A Few Good Men/The Muppet Christmas Carol/Leap of Faith/Passion Fish

Gene Siskel - Host: The script of "A Few Good Men" offers few surprises, except one, and that is Tom Cruise and Demi Moore do NOT have a love affair in the movie, and that's really refreshing. Also notable is that Tom Cruise more than holds his own against Jack Nicholson. Because of his looks, Tom Cruise is often underestimated as an actor, but against Paul Newman, Dustin Hoffman, and now Jack Nicholson, he proves they're equal. This movie is just good, it's not great, but Cruise is better than that. He's the reason to see "A Few Good Men".

Roger Ebert - Host: Well, I agree with you about Tom Cruise, and I also think that Jack Nicholson gives a very interesting performance in this movie, very watchable performance. But I would zero in on something that you correctly said, and that is, there are no surprises in this movie.

Gene Siskel - Host: Right.

Roger Ebert - Host: Not only aren't there any surprises in the general sense, but in particular, the script fatally undermines the key scene in the whole movie, which is Nicholson's big courtroom scene. And that's because, in a scene set the night before, Tom Cruise correctly predicts and explains and outlines for his friends exactly what his courtroom strategy is going to be, and what he expects Nicholson to do. And then the next day in court, Nicholson- everything goes according to plan, Nicholson does exactly what was said. Now WHY would a screenplay give away a surprise like that? Why didn't they figure we'd be smart enough that we'd just be able to see the courtroom scene and figure out for ourselves what Cruise is trying to do and then see if Nicholson falls for it or not. Because by, by, by telling them about it in advance, it completely destroys that scene. I give the movie thumbs down, because it doesn't know how to handle the climax.

Gene Siskel - Host: Well, I think I probably would've been able to have predicted the climax, even if they had...

Roger Ebert - Host: Yeah, but I mean, why, why do you want somebody in the movie to predict it for you? I mean, that way, you can feel clever, y'know.

Gene Siskel - Host: No... it is a predictable movie. I'm just surprised that you're voting thumbs down, because I thought, all the way through, I was really- I knew the story. All the way through, I was watching Cruise's character, and watching him develop...

Roger Ebert - Host: No, not only do you know the story, but within the first twenty minutes of this movie, you can figure out what the entire story is going to be, more or less. So then it's ONLY performances...

Gene Siskel - Host: Well, that's a pretty...

Roger Ebert - Host: ...And it seems to me, if the performances had been linked to a screenplay that was a lot more interesting...

Gene Siskel - Host: There was a... the screenplay was surprising for what it DIDN'T do with the Demi Moore character.

Roger Ebert - Host: That's because that character was originally written as a man, I'm convinced of that. And they made it into a woman without rewriting it in any other way.

Gene Siskel - Host: But that, but that's great. I mean, wouldn't you expect a rewrite to include a love relationship? Sure you would.

Roger Ebert - Host: I would expect it to include more of an awareness in the two people that one was a male and one was a female. In this movie, they both seem to be unaware of that fact.

Gene Siskel - Host: No, I don't think so.