http://siskelandebert.org/video/H3K58XAHMKXR/The-Pagemaster–Red–Junior–Mrs-Parker-1994

On this day 21 years ago, Siskel & Ebert agreed on every film featured in the episode, but that meant that they also made a rather oddball joint-recommendation. They get that one out of the way first, it being Ivan Reitman’s “Arnold Schwarzenegger is pregnant” comedy Junior. Siskel starts by calling the film the definition of “cute”, praising the film’s cast, particularly Danny DeVito, for making some predictable setpieces work. He then speculates on the reason for the then-recent trend of movies about guys learning to be women, this and Mrs. Doubtfire, believing it to be a result of audiences growing tired of just seeing tough guys on screen. Ebert doesn’t go that far (later, after Gene butts in with his theory again, Roger says that there’s a much greater trend with movies about men firing machine guns, which Gene counters by saying that these movies about “tender” guys are “cascadingly” popular in comparison to those; Roger says to wait until Junior is released to see if it’s popular, although he admits that he’s sure Gene is right, to which Gene replies with a very funny “Thanks!”), but he does praise Schwarzenegger as a comedic actor, and specifically as someone who knows exactly what he needs to be in a role, in this case incredibly earnest and serious, without straining to get laughs. Their next film is Keenan Ivory Wayans’ A Low Down Dirty Shame, which Roger feels is a big step down from Wayans’ work on In Living Color, a tired rehash of an action-comedy that Wayans seemed to make on autopilot. He concedes that Jada Pinkett is a lot of fun as Wayans’ secretary and wannabe-partner, and that there’s a clever action sequence in a sporting-goods store. Gene agrees, speculating that the reason for Pinkett being so much better than the rest of the movie is that her and Wayans’ scenes together were improvised to make up for a lack of story going into the film. Both are disappointed by the film’s sloppiness, and both feel that Wayans, who, at the time, was a comedy brand name, shouldn’t have wasted his time on it.

As much as Gene would like to praise the next film, The Pagemaster, which encourages kids to read, he can’t. Gene thinks it’s flimsy, critiquing its lack of follow-through for its characters and its startlingly quick wrap-up after the characters are introduced. Roger doesn’t even think it promotes reading, criticizing how it turns classics of literature into arcade games without giving their content a second-thought, as well as its dreary, color-drained animation. Roger notes that it comes out as a computer game the same day it comes out as a movie, which he and Gene feel is an accurate representation of the level of thought that went into it in the first place.

Their next film is Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, a biopic of satirist Dorothy Parker (played by the great Jennifer Jason Leigh). Roger praises Leigh’s performance, and the film itself for its portrayal of a woman who made everyone laugh while she herself led a sad, lonely existence. Gene likes that the film refuses to make Parker a hero, and its realistic portrayal of her, her circle of friends, and their alcohol usage.

Their last film is also the best film of the night, Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colors: Red. Gene loves it, praising its depiction of how slowly it takes for some people (in this case, retired judge Jean-Louis Trintignant to model Irene Jacob) to open up to each other, and its message about enjoying the precarious nature of life. Roger starts his portion by calling it “one of the most absorbing and powerful films you could possibly see”, and agrees with Gene about its superior development of its characters, especially in comparison to the tired tropes of Hollywood movies.

After a Nabisco ad which amusingly plugs The Pagemaster, we get to the Video Pick of the Week, which is chosen by Roger this week. His pick is Claude Chabrol’s psychological drama Betty, which they didn’t get to cover on the show proper. It follows a troubled alcoholic young woman who’s taken in by the wife of a club owner and befriended by the bartender in the club, probing deeper and deeper into the pasts and actions of all three characters and the strange predicament they find themselves in.