Siskel & Ebert (TV Series)

Showgirls/Canadian Bacon/Se7en/The Run of the Country/A Month by the Lake (1995)

Gene Siskel: Self - Host

Quotes 

• Roger Ebert - Host : "Showgirls" DOES have a certain entertainment value, in its sleaze-o stupid-o way, and I wasn't bored by the film. It also has several hilarious moments and lines of dialogue that I'm not sure were intended to get laughs, but I'm glad they left them in because I did laugh. What's disappointing is that the Joe Eszterhas screenplay shows absolutely no ambition to be the least bit better than it absolutely has to be. Basically, he has simply recycled the oldest showbiz formula in the book, where the chorus girl takes over for the star and managed to disguise it with a lot of nudity and some fairly routine sex. Right before I saw "Showgirls", I saw another Vegas movie called "Leaving Las Vegas", it's gonna open in a few weeks, and it is SO much more powerful and insightful about Las Vegas and about sex that it blows this one right out of the water.

  Gene Siskel - Host : I had the same reaction to this picture, Roger, and that was disappointment with Joe Eszterhas. He's the highest-paid screenwriter in history, and I really don't think he earned his money this time. It is the most simplistic, it is "All About Eve" in a G-string, and it really is, uh... the lines of dialogue, the insight, you said show business details backstage? What: Putting ice on your breasts to make things, uh... stand out? That's old stuff.

  Roger Ebert - Host : That's when Eve...

  Gene Siskel - Host : Even THAT...

  Roger Ebert - Host : ...But also maybe the rehearsal, and the audition process, and how people get jobs.

  Gene Siskel - Host : Oh, we saw it in "A Chorus Line". There isn't ANYTHING original in this picture...

  Roger Ebert - Host : No, there isn't. I didn't say there was.

  Gene Siskel - Host : Not a single thing that's original in the picture, and IS it that sexy? There's one lap dance where you're just stunned that Elizabeth Barkeley can do that- Berkley can do that with her body, but I mean, twist around as much as she does, but it's not sexy at all. And SHE'S not sexy. She's, uh, hard around the face, I didn't think she was particularly appealing. I thought the other woman was more attractive.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Gina Gershon, yes.

  Gene Siskel - Host : More attractive. So I don't think they have an attractive star, they don't do anything original in the screenplay at all, I didn't care for the film.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Well, I didn't either. And I'll tell ya, the thing that bothers me is, Eszterhas basically had an opportunity here to break some new ground...

  Gene Siskel - Host : With the rating, yes.

  Roger Ebert - Host : ...With the NC-17. I mean, when we talk about NC-17, we would like to think that maybe a movie would have some insights into sexuality, into behavior, into prostitution, in this case, or stripping. Or into this kind of woman's...

  Gene Siskel - Host : Nothing.

  Roger Ebert - Host : ...Personality. And there's nothing. His movies are all about the same in connection with women. He's, I think he's frightened of them. He always sees them as kind of bitch-goddesses with knives and things, she has a switchblade out within thirty seconds of the opening of the movie, and there's no eroticism involving a relationship between two people.

  Gene Siskel - Host : Either HE'S afraid of them, or he thinks that's what the audience wants to see, and that's what the audience WILL see. They're women as ragdolls, violent ragdolls.