Roger says that Swamp Thing was so good that is faith in a new film maker 'Wes Craven' was justified. And then came Nightmare on Elm Street, and later Scream. I guess Roger had a good eye after all.
As brutal as it was, as surprising as it may be, he liked Last House on the Left as well. He said the same thing about that movie as he said about Psycho and Halloween: If you don't want to be scared, don't go to see it. He saw Wes Craven's talent from the very beginning.
The first Swamp Thing is a legitimately good adaptation of the Wein/Wrightson comics which while not as good as Alan Moore's run were still pretty damn formative in their own right.
Also BERNI WRIGHTSON a major artist behind DC Comics's Swamp Thing. Really like the southern gothic aspects of that comic book art. Also, Conan the Barbarian comic books were based on the 1930s pulp fiction stories by Robert E. Howard.
Swamp Thing was actually fun to watch, and I liked the sequel as well. Dick Durock is perfect as Swamp Thing (even if you can whine about the quality of the costume - it does get better in later projects), but for a PG movie, Adrienne Barbeau is ... rather noticeable (that is, her bra isn't). Louis Jourdan is actually a departure for the role of Anton Arcane, who is usually depicted as an old man seeking youth and immortality, but he's still very good as the bad guy. He's definitely having fun in the role. One thing you have to remember if you're going into this movie cold: this was a couple of years before Alan Moore would redefine the character as an earth elemental, so don't expect the character and power development we are more familiar with today. That said, Durock does a great job as the character, and they did allow him to develop further over the course of the sequel and the first (and best) TV series.
I suspect they moved _Death Wish 2_ to L.A. to save money on production costs. Kersey was leaving for Chicago at the end of the first movie, so we never saw his activities there. Here it's 8 years later.
@@sandal_thong8631 The reason why Chicago wasn't the location in Death Wish 2 is because it was where the book Death Sentence took place. Brian Garfield denied the filmmakers the rights to Death Sentence.
"In this sequel, vigilante Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) avenges the rape of both his Hispanic cook and his daughter against low-life . . . " that's the synopsis the owners of the right to _Death Wish 2_ offer in the "Watch on RUclips" rental thing. they make sure to mention that the cook is "Hispanic", since the movie's so famous for being terrible with its racial caricatures (the cook is even Hispanic. nice.)
15:50..... Gene says he is offended by the "children in jeopardy" theme in movies, but as the story goes, Tom's stepdaughter accidentally falls into a swimming pool and will likely drown, but Tom realizes she is in trouble and dives in and rescues her. Think this is appropriate enough for a scene in any movie, esp. when it's true. We get 75 minutes of Tom acting like a boor and then this incident that would supposedly redeem him in our eyes. Don't know who the real Tom Sullivan is like but I'm willing to watch a more authentic biopic or documentary of his life.
I remember watching "If You Could See What I Hear" back in the 70's. The main character is just an insufferable douchebag all through the movie. Another gag includes him repeatedly driving a car because that's so hilarious to see a blind guy driving and smashing into other cars.
This movie has a frivolous tone for the first 75 minutes. Then his child falls into the deep side of a pool and is not able to swim. So Tom being the only one around (remember, he is blind), he has to dive in and rescue the child before it's too late. (spoiler: he manages to save the child's life). And then I suppose he starts to act more mature as a result. Moral of the story: Blindness is not really a good excuse to act responsibly. Hope you got edified by this.
Siskel was absolutely wrong about the first Death Wish film in 1974 being a portrayal of white man's revenge. The three thugs who raped Bronson's daughter and murdered his wife (Hope Lange) were white (including Jeff Goldblum in his first film role), and the criminals whom Bronson kills later in the film were racially mixed. One of the victims whom he rescues was a black man, and a black police officer was helpful to Bronson's character when his wife and daughter were assaulted. Furthermore, in one scene in that film, Bronson is attending an office party with his colleague, Sam (William Redfield), and everyone at the party is discussing the vigilante killer in New York. One woman is overheard saying that the vigilante is racist, while a man argues with her about that. The screenplay uses some internal irony there (that's how I would describe it), but the vigilante is clearly NOT portrayed as a racist. Siskel imposed his own bias in branding the original Death Wish as white man's revenge. Shame on him!!
Maybe the second one fits the bill, then. Also, things had changed from _Death Wish (1974)_ to _Death Wish 2 (1982)_ both in crime and race relations. Crime was going down, but they were building more prisons and had a lock-'em-up mentality, with incarceration statistics making African-Americans seeming to be the most dangerous ethnicity in the world. Reagan's War on Drugs would hit the Black community hard, while passing over whites who did coke on Wall Street and elsewhere. Death Wish (2018) starring Bruce Willis went up like a lead balloon. Crime went down in the 1990s, under Clinton, and even the spike or rise during the Pandemic did not climb back to that of the Bush years, I think. The only difference that I've heard about today, is more mass-shootings.
@@sandal_thong8631 You know who endorsed Reagan's war on drugs? Other blacks. This really started in the mid 70's and continued for decades and it was endorsed by powerful black community leaders and politicians. A Congressional Black Caucus, made of Dems and Republicans, all approved the harsh prison sentences for crack. This was ultimately motivated by panic because neighborhoods were going down hill and nobody knew what to do.
Roger says that Swamp Thing was so good that is faith in a new film maker 'Wes Craven' was justified. And then came Nightmare on Elm Street, and later Scream. I guess Roger had a good eye after all.
As brutal as it was, as surprising as it may be, he liked Last House on the Left as well. He said the same thing about that movie as he said about Psycho and Halloween: If you don't want to be scared, don't go to see it. He saw Wes Craven's talent from the very beginning.
Ironically, IIRC Ebert hated Nightmare on Elm St, though he is notorious for hating straightfoward slasher movie.
Jim Cameron isn't mentioned by name in the Aliens review, only the producer Gale Anne Hurd.
adrienne is pretty tough in swamp thing
Legit shocked they both loved Swamp Thing.
It was what it was - an entertaining, unpretentious comic book film.
I love that Ebert went to go see Antropophagus (aka The Grim Reaper)
The first Swamp Thing is a legitimately good adaptation of the Wein/Wrightson comics which while not as good as Alan Moore's run were still pretty damn formative in their own right.
Wow! Been waiting for this episode!!
The Simpsons joke about Death Wish is superb
"I wish I was dead."
@@sandal_thong8631 John Dillinger…Ty Cobb…Joseph Stalin lol
Love Swamp thing snd Death wish 2
Death Wish II’s score was done by Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page. Wtf was he thinking doing that movie? Dear God…
You meant Death Wish III and beware thugs brandishing plungers! Also, the “giggler” could really move!
Getting paid.
Also BERNI WRIGHTSON a major artist behind DC Comics's Swamp Thing. Really like the southern gothic aspects of that comic book art. Also, Conan the Barbarian comic books were based on the 1930s pulp fiction stories by Robert E. Howard.
The Grim Reaper was the first movie Joe Bon Briggs reviewed in the days his work was only newspaper reviews .
Wow. Siskel actually reviewed Blonde Ambition: a pornographic film
If You Could See What I hear looks dreadful, my god.
I notice Gene doesn't like smug people in bars. Lol
Swamp Thing was actually fun to watch, and I liked the sequel as well. Dick Durock is perfect as Swamp Thing (even if you can whine about the quality of the costume - it does get better in later projects), but for a PG movie, Adrienne Barbeau is ... rather noticeable (that is, her bra isn't). Louis Jourdan is actually a departure for the role of Anton Arcane, who is usually depicted as an old man seeking youth and immortality, but he's still very good as the bad guy. He's definitely having fun in the role.
One thing you have to remember if you're going into this movie cold: this was a couple of years before Alan Moore would redefine the character as an earth elemental, so don't expect the character and power development we are more familiar with today. That said, Durock does a great job as the character, and they did allow him to develop further over the course of the sequel and the first (and best) TV series.
I wish I didn't have to watch these through such a big border.
They probably have to do it to avoid copyright attacks from whatever company happens to own the rights to these episodes.
Death Wish 2 should have been set in Chicago, since that's where the character went after leaving New York. I think they got cheap.
Geez, another episode in which I haven't seen any of the movies!
Death Wish 2 and If You Could See What I Hear are awful!
I suspect they moved _Death Wish 2_ to L.A. to save money on production costs. Kersey was leaving for Chicago at the end of the first movie, so we never saw his activities there. Here it's 8 years later.
@@sandal_thong8631 The reason why Chicago wasn't the location in Death Wish 2 is because it was where the book Death Sentence took place. Brian Garfield denied the filmmakers the rights to Death Sentence.
"In this sequel, vigilante Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) avenges the rape of both his Hispanic cook and his daughter against low-life . . . "
that's the synopsis the owners of the right to _Death Wish 2_ offer in the "Watch on RUclips" rental thing.
they make sure to mention that the cook is "Hispanic", since the movie's so famous for being terrible with its racial caricatures (the cook is even Hispanic. nice.)
15:50..... Gene says he is offended by the "children in jeopardy" theme in movies, but as the story goes, Tom's stepdaughter accidentally falls into a swimming pool and will likely drown, but Tom realizes she is in trouble and dives in and rescues her. Think this is appropriate enough for a scene in any movie, esp. when it's true. We get 75 minutes of Tom acting like a boor and then this incident that would supposedly redeem him in our eyes. Don't know who the real Tom Sullivan is like but I'm willing to watch a more authentic biopic or documentary of his life.
I remember watching "If You Could See What I Hear" back in the 70's. The main character is just an insufferable douchebag all through the movie. Another gag includes him repeatedly driving a car because that's so hilarious to see a blind guy driving and smashing into other cars.
This movie has a frivolous tone for the first 75 minutes. Then his child falls into the deep side of a pool and is not able to swim. So Tom being the only one around (remember, he is blind), he has to dive in and rescue the child before it's too late. (spoiler: he manages to save the child's life). And then I suppose he starts to act more mature as a result. Moral of the story: Blindness is not really a good excuse to act responsibly. Hope you got edified by this.
Death Wish 2 is a GREAT movie.
Its not, but its a great trash movie
@@CaptainSpalding72 fair enough.
It was the last of the Death Wish movies that I took seriously
Siskel was absolutely wrong about the first Death Wish film in 1974 being a portrayal of white man's revenge. The three thugs who raped Bronson's daughter and murdered his wife (Hope Lange) were white (including Jeff Goldblum in his first film role), and the criminals whom Bronson kills later in the film were racially mixed. One of the victims whom he rescues was a black man, and a black police officer was helpful to Bronson's character when his wife and daughter were assaulted. Furthermore, in one scene in that film, Bronson is attending an office party with his colleague, Sam (William Redfield), and everyone at the party is discussing the vigilante killer in New York. One woman is overheard saying that the vigilante is racist, while a man argues with her about that. The screenplay uses some internal irony there (that's how I would describe it), but the vigilante is clearly NOT portrayed as a racist. Siskel imposed his own bias in branding the original Death Wish as white man's revenge. Shame on him!!
Maybe the second one fits the bill, then. Also, things had changed from _Death Wish (1974)_ to _Death Wish 2 (1982)_ both in crime and race relations. Crime was going down, but they were building more prisons and had a lock-'em-up mentality, with incarceration statistics making African-Americans seeming to be the most dangerous ethnicity in the world. Reagan's War on Drugs would hit the Black community hard, while passing over whites who did coke on Wall Street and elsewhere.
Death Wish (2018) starring Bruce Willis went up like a lead balloon. Crime went down in the 1990s, under Clinton, and even the spike or rise during the Pandemic did not climb back to that of the Bush years, I think. The only difference that I've heard about today, is more mass-shootings.
The majority of the targets are black. Find a more worthy cause to care about. I am white. White people are not victims.
@@sandal_thong8631 You know who endorsed Reagan's war on drugs? Other blacks. This really started in the mid 70's and continued for decades and it was endorsed by powerful black community leaders and politicians. A Congressional Black Caucus, made of Dems and Republicans, all approved the harsh prison sentences for crack. This was ultimately motivated by panic because neighborhoods were going down hill and nobody knew what to do.