Siskel & Ebert Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) At Those Movies
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- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
- This came out smack dab in the middle of my military assignment to Turkey. So, I knew nothing about this movie until today, 34 years later. I guess I never rented it when I transferred to Oklahoma City because everyone on the box cover looks so depressed, it is teenage angst after all. I will admit this really looks like a cute movie, I would have fallen in love with Mary Masterson so fast/easily it's not even funny. Roger seems to like the movie a lot more than Gene, not too shocking amiright?
I saw this movie when I was very young and I went to a high school similar to this. These guys never look through the eyes of a kid so they just can't get it esp Gene Siskel. I absolutely loved this movie, one of my fav all time movies. I cried happy tears at the end when they finally got together.
Me too
I agree with Gene that he should've figured it out sooner but then there'd be no movie. After watching this again tonight on YT, it's even better than I remembered. I was 19 when this was released. MSM should've received an Oscar nomination.
I know what it's like to blend in & make in friends even you're different from others but it's really important to be true to yourself, that's what the movie is about to me. Be who U are & not worry about what people think of U, that's the main concept of the film. I 💯% agree with Ebert 👍🌟🌟🌟.
I think both Lea and Mary are beautiful so Eric Stoltz can’t lose in this movie.
I love this movie! It's one of my favorites!
Gene sometimes would think he was watching reality instead of a movie.
Great movies have characters that are believable and therefore can care about.
I'd argue it is realistic. Definitely seen it happen where the objectively most beautiful girl around isn't noticed because there's a more popular or glamorous one that the group decided was desirable. Kids at this school just got fixated that this group of girls were most attractive. And Stoltz's character admits he only liked Amanda for the prestige.
one of the best movies ever made
After watching other clips I think I agree with Siskel that the "tomboy" in the movie looks better than Lea Thompson. The director may not have agreed as he married Lea within a couple of years after the movie's release.
Don't agree.
It was the 80s, belive me teens were into Lea's character, that's the whole point of the film, still the "tomboy" was the coolest.
I disagree. Masterson needed to grow her hair out. Lea Thompson is gorgeous in this movie.
@@michaelcarper2185uhhhh. Nah she doesn't need.
Both women are beautiful ❤️
I love that character who would appear to be villainous in this type of movie - played by Elias Koteas - ends up being on the protagonist's side. My only quibble is that Eric Stoltz - and Koteas - looked too old to be in high school.
For once I agree with Ebert.
Some people say this was a quasi-remake of Pretty in Pink where this time Hughes got to do the ending he wanted. Test audiences rejected Ringwald ending up with her best friend Cryer in Pretty in Pink, forcing Hughes to have Ringwald end up with the heartthrob guy instead. This movie swapped the genders and allowed the original ending to happen, which Ebert spoils in this review. It is odd that Siskel considers the ending predictable since Pretty in Pink went the other way with the ending. This was, however, the lowest-grossing and essentially the last of Hughes' teen movies after Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller and Pretty in Pink (that one and this one directed by Howard Deutch, not Hughes). Ebert liked all 6 of these movies, Siskel only 2 of them. Hughes did one more similar movie with slightly older characters, She's Having a Baby, which was even less successful at the box office and got two thumbs down. He told a newspaper in 1988 he had seen enough high school hallways, the actors he used frequently had grown up and he decided to move on from the teen genre. He started only doing movies with major adult comedy stars after that which all did well. Then when he hit it really big with Home Alone, he spent the rest of his career trying to redo that formula with child stars, slapstick comedy and bumbling criminals.
I think Roger could see past a movies flaws MUCH BETTER than Gene lol. I've never seen Sixteen Candles or Pretty in Pink nor Some Kind of Wonderful but there was no way I was going to miss Weird Science or Ferris Bueller. Breakfast Club wasn't a must see but I grabbed it at the local video rental and actually saw the whole thing and it wasn't bad at all. A few years back I delved into what happened to John Hughes and in short he got really angry his friend John Candy died, blaming Hollywood for working him so hard. He didn't do much work after he died, he smoked an awful lot, I found a picture of him around 2005 he was on a movie set with his son and he was pretty big so his lifestyle caught up with him and he died in 2009 at age 59. He made a lot of excellent movies..so good his candle burnt out pretty quick.
@@erichaynes7502 I checked a book out on Hughes and '80s teen films from the Internet Archive last week and read some of it (You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, and Their Impact on a Generation Book by Susannah Gora). It does allege a bit of a dark side came out in him as he became more and more successful. He would drop friends and collaborators out of his life if they had one disagreement. Apparently he became best friends with Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall during Sixteen Candles. They were almost considered to play the kids in Ferris Bueller. It seems like talking to Ringwald is what helped him understand teenagers and write these movies. He also talked to the teen daughter of one of his producers a lot and not coincidentally, she looks almost exactly like Mia Sara does in Ferris. The Ferris cast said they thought Hughes was disappointed that they all didn't become close friends after the movie wrapped. Ringwald's aging and issues with their friendship may have been what led Hughes away from doing more teen movies.
I was too young to be interested in romantic storylines when these movies started coming out. I've never seen Sixteen Candles but my friends in the '80s would quote it often and I'd have to figure out what they were talking about. Weird Science, I seem to remember hearing it was a flop or bomb at the time. I've only seen some of it on TV at various times. Again it might've seemed geared to older kids than I was. But it was another one I missed the boat on because my friends knew all about it. Ferris was right up my alley though as a story about skipping school. I remembered Broderick from WarGames. That became one of my favorite movies after renting it on VHS at about age 10. Arguably, it has risen in critical acclaim over time more than all of Hughes' other movies. Modern critics often attach some very high praise to it in terms of film artistry. Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink I saw on TV at some point years later and they were decent. The story about the changed ending in Pink is more fascinating than the movie itself. Haven't seen Some Kind of Wonderful. Like Pink, Wonderful probably looks more like a conventional movie because Hughes didn't direct it. The ones Hughes directed seem to have more style to them. But I'm planning to go back and check out the three I haven't seen soon.
As for Hughes' later career, he did move back to Chicago away from Hollywood at some point. Some people say he kept writing and writing and may have had piles of unused scripts in his possession before he died. He may have had some bad experiences like on Maid in Manhattan, where he originated the project but I think problems with the studio may have driven him away from it. Apparently Hollywood was still interested in working with him so it wasn't necessarily that he couldn't find work, but he might have found it harder to make deals that would let him retain control of the projects. I think the book said he might've made even more money off of 101 Dalmatians than Home Alone because he had a piece of the merchandising. So he didn't need to keep working and had the freedom to walk away if Hollywood wouldn't deal with him on the terms he wanted. In 1997 he made an obscure movie called Reach the Rock which was apparently an attempt to do another of his '80s-style films, but it went absolutely nowhere and got a bad review from Ebert. So, creatively, it doesn't seem like Hughes had much to be satisfied about in the '90s between that and all the slapstick kiddie films.
@@jedijones I know he had befriended Ed O'Neil during the filming of the ill fated Dutch and then when it bombed he wouldn't even take his call. Ed is not someone to trifle with, he never pulls any punches he went on the David Letterman show and said he could never count on John Hughes for anything. This was a great way of getting back at him and it did piss Hughes off. Other than that I never heard anything bad about Hughes . If you google John Hughes pen pal you'll find an article where a girl befriended him and he told her how upset he was about Candy dying.
All in all I think Hughes got jaded more and more every year, probably starting in early 90's. I guess he wanted more and more power but when he realized the game was rigged he backed off, knowing he was rich enough to do what he wanted. Still, the cigarette addiction rears it's ugly head, along with the assumption he got obese. Sad, but bad habits will get you if you're not careful. I definitely found this out first hand but I'm much better now thank god.
@@erichaynes7502 Anti-smoking was a very big trend in the '80s and we gave my dad a hard time about it, making him feel guilty about secondhand smoke harming us until he finally quit. He has had some health issues but is still alive today. The book definitely got into a lot more cases about Hughes where he cut off communication with other people based on things they didn't feel justified it. I think the relationship with Ringwald also got strained because at first she declined to star in Pretty in Pink before later reconsidering. Ringwald said later he was "overly sensitive" and held grudges against people. However, his family life seemed very solid, never divorced, worked with his kids on some projects and they've spoken highly of him. Professionally, it seems like he expected strict loyalty. I think one story was that he was late for a screening of one of his movies for studio executives and the executives told a producer to start the film anyway. When Hughes showed up and found out what happened he fired the producer.
@@jedijones Unfortunately I had a close family die due to smoking it was decades in the making. The missing answer about why Hughes could be so cold-hearted and unforgiving might simply because he's from the mid-west. Midwest family's can have these seeming appalling callousness towards even the closest of family, friends and co-workers. Johnny Carson is the best example here, he had a very controlling and unlikable mother while his did did nothing to reign in her behavior. Carson never could please her, she even went on record in an interview saying that her son didn't do very well a particular night. She never said anything bad about his sister or any other female and she didn't like boys. Carson never was normal, all of his marriages failed, he never could please his mother and it made his life miserable. I'm from the Midwest and trust me this phenomena is real. Leno speaks about this as well; "a Midwest family loved each other so much they almost told them". A family that does not communicate is going to manifest itself in all other communication with non-family members.
C’mon Gene!!
I agree with Siskel. Stoltz's character would have wanted to smash Mary Stuart Masterson's character from jump.
Siskel may have a valid point, but it's not enough of a reason to give a thumbs down to the whole film.
She never became a big star bu that happens often
Yes, she had a couple of good movies. But in order to be considered a big star you need to be in blockbuster movies and she was more into acting in projects she liked.
I find this to be a really weak point by Gene. For one, I can think of 2 girls in Middle School and High School that I could tell might be really hot if they fixed themselves up a little differently. Both eventually did and both were more attractive, more noticed, and ultimately more popular. One of those 2 girls initially was very tomboyish, had mostly guy friends, short hair, played soccer, etc. If MSM went to school dressed like she did in the movie, if she really worked at a service station, wore men's boxers, and played drums as her hobby, guys would overlook her. It's not that unbelievable.
I also don't think it's a stretch to see Lea Thompson as the most popular girl in school, as well as the hottest. The scene where she's in the locker room....unbelievably hot. And if everyone is saying she's hot and the most popular, then there's a social/peer type of influence that also convinces people.
Having said that, they had to pick someone attractive for MSM's character b/c she's obviously the most important character to the movie-> Every guy is supposed to fall for her and root for her. They had to succeed where they ultimately failed with Ducky in Pretty in Pink (to the point to where they had to rewrite the ending b/c test audiences hated that Ducky was going to end up with Ringwald).
One thing that I like about the movie that is unpredictable is that Thompson's character is also likeable. She's very real, she's honest, beautiful, and so on. So much so that Eric Stolz ended up dating her after the filming. Take that Gene! :)
I think this is the best of all Hughes' teen movies, even if it's really a parallel universe remake of "Pretty in Pink". John Cryer's character failed in every way that MSM's character succeeds.
IMHO the only weak part of the film was Elias Koteas (who played the bald punk rocker friend) who upstaged in every scene while the others were giving grounded performances.