Striptease/Cold Fever/The Nutty Professor/A Perfect Candidate/Maybe, Maybe Not

Roger Ebert - Host: [reviewing "Striptease"] My guess is that everybody laughed at the original Carl Hiaasen novel, and then they started rewriting it a little to make the Demi Moore character more positive, and that was a not a good idea, because her character should be just as much the target of humor as everybody else in the movie. And they made her into a plucky heroine of the sort that Sally Field plays. This confuses the tone in a lot of scenes, where you have some actors going for laughs, and the heroine playing it too straight. Thumbs down for me for "Striptease".

Gene Siskel - Host: Thumbs WAY down for me, I mean, the writing is awful. I didn't read the book, so I didn't have that insight...

Roger Ebert - Host: Great book. I loved the book.

Gene Siskel - Host: ...Uh, well, I can appreciate the criticism you're giving it, because that now makes sense. Her character is DEADLY boring. Let's face it: As constructed, the only reason to look at this picture is to see her body. She's continuing a progression in which, I don't know what's next for her, if you think about it. Y'know, Demi, y'know, has a baby on camera? I mean, that's about IT, where she seems to be going. Um, that's the level. And I'm criticizing it on the level, because THAT'S what everybody's thinking about when they watch this picture. It is a study in her body. Burt Reynolds... I admire the attempt at self-parody at some level. But... he actually is ripping off what Charles Durning did a whole better in Reynolds's picture, "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas".

Roger Ebert - Host: Well, I liked Burt Reynolds, and I liked most everybody else in the movie, too, but I did feel that, uh, it should be a raucous laugh riot, it's a COMEDY.

Gene Siskel - Host: The whole notion of her...

Roger Ebert - Host: It's not a remake...

Gene Siskel - Host: It's a "Scarlet Letter", almost, in the same way.

Roger Ebert - Host: You're right.

Gene Siskel - Host: It's what she's doing. Ridiculous.