i liked wizard of oz 2,liked the witch with the many heads and Tik-Tok i think he was called

  • @YoJimBoHugabaJoe You also like not making sense.

  • @arthuronfacebook if you cant understand that then you a idiot.seriously what part of my comment cant your lobotomised brain comprehend?I'll try and explain it to you as i would a child,though to be 100% honest i dont think the original comment could be simplified any more.I (as in me)Liked wizard of oz 2(the film),I liked the witch with the many heads(character i liked) and tik-tok(again,a character i liked) i think he was called.Wait i cant do it,the comment cant be made any simpler

  • @YoJimBoHugabaJoe Now try ranting with punctuation.

  • The point of Return to Oz was that it was dark and bizarre! For once in a very long time, I'm disagreeing with their consensus.

    Godzilla 1985 was funny bad, but nowhere near as side-splittingly hilarious as theold 60's/70's camp masterpieces. MOON DANCE!!!

  • Pee Wee's Big Adventure...maybe it's me, but I don't think Paul Reubens and Tim Burton were aiming at these guys when they made it.

  • It's like they're listing my favorite movies!

  • @ gradepoint: "While meant as being humerous, it's a little eerie and foreboding the way the two talk hypothetically about Gene dying in this segment."

    Not really, since everybody eventually dies. This was filmed 25 years ago.

  • st elmos fire sucked they are right. dont compare it to the breakfast club etc just because it had a lot of tha same actors

  • @nilbog44 Thank you. St. Elmo'sFire is so corny and lame.

  • did they call tik tok a c3po rip-off, the wizard of oz books came out way before the star wars movies

  • The first five seconds of this video is hilarious.

  • i cant stand these 2 they r just 2 stiff about things i dont think that any1 should get paid 2 criticize another persons hard work i myselfe criticize some films but its just my own opinion but they act as if there opinions mean everything and that every1 who likes it and the filmakers r just stupid and i cant stand that sry but i just had 2 throw that out there

  • St Elmo's Fire is a great movie, a classic. Siskel and Ebert were crazy to call it a bad movie. It was one of those signature 80's classics like Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Pee Wee Big Adventure was really good too and he is an 80's icon as well. Perfect was really bad though so I agree on that one.

  • WHY THE FUCK IS PEE WEE ON THERE

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  • Wow! Pee Wee's Big Adventure was and still is a classic. This really brings them both down. 

  • Pee wee's big adventure was great. Its a Burton classic

  • I think the video description should be removed. Gene talking about his inevitable death isn't "forboding" nor "hypothetical." Everybody dies.

  • They didn't really "get" Pee Wee's Big Adventure

  • Poor Return to Oz, I really admire this film and it is still one of my favourites. You just have to separate it from the film before it to really enjoy it.

  • @Starmongoose1991 True. I usually don't like dark films because the darkness becomes bigger than the plot, but this film was good, and was a fairly true adaptation of the books. Of course, Dorothy doesn't get shock therapy in the books.

  • @Starmongoose1991 I imagine you probaly like ALOT of bad fucking movies lol

  • You can't trust critics.

  • @DeltaSceptile You can't trust fans either despite the fact that I want to.

    -R78

  • Return to Oz indeed.

  • St. Elmo's Fire had its flaws, but here they go again being the morality police. Pluuhheeezzeee...

  • Pee wee's big adventure was good and funny as hell why is it horrible to them?

  • I'd really like to see a DVD released with the best of Siskel & Ebert, which has to include the worst films of the year.

  • I loved Return to Oz and Pee Wee's Big Adventure. Honestly, I think because movies like this were a little too new for them to understand. There was nothing to really base it on at the time. But I really disagree with them both.

  • @nwcolumcoll Return To Oz is actually pretty trippy. I dont know what kind of a childrens film it is but it's certainly a pretty good one to watch high as a kite. I think these guys just took that one out of cotext. And there was really no need to compare it to the Wizard Of Oz either,.. just take it on it's own !

  • me and my buddy got stoned to see pee wees big adventure and laughed so hard. Tim Burton's first major film.

  • what the hell pee wee big adventure, that movie is awesome. big top pee wee is garbage.

  • @handsomebwonderful81 I think the Tequila song plays in my head at least once a day. And I don't even drink the stuff.

  • I remember when everyone thought Pee-Wee was the end of civilization as we know it. THEY WERE WRONG.

  • wish i could hear it

  • What! Pee Wee's Big Adventure was a great movie!

  • I'm more surprised that a John Hughes film got a "Worst Film" selection.

  • @TrueAgendaSetter Crittics didn't necesarily like Hughes films,.. but audiences did. In fact, I dont think that any film of his was ever haild by a critic

  • @Skulldini Wrong! Ebert himself ranked "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" as one of his top 10 of 1987 - and later added it to his Great Movies list. Many of his films were critically acclaimed. It was usually the ones directed by others based on his screenplays that flopped with critics.

  • @Skulldini Yeah , Hughes got great reviews from critics. See his rottentomatoes page: Planes, Trains, & Automobiles, Sweet Sixteen, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and The Breakfast Club got rave receptions. They all got 80% positive reviews or better.

  • @Quadzilla99 Well I do seem to recall Breakfast Club, Pretty In Pink and Ferris Beuller getting some bad comment from SOME major reviewers,.. I dont remember just who though ? There were other big critics besides these two guys ( like Garry Franklin, Leonard Maltin, Gene Schallit and Rex Reed ), so it could've been anyone.

  • @Quadzilla99 At the time I figuered these guys weren't teenagers so therefore the films just didn't resonate with them.

  • @Skulldini You might be right. Sometimes when it comes to older movies rotten tomatoes has a lot of more recent reviews which sometimes means that a movie that gets panned upon release will have a better rating than you would think it does because newer reviewers look at it differently. So they may not have had as awesome a rating when they were released as they do now. I do know that Roger Ebert has always been a big fan of John Hughes.

  • @JackKlompus13

    I liked that one too. "Big Top Pee Wee" however, I thought was garbage. I will agree with them that "Return To Oz" was bad.

  • @CJ076 your right about big top pee wee. that movie was garbage.

  • @CJ076

    Right on, Big Top Pee Wee sucked!

  • @JackKlompus13 Thank you!

  • @JackKlompus13 "Tell them Large Marge sent you"

  • @DTFenn

    Yeah! 

  • @JackKlompus13 i just realized your name is jackklompus. take the pen

  • @tonyss9

    Hahahahaha! Yeah, that's the one!

  • @JackKlompus13 Yeah, Siskel and Ebert hate EVERYTHING.

  • Godzilla 1985 is really sort of a cult classic. It's pale in comparison to its original version, but it is, as critic Joel Siegal put it "hysterical fun." for the right fans. If you're not already a Godzilla fan, however, there's really no reason to see it.

  • I love Godzilla, but looking back, the acting is ridiculous and the amount of times Godzilla changes size is just stupid.

  • St. Elmo's Fire was outstanding ... as was Pee Wee's.

  • Saw a double bill (remember those) of Return to Oz/Lady Hawk as a child. At least my parent's got me one movie's worth of enjoyment.

    Return to Oz: Horrible Film---My one abiding memory is all those heads in the background and the body picks the crazy nurse!!!

  • Dear Siskel: Star Wars stole the robot (Tik-Tok) from Oz, not vice-versa. Idiot. And Return To Oz has been proven to be a classic.

  • Star Wars: 1975, Return to Oz:1985. how did Return to Oz proceed Star Wars when it came out 10 years later? what a moron.

  • Tik Tok was created in 1907 by L Frank Baum

    SW was 1977 not 1975

  • He didn't say that it was from "Return to Oz", Tik Tok first appeared in the third Oz book, Ozma of Oz some 70 years before Star Wars.

  • At the time this was written the Oz books had not been in print for considerable time and most film critics did not know anything about Oz beyond the 1939 MGM movie... So it's understandable how many reveiwers got bad impressions, though there were numerous rebutles at the time.

  • Pee Wee's Big Adventure?

    Wha.....?

  • Theyre right about all of these movies, giant peices of crap all of them.

  • Return to Oz a bad movie ?! Sacrilege.

  • what's wrong with St elmo's fire. It was good, I think it was to dark then what people expected

  • Good film with a great title song!

  • r they serious! peewee rules!!

  • This is madness. I thought 'Return to Oz' was a terrific and really inspired version of the books. Is Ebert's review based solely on comparison to the original?

  • Silly Gene and his taking Pee Wee too seriously. Didn't he know that whole thing was tongue-in-cheek humor? I thought it was great.

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  • do u think he mentioned return to oz at the funeral?