The Stinkers of 1983

With today being the final day for "At the Movies" with current critics Michael Phillips and A. O. Scott, I'm now reviewing the original "At the Movies" program with the late Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. In this one, they are reviewing the worst movies of 1983 with particular attention to the awful sequels that came out that year: Jaws 3-D, Amityville 3-D, Porky's II: The Next Day, The Sting II, Smokey and the Bandit Part 3, and Staying Alive-which follows the further adventures of Tony Manero from Saturday Night Fever. Gene and Roger criticize the shoddiness of the first two though Gene gives credits to the effectiveness of the house's "eyes" in the Amityville one (I think he or Roger also cited the choir-like music as particularly cheesy of which I laughed at during that sequence when shown). They both think the teens of the Porky's sequel are even more obnoxious than previously for their tastes, the second Sting has no Redford or Newman and was just too boring for them, the third Smokey has Burt Reynolds only in a cameo and Ebert thinks any movie with Paul Williams in it as an automatic recipe for disaster (obviously, he forgot about Phantom of the Paradise), and Gene was particularly disappointed in Staying Alive because he loved the Brooklyn reality in SNF and hated the Fairly Tale vibe in SA. (In fact, Siskel loved SNF so much, he bought the suit John Travolta wore in that movie.) The only one of those I actually watched the whole way through (I only saw Jaws 3-D in spots and it was on HBO so I didn't wear the glasses) was S&tBP3 and, no, it wasn't very good. Witty comments said by both throughout. I especially loved when they were recounting the rest of their worst list and Gene said, "Krull, I thought that was a dessert!" Incidentally, another one on that list was The Osterman Weekend, which was Sam Peckinpah's last movie.