Siskel & Ebert (TV Series)

Red Rock West/Clifford/Threesome/Silent Tongue/The Blue Kite (1994)

Gene Siskel: Self - Host

Quotes 

• Roger Ebert - Host : "Clifford" is like a movie from Mars. This is the kind of movie where you sit there simply stupefied. The cast contains some of my favorite actors, and yet nothing works. And I wonder if the central mistake might not have been the casting of Martin Short as the little boy. He looks so weird that there's never a moment when you can stop gawking at him long enough for the character to gather up any momentum. I saw this movie in a theater with, maybe, 150 people. Two people laughed, once a piece. One of them was me, and I think the other one laughed because I have an infectious laugh. I found ONE gag in this movie, 150 other people found NOTHING to laugh at.

  Gene Siskel - Host : I was the majority. It IS shocking, and I felt bad, because I had taken a friend's children to the film.

  Roger Ebert - Host : This is really a children's picture. Wow.

  Gene Siskel - Host : I said, "Well, at least", I said, "Kids, at least you're gonna remember who you saw the worst movie of your life with." Uh, it... you're right. Martin Short, it looks like a wisened old little dwarf in the picture...

  Roger Ebert - Host : Yeah.

  Gene Siskel - Host : And he's very, uh, unhappy. The character is unhappy, mean throughout.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Yes.

  Gene Siskel - Host : There isn't a likable person in here. There's no entry point for us to get involved in the story.

  Roger Ebert - Host : That's right.

  Gene Siskel - Host : When the payoff comes, when this kid, who wants to be taken to Dinosaur World in Los Angeles...

  Roger Ebert - Host : He goes there, then you get these CHEESY special effects!

  Gene Siskel - Host : There's no payoff.

  Roger Ebert - Host : You can even see the payoff not paying off...

  Gene Siskel - Host : Yes.

  Roger Ebert - Host : ...While it's on the screen. You took KIDS to see this? This is the kind of movie where, after they see this, they should see "The Good Son" to cheer themselves up.

  Gene Siskel - Host : Okay. That was about a killer, wasn't it?

  Roger Ebert - Host : Yes.