Siskel & Ebert (TV Series)

Celtic Pride/Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie/Mrs. Winterbourne/The Substitute/Fear/Sweet Nothing (1996)

Gene Siskel: Self - Host

Quotes 

• Roger Ebert - Host : One of the reasons "MST3K" has been so popular, I think, is that the human and robotic filmgoers get away with doing just exactly what we'd like to do during a lot of bad movies: Get our revenge by talking back to the screen.

  [clip shown: "Stand BACK!" "ACT-ING!"] 

  Roger Ebert - Host : I like the idea of "MST3K", and I've enjoyed some of the shows, but for me, the novelty wears off after a while. I wouldn't be able to watch it every week. The original movie "This Island Earth" was 87 minutes long, but the whole "Mystery Science Theater 3000" movie is only 74 minutes long, perhaps reflecting the insight of the filmmakers that you can get too much of a good thing. In this case, I think they give us just enough of a good thing.

  Gene Siskel - Host : So, you...?

  Roger Ebert - Host : Thumbs up.

  Gene Siskel - Host : Oh, okay, I couldn't tell.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Yeah, yeah.

  Gene Siskel - Host : Well, I liked it too. I guess I liked it more than you did. I think that, uh, it's pretty funny. And yes, maybe after an hour, I would've been satisfied, but in that first hour, I was laughing pretty hard. I mean, for example: Just the Universal logo, i-it, this picture, now, back then, it was called Universal International Pictures, so they, we see it flash up there, and they say, "Well, doesn't the fact that it's Universal MAKE it International?"

  [Roger laughs] 

  Gene Siskel - Host : I mean, they're thinking fast. And you might say, "Oh, I would get that, or I might have thought of that", but you, but people DON'T think of that. They're very clever.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Well, of course, I hope I didn't sound down on it. What I was saying, I liked the movie, I just couldn't watch this every week, it gets a little tired after a while.

  Gene Siskel - Host : Okay, you only have to watch it once.