Tony Burtt Review, love-struck Christian Slater, wooing Mary Stuart Masterson in Bed of Roses.
Ian McKellen plots against Annette Benning and Robert Downey Jr. to become Richard III.
Peter Weller fights killer robots in the science fiction thriller, Screamers.
Peter Weller leads a band of rebels on a planet far from Earth in Screamers, one of the five
new movies we'll be reviewing this week on Siskel and Ebert. Also coming up, Christian Slater and
Mary Stuart Masterson in a love story, Richard Roundtree and Felicia Rashad in a story of Growing
Up in the South, and Ian McKellen and Annette Benning starring a flashy production of a
Shakespearean classic. I'm Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Time.
Gene Siskel And I'm Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune. Our first film is Screamers, and on this
job, you know, you see everything once and then you see it again. And so Screamers is not the
first science fiction film I've seen, or Roger has seen, with creatures that tunnel under the
soil and strike out at you. That was in Tremors, remember that one? And this is Screamers with
Peter Weller, RoboCop himself as a good guy military officer who fights off subterranean
robots alongside a youthful partner played by Andy Lauer.
Andy Lauer How do you know it's dead?
Andy Lauer Because I yanked this brain out.
Andy Lauer Don't do that, boy. That'll take your finger off.
Andy Lauer I thought he said it was dead.
RoboCop The CPU is dead, but it still has mechanical surface reflex.
Andy Lauer That's good. They get their heads chopped off, but they can still swing his sword. Pretty smart.
What brings them together in this yet another doom and gloom futuristic piece is that they've
been asked to mediate an interplanetary conflict, and the bad guys have sent a calling card for a
peace conference. Weller is suspicious.
Weller We request two officers, highest priority, safe passage guaranteed. We await your arrival.
Andy Lauer Once at the enemy bunker, Weller meets a beautiful woman, Jennifer Rubin, who says she's
a black marketeer. Sure, but she wants off the planet.
Jennifer Rubin How long do you think I'm going to last in here, cooped up at Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,
waiting for nothing to happen?
Weller Nobody's going to Earth. The Nevs and Alliance are starting
Armageddon all over again on Triton form. They've hung everybody on this planet out to dry,
including you and me. Good Lord, you're beautiful.
Andy Lauer I've seen a lot of the stuff in Screamers before. It's mechanical monsters,
maybe small, but they have the same sharp teeth. And Weller and Jennifer Rubin,
they don't establish much chemistry. Fighting gets in the way. I like the third act of the movie more
than the elaborate set up when they're ready to take off out of this place. But compare the
enterprise of this film to say 12 monkeys. And you realize why I can't really recommend Screamers.
Weller You know, there are some other sources for this movie, too. For example, Alien, which has the
same idea of things with sharp teeth that jump out of places and grab you. And then also Blade Runner,
with its theory that sometimes you don't know who's human and who isn't. And in this movie,
that's a big thing. One of the things that depressed me about the film, and I don't recommend
it either is basically it is so depressing. It is a very dark, gloomy, downbeat, grim,
dingy, dreary film. And by the end of it, you just want to take a shower.
Here's what I want to say to the screenwriters that watch our show. The two most successful
science fiction pictures are E.T. and probably Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Andy Lauer Maybe 2001?
Weller Yeah, they're all optimistic. If you think about it, even 2001 with the Star Baby,
E.T., Close Encounters, there's joy in these films. Why make all for your own selfish reasons?
Why would you just recommended 12 Monkeys? And that's not why I know. But why make the future
so well? It is almost a rule in science fiction that the future is going to be tired of. Break
the rule, please. OK, next movie. Our next movie is a dazzling update of Shakespeare's Richard the
Third. Shakespeare's original language is kept in this movie, but the action is moved to London in
the 1930s, where the evil Richard sets his plots in the midst of a decadent court that's threatened
by the specter of fascism. Here's the most famous scene from the play. Richard, having killed King
Edward and his son, the Prince of Wales, proposes marriage to the prince's widow before the body
has even been buried. Oh, he was gentle, mild and virtuous. The fitter for the king of heaven,
who has him. And you are fit for any place but hell. Yes, one place else, if you will hear me
name it. Some dungeon. Your bedchamber. That's Ian McKellen, twisted and depraved and a lot of fun
to watch as Richard and Kristen Scott Thomas's Lady Anne. Here he commiserates with his brother,
Clarence, played by Nigel Hawthorne, who will be imprisoned in the Tower of London. And it's
actually Richard who has sent him there. Why, this it is when men are ruled by women. It's not the
king who sends you to the tower. Elizabeth, his queen. Clarence, it's she. We're not safe, brother.
No, we are not safe. Maggie Smith plays Richard's mother, who knows he is evil and curses him in
some of the most venomous lines in all of Shakespeare. You came on earth to make the earth my hell.
Touchy and wayward was your infancy. Your school days, frightful, desperate, wild and furious,
your prime of manhood, daring, bold, adventurous, your age confirmed, proud, supple, sly and bloody.
Annette Benning plays Queen Elizabeth, who cannot believe Richard's effrontery after having killed
many of those she loved the most. No, then that's with my soul. I love your daughter and to intend
to make her Queen of England. Somehow the 16th century play seems to fit right into the 1930s,
even when it comes to Richard's most famous line.
A horse! A horse! My kingdom for the horse!
By updating Richard III, director Richard Loncrane and Ian McKellen, who wrote the script together,
have created a kind of alternate timeline fantasy. This is a visual feast of a movie
and one of the most effective retellings of Shakespeare that I've ever seen.
I liked it too. I will tell you at times, you're so aware of the dialogue in another setting
that there's a schism that sort of develops. In other words, you're at one place removed.
It is Ian McKellen, however, who is so energetic that I think he takes you back into the story
so that it's not just a gimmick. At times it feels like a gimmick, but he is the thing that runs it
through and makes you stay with it. Yeah, that didn't bother me because I was so familiar with
the Shakespearean lines and of course these actors are so good at this dialogue that it sounded very
natural to me. What I liked though, and the audience that I saw it with the second time I saw it,
liked it too, was McKellen's asides to the audience. He seems to really enjoy and be amused
by his own ability and there are people chuckling at how evil he was. Yes, he loves being evil. I mean,
it's pretty compelling stuff. Coming up next, can you be too busy at work to fall in love?
That's the question posed to Mary Stuart Masterson by Christian Slater in
Dead of Roses. That's next. On sale next week, two new Disney hits are headed your way.
First, your favorite rookie is dropping in for a blast in the past in a kid in King Arthur's court.
Then meet a team of misfits who play the game with a style all their own.
Two big hits! Have a ball with two big hits from Disney, a kid in King Arthur's court,
and the big green. On sale next week, rated PG. 22 minutes 16 seconds past the hour. Nice guy,
James. His name's William. A familiar face, a morning smile, an extra step. But he's down,
but he got here anyway, didn't he? At this moment, the people of FedEx are using their
know-how, determination, and heart to treat your package as if it were the most important package
of all. Because to them, that's exactly what it is. James, such a nice boy. He is a nice boy,
but his name's William. Do not pay till August. It's the final day, Super Sunday, the final eight
hours of our greatest sale ever at Sun Valley Waterbed. This Super Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. only.
Everything on our floor is marked down for immediate liquidation. All floor samples,
all discontinued lines, dressers, nightstands, waterbeds, futons, kids' beds, sheets,
everything at immediate liquidation prices. Plus, do not pay till August. No payments
and no interest till August. Hurry, it's the final eight hours this Super Sunday.
Offer ends 5 p.m. at Sun Valley Waterbeds. Now at Douglas Toyota, the Toyota warehouse.
The sale of the century. It's finally here. Everything you've ever wanted.
The lowest monthly ever offered. I'm paying $1.29 a month for my Corolla.
The lowest down ever offered. I got my new Camry with no money down.
The sale of the century at Douglas Toyota. It's finally here. The lowest interest,
price, monthly, and down payments ever offered all at once. The sale of the century at Douglas Toyota,
the Toyota warehouse. The last longer to put a little seven up in the water. I know it sounds
weird, but it works. Investment banker Mary Stuart Masterson takes time out from her busy
life to accept a bouquet of flowers from deliveryman Christian Slater in Bed of Roses, an odd,
sometimes touching love story with one very strong performance and one that's kind of weak.
What I like most about the picture is the character written and directed by Michael
Goldberg and played by Mary Stuart Masterson. That of a woman so totally caught up in her work
that she is completely stunned by this seeming delivery man who is just the nicest guy imaginable.
I saw you standing there and you were crying. What was it that made you so sad?
So I followed you to work the next morning, found out your name.
And you made this incredible arrangement of flowers for someone you've never even met.
It turns out that Slater's character actually owns a local flower shop and that accounts for
the riot of flora in his life. But you deliver flowers.
I like to see people's faces. They're just falling in love or making up from a fight.
Masterson is actually threatened by the decency and sincerity of this guy,
but her girlfriend played by Pamela Siegel practically begs her to lean back and enjoy it.
So you found out who sent me these great flowers and it turns out this guy is great and this is
really a terrible thing because because why is this a terrible thing?
If you think about it what we have here really is a portrait of a woman who is
afraid to exhale as the current movie goes. She's afraid to relax. Chasing numerical goals at work
is easier and less threatening than really engaging with another person. I have a feeling
that Masterson's character represent a lot of Generation X members, male and female.
Christian Slater, he seems a little mannered to me. He often does but on balance I think the
one character is worth watching a mix but thumbs up review for me on Bed of Roses.
A thumbs down for me. I thought they were both saps and sad sacks and these people are
hanging on to their unhappiness particularly her in such a narrow-minded way. It's not really
a sophisticated intelligent character study of a person in that situation. It's a love story
right out of the 1930s. The flowers come to the office. Who could have sent these flowers?
Then you turn out to find out the guy has this sad story of his life but then she's afraid.
You heard what I described. Obviously I found more meaning in it than you did.
Didn't you feel that she could have been a more sharply written and intelligent character?
Didn't you feel that her character was damped down by the romantic cliches in the story?
The cliches in the story did not interest me. Her character doesn't. You don't think that there are
a lot of people like this who are fully pregnant. Oh I do but that has nothing to do with this movie.
I saw one there. I saw one there. I think there are a lot of people like this and this movie
doesn't do them justice. I think it does in case of one character. Okay when we come back
a multi-generational tale of growing up in the rural south once upon a time when we were colored
is next. You could go someplace else but you won't get IHOP pancakes. What kind of pancakes
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who shot Alexander Hamilton in that famous duel?