My go-to fondest childhood reminiscence is watching movies like Popeye, Superman, Flash Gordon, Clash of the Titans, Annie and Raiders of the Lost Ark. They all came out when I was 10-11 years old, and they remain among my cherished favorites.
The Queen soundtrack (which I'm surprised they didn't mention) makes Flash Gordon worth watching, but I also love the movie itself because it came out when I was 11 and has remained a wonderful part of my childhood.
MY opinion is the very FLIPSIDE of YOURS there. I liked everything about that movie EXCEPT that crappy annoying soundtrack. I'm just not a Queen fan I guess.
Flash Gordon is actually a lot more similar in style to BARBARELLA than frigging Star Wars! .. . with the camp humor, psychedelic imagery, sexual innuendo, quirky sensibility, . . and which is, coincidentally, by the SAME PRODUCER (Dino Delaurentis) and also has a comic-strip origin. If you need another flick to compare this one too, then THAT would really be a much more apt and intelligent choice than frigging star wars!
You realize us yanks created Batman '66? You don't get much more camp than that. Anyways, Flash Gordon was my first role model, and the movie matched my kindergarten fashion sense.
Flash has a lot going for it: good enough story , great production sets, excellent supporting actors, great humor, & Queen. A hit w me! 2:00 SC 8:25 Popeye 14:08 BBB 19:55
took my waay younger bro to see Flash Gordon and he was enthralled, munching thru 2 tubs of corn without moving his eyes from the screen. It was a good fit for his age.
I saw FG opening weekend. Loved it! When "soundtrack by Queen" came on we all cheered. Nobody knew what lightning in a bottle that was ⚡Flash - aah-aahhhhhh
I LOVE POPEYE! It’s just delightful. It’s one of my favorite movie musicals. As for Stir Crazy, sure, the last half hour or hour could have moved faster, but the undeniable power of that film is the teaming of Wilder/Pryor. I wish Siskel and Ebert would have mentioned Stir Crazy was directed by the legendary great actor Sidney Poitier.
It's a trip to hear Sam J Jones' actual voice in the Flash Gordon clip. The show was given the footage before Peter Marinker had dubbed the actor's dialogue.
Popeye, Stir Crazy and Flash Gordon are classics. EDIT 2024: It seems Flash Gordon is enjoying something of a comeback. I've seen a few reaction channels feature it lately. It's trendy!
I always remember that Vincent Canby of The New York Times found Popeye a way more entertaining film than Flash Gordon. Flash Gordon was one of the films that panned by Vincent Canby of The New York Times in 1980, Flash Gordon went downhill after the execution scene of Flash Gordon, and my absolute favorite thing about Popeye was Shelley Duvall's performance as Olive Oyl.
Siskel was right, at least in my case. I saw Popeye, or at least a bit of it, on HBO when I was 6 or 7 and grew disillusioned and gave up on it when a bunch of spinach-powered fights didn't quickly materialize. I'm honestly shocked that they both enjoyed Popeye as I had always figured it was a critical failure. Might be time to give that flick another chance.
The fact it looked like the old serials but with garish, bright comic book like colors is one of the things I enjoy about Flash Gordon! It's not a flaw. They bash the movie, but they did laugh watching those clips. Props to Ebert for admitting it's fun.
I din't like Flash Gordon when I was young, I thought it was cheesy, silly OTT and dumb. Nowadays I LOVE that movie - for exactly the same reasons! \😸/
I was a kid when Popeye came out and i DID NOT get it, i watched it years later and liked it A LOT more. it has been a good while since i watched and that Baby Oil clip just made me literally LOL. Flash Gordon has its own charm, i dont love it but i dont mind it either. Stir Crazy was great when i was a kid and still enjoy it. that huge bald guy "Erland van Lidth" was a really interesting person i would have loved to see him in more things. i had known him at that time because he was in "The Wanderers" which was one of my favorite films back then. i also remember "Alligator" being pretty big on cable and it seems like there were a few rip off films going around at that time as well. just like the slew of killer bee films maybe a few years before?
POPEYE was unbelievably awful. It looked great. Perfectly cast. But it just laid there. Nothing funny, no energy. I went with friends, selling them that the same director of MASH was making POPEYE...and they kept asking, "Are we gonna stay for all of this?" Ugh.
Siskel is such a stick in the mud .... Flash Gordon is a classic ... beautiful to look at in it's consciously camp and colorful way. They don't even talk about the score by Queen.
Popeye had all the makings to be a success. A great cast, perfectly chosen. A gifted director. Cute songs. Incredible production design. But it was an almost total calamity. As I understand it, the film was only completed on schedule due to massive amounts of cocaine, and everyone's drug-addled brains must have thought everything in front of the camera was funnier than a fart at a funeral.
Robert Altman, Popeye the Sailor Man. I can't really think of a much stranger combination. who thought that a good idea? couldn't have been Altman, surely? it's just _I can't understand what anybody is saying_ in that movie. it's got that more raw, unceremonious Altman "everyone talk at once" sort of philosophy. there's all this background noise to . . . make a fantastical cartoon universe seem more lifelike?? what a strange, strange movie. kinda great for that reason, but I wouldn't watch it again or anything.
Personally, I liked Popeye. Casting was absolutely perfect across the board, especially Robin Williams as Popeye, and Shelley Duvall was born to play Olive Oyl. Williams even got Popeye's mumbling from the classic Fleischer cartoons right. Paul L. Smith LOOKS like Bluto, but they don't give him anything to actually do. Robert Altman was probably the worst person to be put at the helm of a musical, and the Nilsson songs are not exactly toe-tapping. The few songs that worked in my opinion came from Robin Williams. It's a shame Williams was a little embarrassed by the film, but I still think it worked. It would have worked better if, say, Stanley Donen directed it, but live with it. We probably wouldn't have gotten Popeye Village in Malta if Donen had directed, though. Flash Gordon took a little longer for me to accept - at the time, I considered it an insult to the classic serials with Buster Crabbe, but now I can see it as very much a tribute to the form. Sam Jones is terrible as Flash and Melody Anderson is just a pretty face (and Ornella Muti was more of a fascination for me). Brian Blessed is ... well, Brian Blessed - he was perfect as Prince Vultan the Hawk Man, and he admitted in the commentary that he was a big fan of Flash Gordon and desperately wanted the role. But Max Von Sydow is utterly perfect as Ming the Merciless, and he's clearly having so much fun. The film had its flaws, but it's more of a guilty pleasure for me now.
Update: I just found out Sam Jones’ voice was replaced. I hate when film makers do that :(. If the studio hates his / her voice, get a different actor. I can think of no cases when this is a good idea:(
It’s not because they hated his voice, it’s because he quit during post production. As he tells it, “producer Dino De Laurentis and I bumped heads a few times - there were a few misunderstandings. In my naivety at the age of 25 I just let the attorneys handle everything - I just let my representation handle it and they did not do a very good job at all. The bottom line, though, is they worked for me and I take responsibility for what happened. I didn’t go back for looping and dubbing so they ended up using another actor to loop - I think about half the film was actually not my voice.”
I won free tickets to see "Flash Gordon" from a local radio station. It was barely worth free. They made a big deal of Queen doing the soundtrack. For no good reason. I'd rather watch Dr. Chaotica on "Star Trek: Voyager".
I think Popeye is simultaneously one of the greatest things ever put to film, while also not being a very good movie. The casting and world created are absolutely amazing, but unfortunately, they don't do much with that great head start. I think it's worth watching at least once just for that great casting and world, even if you're probably going to be disappointed with the end result.
I remember going to see, "Flash Gordon." l loathed it; much, preferred the serial(a few episodes, which I've managed to see.)Maybe, I'm prejudiced but...and, no, I don't know if I'm related, to "Buster."
I begged my dad to take me to see Popeye. He never forgave me.
I was so bored by Popeye when I was a kid but when I saw it again 20 years later I loved it, so guess it’s not for kids
LOL
I got my dad to take me to Howard the Duck but I think he actually liked it
I wanted to see Popeye when i was 5 too.. because i thought it was gonna be a cartoon.. i hated that movie. Lol
😀😀😀
My go-to fondest childhood reminiscence is watching movies like Popeye, Superman, Flash Gordon, Clash of the Titans, Annie and Raiders of the Lost Ark. They all came out when I was 10-11 years old, and they remain among my cherished favorites.
Basically, 5 of those are nostalgia, and 1 is a good film.
The Queen soundtrack (which I'm surprised they didn't mention) makes Flash Gordon worth watching, but I also love the movie itself because it came out when I was 11 and has remained a wonderful part of my childhood.
Yes. In going that direction with the music, they made a fun “Space Rock Opera”.
MY opinion is the very FLIPSIDE of YOURS there. I liked everything about that movie EXCEPT that crappy annoying soundtrack. I'm just not a Queen fan I guess.
It had Peter Duncan in it who was big on uk kids TV at the time
I was the same age when my brother and I watched it at the theaters. Our parents went to watch Stir Crazy. I didn't watch Stir Crazy until it hit HBO.
If Flash Gordon really played for the Jets, the horrors of an evil space emperor wouldn't be that bad for him.
Flash Gordon is actually a lot more similar in style to BARBARELLA than frigging Star Wars! .. . with the camp humor, psychedelic imagery, sexual innuendo, quirky sensibility, . . and which is, coincidentally, by the SAME PRODUCER (Dino Delaurentis) and also has a comic-strip origin. If you need another flick to compare this one too, then THAT would really be a much more apt and intelligent choice than frigging star wars!
Barbarella and Flash Gordon are very, very European in their camp sensibility. More than a typical American can tolerate.
You realize us yanks created Batman '66? You don't get much more camp than that.
Anyways, Flash Gordon was my first role model, and the movie matched my kindergarten fashion sense.
Stir Crazy is so much fun
I can’t understand the appeal of the Popeye movie. It looks and sounds like a nightmare.
Flash has a lot going for it: good enough story , great production sets, excellent supporting actors, great humor, & Queen. A hit w me! 2:00
SC 8:25
Popeye 14:08
BBB 19:55
I saw all three in the theaters and remember it like yesterday. No one showed up for popeye n flash Gordon but STIR CRAZY??? theater was packed
Bluto played the sadistic prison guard in Midnight Express..
He also played the Beast Rabban in David Lynch's Dune, and a Russian aristocrat in Maverick.
I saw Popeye on V.H.S. and I prayed to Yahweh that our V.C.R. would eat the tape.
took my waay younger bro to see Flash Gordon and he was enthralled, munching thru 2 tubs of corn without moving his eyes from the screen. It was a good fit for his age.
I saw FG opening weekend. Loved it! When "soundtrack by Queen" came on we all cheered. Nobody knew what lightning in a bottle that was ⚡Flash - aah-aahhhhhh
I LOVE POPEYE! It’s just delightful. It’s one of my favorite movie musicals. As for Stir Crazy, sure, the last half hour or hour could have moved faster, but the undeniable power of that film is the teaming of Wilder/Pryor. I wish Siskel and Ebert would have mentioned Stir Crazy was directed by the legendary great actor Sidney Poitier.
It's a trip to hear Sam J Jones' actual voice in the Flash Gordon clip. The show was given the footage before Peter Marinker had dubbed the actor's dialogue.
Popeye is brutally bad, I can’t believe they gave it such a glowing review.
The best thing about “Flash Gordon” was Ming’s daughter 😍
You do know that Flash and Ming's daughter posed in playboy and playgirl?
Popeye, Stir Crazy and Flash Gordon are classics. EDIT 2024: It seems Flash Gordon is enjoying something of a comeback. I've seen a few reaction channels feature it lately. It's trendy!
Wow.....I remember how much I hated Popeye then as a kid, omg I hated this film.
I could fall asleep to that WTTW 11 promo on a loop. 😂
I always remember that Vincent Canby of The New York Times found Popeye a way more entertaining film than Flash Gordon. Flash Gordon was one of the films that panned by Vincent Canby of The New York Times in 1980, Flash Gordon went downhill after the execution scene of Flash Gordon, and my absolute favorite thing about Popeye was Shelley Duvall's performance as Olive Oyl.
I remember going to see Popeye. I also remember my dad saying "oh no, it's a musical..."
I like Flash Gordon and Stir Crazy.
They`re are 2 of my most watched movies over the last 30 years....
Love me some Flash Gordon!
I really think that the wonderful music by Harry Nilsson was a tremendous asset to "Popeye" and should've been mentioned!
I didn't know who Harry Nilsson was until I looked up the music from "Russian Doll". He was an astounding writer.
John lennon's drinking buddy.
Alligator was sooo much fun.
Omg I love the movie Stir Crazy!
"Bye, Bye Brazil" is one of my all-time favorite films.
Stir Crazy is great
Popeye was awful!
Robin Williams barely spoke above a whisper as Popeye.
We lost Shelley Duval this year (2024). It's sad Siskel, Ebert, Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall all died pretty young.
Siskel was right, at least in my case. I saw Popeye, or at least a bit of it, on HBO when I was 6 or 7 and grew disillusioned and gave up on it when a bunch of spinach-powered fights didn't quickly materialize. I'm honestly shocked that they both enjoyed Popeye as I had always figured it was a critical failure. Might be time to give that flick another chance.
No need to see it again. It's as dull and pointless as always. How Siskel and Ebert could have liked that stupid movie is beyond me.
The fact it looked like the old serials but with garish, bright comic book like colors is one of the things I enjoy about Flash Gordon! It's not a flaw.
They bash the movie, but they did laugh watching those clips. Props to Ebert for admitting it's fun.
I din't like Flash Gordon when I was young, I thought it was cheesy, silly OTT and dumb.
Nowadays I LOVE that movie - for exactly the same reasons! \😸/
I liked Alligator.
I liked Popeye & Stir Crazy
I was a kid when Popeye came out and i DID NOT get it, i watched it years later and liked it A LOT more. it has been a good while since i watched and that Baby Oil clip just made me literally LOL.
Flash Gordon has its own charm, i dont love it but i dont mind it either.
Stir Crazy was great when i was a kid and still enjoy it. that huge bald guy "Erland van Lidth" was a really interesting person i would have loved to see him in more things. i had known him at that time because he was in "The Wanderers" which was one of my favorite films back then.
i also remember "Alligator" being pretty big on cable and it seems like there were a few rip off films going around at that time as well. just like the slew of killer bee films maybe a few years before?
I love Siskel, but his reviews are odd. Like him saying Flash Gordon would be better if it was more like Airplane!.
Really, Ebert? You recommend that Popeye crap, but not Stir Crazy. Freakin' absurd.
If you want a keeper ladies, maybe _don't_ choose the guy who wears a T shirt emblazoned with his own name on the front, lol! 5:10
POPEYE was unbelievably awful.
It looked great. Perfectly cast. But it just laid there. Nothing funny, no energy.
I went with friends, selling them that the same director of MASH was making POPEYE...and they kept asking, "Are we gonna stay for all of this?"
Ugh.
Siskel is such a stick in the mud .... Flash Gordon is a classic ... beautiful to look at in it's consciously camp and colorful way. They don't even talk about the score by Queen.
The fact that it is still loved that they brought it out of 4K blue ray proves you can never know which films will go down as classics.
@@stephennootens916 I bought it when they did the dvd release with the Alex Ross art on the cover. I think around 2005 or something?
Highlander soundtrack was good too
He’s right. Flash Gordon is bad.
@@WorldwideWyatt Flash Gordon is self aware .. just like that crap you probably just watched .. but it was done better
Popeye had all the makings to be a success. A great cast, perfectly chosen. A gifted director. Cute songs. Incredible production design. But it was an almost total calamity. As I understand it, the film was only completed on schedule due to massive amounts of cocaine, and everyone's drug-addled brains must have thought everything in front of the camera was funnier than a fart at a funeral.
It also made 60 millions world wide in 1980-81 that made it the #10 movie of that year.
It’s not a ‘Roadayo’ … it’s pronounced a ‘Roadeeyo’… C’mon Roger!
Popeye bored me to tears!
A FEW OF THESE SHOULD BE MENTIONED ON CARAVAN OF GARBAGE.
Alligator is the best movie in this episode !
Popeye is the only altman film i liked.
Popeye is such a weird film. It feels like an Italian art house flick. I find it icky. Weird, ersatz. I dont like it.
Flash Gordon is great.
Popeye was a great childhood movie for me, too bad it was a huge flop.
No it wasn't. It made 60M it was the #10 hit of that year.
Flash Gordon is a cult classic.
What ? "Row - Day - O" 13:24
Daylight come and I wanna row home
And at 47 i STILL love POPEYE N FLASH GORDON. STIR CRAZY, ebert was right about THAT. Its a different film after the second hour n its BORING
Robert Altman, Popeye the Sailor Man.
I can't really think of a much stranger combination. who thought that a good idea? couldn't have been Altman, surely?
it's just _I can't understand what anybody is saying_ in that movie. it's got that more raw, unceremonious Altman "everyone talk at once" sort of philosophy. there's all this background noise to . . . make a fantastical cartoon universe seem more lifelike??
what a strange, strange movie. kinda great for that reason, but I wouldn't watch it again or anything.
Personally, I liked Popeye. Casting was absolutely perfect across the board, especially Robin Williams as Popeye, and Shelley Duvall was born to play Olive Oyl. Williams even got Popeye's mumbling from the classic Fleischer cartoons right. Paul L. Smith LOOKS like Bluto, but they don't give him anything to actually do. Robert Altman was probably the worst person to be put at the helm of a musical, and the Nilsson songs are not exactly toe-tapping. The few songs that worked in my opinion came from Robin Williams. It's a shame Williams was a little embarrassed by the film, but I still think it worked. It would have worked better if, say, Stanley Donen directed it, but live with it. We probably wouldn't have gotten Popeye Village in Malta if Donen had directed, though.
Flash Gordon took a little longer for me to accept - at the time, I considered it an insult to the classic serials with Buster Crabbe, but now I can see it as very much a tribute to the form. Sam Jones is terrible as Flash and Melody Anderson is just a pretty face (and Ornella Muti was more of a fascination for me). Brian Blessed is ... well, Brian Blessed - he was perfect as Prince Vultan the Hawk Man, and he admitted in the commentary that he was a big fan of Flash Gordon and desperately wanted the role. But Max Von Sydow is utterly perfect as Ming the Merciless, and he's clearly having so much fun. The film had its flaws, but it's more of a guilty pleasure for me now.
there was a lot of Flash Gordon merch in 79-80. the cartoon had a great toy line faithful to the comics and the live action movie was great.
Gene Siskel proven wrong again. Flash Gordon lives on and has only gained popularity (probably due to Ted and Blades of Glory).
Update: I just found out Sam Jones’ voice was replaced. I hate when film makers do that :(. If the studio hates his / her voice, get a different actor. I can think of no cases when this is a good idea:(
Jones was pissed and wouldn`t do the redubbing....
I’d be pissed too
I read he was pissed or in a fight with the producers..wouldn`t do the redubbing ..so they dubbed over his voice...(not sure what about)
Nearly every girl in Bond films except the main characters
It’s not because they hated his voice, it’s because he quit during post production. As he tells it, “producer Dino De Laurentis and I bumped heads a few times - there were a few misunderstandings. In my naivety at the age of 25 I just let the attorneys handle everything - I just let my representation handle it and they did not do a very good job at all. The bottom line, though, is they worked for me and I take responsibility for what happened. I didn’t go back for looping and dubbing so they ended up using another actor to loop - I think about half the film was actually not my voice.”
Haha. I like it when they quietly chuckle during each other’s comments on the worst movie of the week.
⚡️Flash Gordon⚡️, quarterback, New York Jets
I won free tickets to see "Flash Gordon" from a local radio station. It was barely worth free. They made a big deal of Queen doing the soundtrack. For no good reason. I'd rather watch Dr. Chaotica on "Star Trek: Voyager".
I think it depended what age you were when you saw it. I was 6 & loved it!
😀😀🙂
@@johnnyb980 Yeah, I was 22!
Although I liked Popeye too, I'm surprised Roger nor Gene commented on the wonderful music Nilsson and Pierson wrote.
I think Popeye is simultaneously one of the greatest things ever put to film, while also not being a very good movie. The casting and world created are absolutely amazing, but unfortunately, they don't do much with that great head start. I think it's worth watching at least once just for that great casting and world, even if you're probably going to be disappointed with the end result.
A lot of what you say is true, but when I was a kid, I loved it and saw it many times over.
Why would they make Flash a QB for The Jets. They stink
I remember watching this episode on TV.
Sweet Pea is now approaching 45
I love Flash Gordon and Popeye.
“Is he here for rehabilitation?” 😂🤣
sure this has been asked many times...What is the source for these incredibly hq videos?
PBS?
did siskel and ebert review the movie tom horn 1980?
I`ve never seen a review on it from them.....last McQueen movie I saw review on was "The Hunter" and Tom Horn was a really good Western
Ebert's fake laughs are something.
It was a mistake to make Popeye into a musical.
I remember going to see, "Flash Gordon." l loathed it; much, preferred the serial(a few episodes, which I've managed to see.)Maybe, I'm prejudiced but...and, no, I don't know if I'm related, to "Buster."
I was giving you a positive review, until you gave Alligator a bad review.