I Miss Gene Siskel

When Wendy and I were first married, I remember watching Sneak Previews on PBS. This was before we had cable TV, back in the early 80s. Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, movie critics of the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun Times respectively, bantered back and forth about the latest releases in the theatres.

These discussions could become quite animated with the younger but also more urbane and witty Siskel needling the older Ebert when the two were at odds over whether to give a film their ultimate recommendation--two thumbs up. Ebert was not going to play Costello to Siskel's Abbott, despite the physical parallels there. So the two would often trade barbs back and forth in a manner similar to how a conservative Republican might discuss politics with a liberal Democrat.

I lost track of their program once it moved off of PBS. The show seemed to change names and move around more than a shady traveling salesman. Then Siskel died prematurely a few years back (I have to say prematurely because he died at the age I will become this year). Ebert carried on, but the show just was not the same without Siskel.

And I feel the same about movies lately too. I can't remember the last time I saw a good movie, let alone a great one. We need critics who are passionate enough about movies to keep Hollywood movie executives from pushing bad movies on us. Upon a recommendation in my AARP magazine last week, we rented The 40-year-old Virgin. To be fair, it had some funny moments. To be truthful, those moments were overshadowed by the gratuitous use of vulgar language and obscenities.

Do people really talk like that in real life? I could see a constant stream of "f" words maybe in a movie like, say, Gangsta Rappers Join The Navy, but why in a movie that purports to be a romantic comedy?

Last night I made my annual pilgrimage to The Ann Arbor Film Festival (AAFF) in my quest to the support the arts in my local community. For an $8 ticket, you see a collection of short films, usually including some social documentaries, experimental videos, animated features, etc.

Again, there were some films that were cleverly done, but not enough to give me hope for the next generation of filmmakers. I remember looking forward to one short that was to feature a cyclist's ride through Copenhagen, Denmark. I like travel features.

This was, however, a confusing kaleidoscopic collection of images that flickered from one subject to the next so quickly that all I could gather is that Copenhagen seems to be near water of some kind and there appears to be a lot of flowers there too. (Or something that looks like flowers.)

Actually, the way this film and some other AAFF film clips were presented reminded me of a neurological test I endured about ten years ago when a technician tried to induce a seizure in me by flashing very bright and indiscernible images at varying speeds. I never experienced a seizure but found the experience to be very intense. It's not the kind of intense movie-going experience I want, though. I'll settle for some good old-fashioned mood-building celluloid story-telling.