Ransom Riggs
The Late Movies: Siskel and Ebert Review the Worst Movies Ever
by Ransom Riggs - August 16, 2010 - 10:30 PM

Roger Ebert has been getting a lot of attention recently for being a fascinating and prolific Twitterer, and for continuing to review lots of movies despite having lost the ability to speak. Over the years, he and his various cohorts — originally the late Gene Siskel, later Roeper, then A.O. Scott and others — have reviewed seemingly every major release known to man. I wanted to see what the Grand Old Man of American movie criticism thought of such classics as Weekend at Bernie’s — and thanks to the humbling scope of YouTube’s archive, I found that and much more! So enjoy Ebert’s thoughts on this treasure trove of cultural crap.

Watch Siskel and Ebert dig Weekend at Bernie’s a shallow grave:

Ebert calls Battlefield Earth “one of the ugliest and most incomprehensible movies I’ve ever seen.” And yet he has so much fun reviewing it!

One of my least-favorite movies ever, Batman & Robin.

Ebert accuses Super Mario Brothers of suffering from a failure of imagination. Also, Siskel refers to the game it was based on as “dazzling” and “high-tech.” Retro fun!

“If this doesn’t turn out to be one of the worst movies of the year, it’s gonna be a very bad year.”

Kazaam is so bad, Siskel says, that it manages to “waste the comic timing of Shaq.”

Another notorious film, Showgirls. Ebert spends most of the review enumerating which fleshy body parts viewers will get to see revealed.

You won’t be surprised to learn that Siskel and Ebert didn’t love the Ernest movies.

If you’ve been bemoaning the number of sequels hitting the box office recently, just remember — it could be, and has been, worse.

More from mental_floss…

50 Amazing Facts for Our 50th Issue
*
Strange Geographies: The Mojave Desert’s Airplane Graveyard
*
Spell It Out: 16 Abbreviated Company Names Explained
*
10 Technologies We Stole From the Animal Kingdom
*
He Took a Polaroid Every Day, Until the Day He Died
*
Where Are They Now? High School Kids Immortalized by Sports Illustrated
*
22 Fictional Characters Whose Names You Don’t Know

twitterbanner.jpg

« Previous Post   -   Next Post »
Click here to get a Risk-Free issue of mental_floss magazine
Comments (13)

  1. That was just fantastic.

    posted by Jason English on 8-16-2010 at 11:41 pm

  2. I think my favorite has to be Jaws:The Revenge. It really is an absolutely absurd setup for a film. Great stuff!

    posted by SpaceMonkeyX on 8-17-2010 at 12:25 am

  3. Roger Ebert’s review of Stop or My Mom Will Shoot is the funniest thing I have ever seen.

    posted by ca on 8-17-2010 at 3:26 am

  4. Okay, these are great, but Weekend at Bernie’s was not nearly as atrocious as the others. The sequel, however….

    posted by Mark on 8-17-2010 at 8:07 am

  5. You forgot one big one. This review was so bad I remember it over 15 years later (not just that they didn’t like it, I remember exact phrases about how much they didn’t like it).
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj52wm7l3zg

    posted by Rob Gannon on 8-17-2010 at 10:38 am

  6. My dad took my siblings and I to see Batman and Robin when I was around 10 or so. Believe me, I wish I could have walked out. I almost wish he hadn’t seen any reviews before taking us…otherwise I have to take it as evidence that he hated us.

    posted by KittyCaller on 8-17-2010 at 11:15 am

  7. Batman and Robin is probably the worst movie I’ve ever seen.

    posted by Ben on 8-17-2010 at 7:02 pm

  8. Loving this! I’d almost forgotten how much fun it was listening to those guys talk about movies.

    And Jaws: The Revenge was utter and complete garbage. Battlefield Earth was worse. Yeah, I saw ‘em both. It all started when I got this job at Gizmonic Institute…

    posted by Joe Maz on 8-17-2010 at 9:42 pm

  9. Excuse me, but Weekend at Bernie’s is an AWESOME movie. A cult classic!

    posted by TheVioletArcher on 8-17-2010 at 10:32 pm

  10. stand up comic Richard Jeni did a review of jaws the revenge, too. if you can find it, give a listen. it’s really hilarious.

    posted by jacqleviking on 8-20-2010 at 9:55 pm

  11. W at Bernie’s is an all-time classic. Just more proof critics know nothin’.

    posted by Hurricane on 8-22-2010 at 8:58 pm

  12. on the other hand ” plan 9 from outer space ” won gushing praise from s an e.

    posted by dirk alan on 8-22-2010 at 10:07 pm

  13. ‘Batman and Robin’ – stinker of the HIGHEST order. I loved this show, never ever missed. FYI for Mental Flossers, this is UP your alley:

    http://blog.ranker.com/post/8394190864/from-ranker-labs-a-deeper-look-at-the-worst-movies

    An actual scientific analysis of WHY and HOW of crappy movies? Gold. GOLD! :)

    posted by Lara on 8-3-2011 at 2:53 pm

Comment

commenting policy