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70-501: North Sea Hijack (released as ffolkes outside the UK and as Assault Force on US TV) is a 1980 British adventure film starring Roger Moore , James Mason , Anthony Perkins and Michael Parks . It was directed by Andrew V. McLaglen and adapted by Jack Davies from his novel, Esther, Ruth and Jennifer . This film was a vehicle for both Moore and Perkins to try to escape typecasting . Previously, Moore had been practically typecast as

140-474: A "landmark of effects-led adventure cinema." Outside technical effects, adventure films of Douglas Fairbanks such as Robin Hood (1922) with its scenes of battles and recreations of castles cost a record-setting $ 1.5 million to produce also provided a variant of adventure spectacle to audiences. Tasker stated that The Lost World (1925) arguably initiated a jungle adventure film cycle that would be expanded on in

210-484: A 1980 episode of Sneak Previews . The film hold a 43% on Rotten Tomatoes based on six reviews. Quentin Tarantino called the film Roger Moore's best. Adventure film Adventure films boast their setting and visuals as key elements. This ranged from early technical showcases such as The Lost World (1925) and King Kong (1933). These films set up exotic locations as both beautiful and dangerous. This would be

280-551: A Theater Near You , the predecessor to Sneak Previews , is included in the 2009 documentary film, For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism . In the film, he is seen debating with Ebert over the merits of the film version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest . Gene Siskel had an abrasive review style, and claimed his film criticism was an individual exercise that should not be swayed by public taste. In an interview for

350-533: A Time in America , The Last Temptation of Christ , Hearts of Darkness , and The Ice Storm . Six times, Ebert's top selection did not appear on Siskel's; these films were 3 Women , An Unmarried Woman , Apocalypse Now , Sophie's Choice , Mississippi Burning , and Dark City . In 1980, Siskel married Marlene Iglitzen, who was then a producer for CBS in New York. They had two daughters, Kate and Callie, and

420-473: A brief impromptu tribute to Siskel: I want to take a moment to acknowledge someone we lost too recently to include in our film tribute. He wasn't a filmmaker, but he definitely was a member of our film community. Now he clobbered some of us with a great big stick and sometimes he touched us with a velvet glove. I'm talking about Gene Siskel. He was a critic but more importantly, he really loved movies, so, Gene, wherever you are, honey, here's to you. She included

490-482: A contingency plan, should any of the North Sea oil installations it insures be threatened. Months later, a North Sea supply ship named Esther takes on board a group of men posing as reporters who are to visit the oil production platform Jennifer . The leader of this group, Lou Kramer, hijacks the ship; the gangsters attach limpet mines to the legs of Jennifer and its accompanying oil drilling rig, Ruth , then issue

560-468: A continuing trend for Hollywood adventure films. The other major Hollywood style was the historical adventure typified by early films in the style of The Black Pirate (1926) and The Mark of Zorro (1920) which feature less intense violence. Historical adventure was a popular Hollywood staple until the mid-1950s. While the historical adventure film would be parodied or presented as highly camp , special effects -driven adventure films began to dominate

630-516: A critic, Siskel was passionate and exacting. I think it was important to Gene that this was the only serious film criticism on television. That made him proud. We had a lot of big fights. We were people who came together one day a week and, the other six days, we were competitors on two daily newspapers and two different television stations. So there was a lot of competition and a lot of disagreement. Ebert once said of his relationship with Siskel: Gene Siskel and I were like tuning forks. Strike one, and

700-521: A job at the Chicago Tribune in 1969. Siskel's first print review, written one month before he became the Tribune ' s film critic, was for the film Rascal . His review of the film was not favorable ("Because of the excessive gimmickry, most kids will miss the tenderness," he wrote). Prior to this, he served in the U.S. Army Reserve ; he was a military journalist and public affairs officer for

770-587: A low critical status, with a few exceptions. Historically, the genre has not been seen as authored cinema. The genre's cinematic traditions were effectively absent from debates on genre cinema since the 1960s. Chapman echoed this statement. He argued that with only a handful of exceptions, adventure films have not won much favour with film critics: "In traditional film criticism there are few 'good' adventure films; those that have won critical acclaim have usually done so on grounds other than their status as genre films." When action and adventure cinema secure awards, it

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840-641: A nationwide audience in 1977 when WTTW offered it as a series to the PBS program system. Siskel and Ebert left WTTW and PBS in 1982 for syndication . Their new show, At the Movies , was produced and distributed by Tribune Broadcasting , the parent company of the Chicago Tribune and WGN-TV . Sneak Previews continued on PBS for 14 more years with other hosts until its cancellation in 1996. In 1986, Siskel and Ebert left Tribune Broadcasting to have their show produced by

910-472: A negative review to in 1990 but later gave a glowing positive review in 1994, stating, "I wasn't sure what I missed the first time around, but it just didn't click." Siskel said that he walked out on three films during his professional career: the 1971 comedy The Million Dollar Duck starring Dean Jones , the 1980 horror film Maniac , and the 1996 Penelope Spheeris film Black Sheep . When he mentioned walking out on Black Sheep in 1996, he said it

980-453: A person can do physically. We think you need to be a newspaper person first, and Gene Siskel always tried to do that. But there comes a point when a career is so big that you can't do that." Siskel declined to comment on the new arrangement, but Ebert publicly criticized Siskel's Tribune bosses for punishing Siskel for taking their television program to a company other than Tribune Entertainment. Ebert privately suggested that Siskel join him at

1050-507: A quest narrative, where characters seek mythical objects or fabulous treasure as seen in films like King Solomon's Mines (1950) or Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Tasker opted for a broader sense of genre, and commented on Taves limits, stating it was an understandable impulse to place generic limits on potentially diverse bodies of texts, while included films like Raiders of the Lost Ark which she described as feeling "like an adventure in

1120-564: A ransom demand for £ 25 million to the British government . Esther' s crew tries to fight back, but is thwarted by Kramer's vigilance, and two of their number end up dead. When the British Prime Minister and her staff consult Lloyd's - where both platforms are insured - about providing the ransom, the CEO informs them about ffolkes, and after some initial hesitation he is hired to take out

1190-584: A setting that was both remote in time and space to its audience. While Cameron refuted the idea of a clearly defined adventure genre, he said films described the "positive feeling for adventure" evoked from the scenes of action in the film and the identification with the main character. Taves echoed this, exemplifying the character of Robin Hood who deals with a valiant fight for just government in an exotic past. Taves wrote in The Romance of Adventure: The Genre of Historical Adventure Movies (1993) that defining

1260-469: A son, Will. Their daughters graduated from Siskel's alma mater, Yale University. He is the uncle of Ed Siskel , a lawyer and current White House Counsel under U.S. President Joe Biden . Siskel was diagnosed with a malignant, terminal brain tumor on May 8, 1998. He underwent brain surgery three days later. For a few weeks during his recovery, he participated on Siskel & Ebert by telephone, calling in from his hospital bed while Ebert appeared in

1330-472: A thumbs sideways ratings, and goads the two men into an argument about whether or not that would be acceptable, as Ebert likes the idea, but Siskel does not. The two were also seen that same year in the show's celebrity version of " Monster in the Mirror ". In 1993, Siskel appeared as himself in an episode of The Larry Sanders Show entitled "Off Camera". Entertainment Weekly chose his performance as one of

1400-400: A truly great movie made you so happy that you'd tell me a week later your spirits were still high." Some of Siskel's most treasured movies included My Dinner with Andre (1981), Shoah (1985), Fargo (1996), and the documentary Hoop Dreams (1994). One of Siskel's favorite films was Saturday Night Fever ; he even bought the famous white disco suit that John Travolta wore in

1470-438: A womanising, happy-go-lucky playboy in such series as The Saint , The Persuaders! and as James Bond . In contrast to those parts, he portrays a bearded, eccentric, arrogant, cat-loving chauvinist with master strategist skills who does needlepoint embroidery and drinks scotch whisky immoderately. Eccentric and cat-loving counter-terrorism consultant Rufus Excalibur ffolkes is asked by Lloyd's of London to develop

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1540-451: Is often in categories such as visual effects and sound editing. Tasker found this reflected Richards comments on the creative labor as being the primary appeal on work in the genre. Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the Chicago Tribune who co-hosted movie review television series alongside colleague Roger Ebert . Siskel started writing for

1610-461: The Chicago Sun-Times , but Siskel remained a freelancer for the Tribune until his death in 1999. He was replaced as film critic by Dave Kehr . The last review published by Siskel for the Chicago Tribune was for the film She's All That , published on January 29, 1999, in which he gave a favorable review, giving it three stars out of four and wrote that " Rachael Leigh Cook as Laney,

1680-473: The Chicago Tribune in 1969, becoming its film critic soon after. In 1975, he was paired with Roger Ebert to co-host a monthly show called Opening Soon at a Theater Near You airing locally on PBS member station WTTW . In 1978, the show, renamed Sneak Previews , was expanded to weekly episodes and aired on PBS affiliates across the United States. In 1982, Siskel and Ebert left Sneak Previews to create

1750-572: The Defense Information School . For a time afterwards, he was acquainted with Playboy magazine publisher Hugh Hefner . In 1986, the Chicago Tribune announced that Siskel was no longer the paper's film critic, and that his position with the paper had been shifted from that of a full-time film critic to that of a freelance contract writer who was to write about the film industry for the Sunday paper and also provide capsule film reviews for

1820-485: The silent films of the 1910s and 1920s. These films required elaborate visual effects that were important to displaying menacing or fantastic worlds. These films often took narratives from novels, such as films like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916) and The Lost World (1925). Beyond being adaptations of famous books, Tasker said that the appeal of these films was also in their effects laden scene, finding The Lost World

1890-568: The syndicated show At the Movies . Following a contract dispute with Tribune Entertainment in 1986, Siskel and Ebert signed with Buena Vista Television , creating Siskel & Ebert & the Movies (renamed Siskel & Ebert in 1987, and renamed again several times after Siskel's death). Known for their biting wit, intense professional rivalry, heated arguments, and trademark "Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down" movie ratings system, Siskel and Ebert became celebrated in American pop culture. Siskel

1960-449: The "SNL Film Festival" for their last appearance. In 1991, Siskel, along with Ebert, appeared in a segment on the children's television series Sesame Street entitled "Sneak Peek Previews" (a parody of Sneak Previews ). In the segment, the critics instruct the hosts Oscar the Grouch and Telly Monster on how their thumbs up/thumbs down rating system works. Oscar asks if there could be

2030-457: The Academy of Television and Radio, his TV co-host said of him, "I think Gene felt that he had to like the whole picture to give it a thumbs up." In particular, he often gave negative reviews to films that became box office champs and went on to be considered mainstream classics: Poltergeist , Scarface , Beverly Hills Cop , The Terminator , Aliens , Predator , Indiana Jones and

2100-653: The Film Center's distinctive programming and lent the power of his position as a well-known film critic to urge public funding and audience support. In 2000, the Film Center was renamed The Gene Siskel Film Center in his honor. Only once during his long association with Ebert did Siskel ever change his vote on a movie during the review. He initially gave the film Broken Arrow a "thumbs up", but after hearing Ebert's criticism, Siskel changed his mind to "thumbs down". However, he had changed his opinions on films years after his initial reviews, as with Tremors , which he gave

2170-600: The Last Crusade , Thelma & Louise , and Independence Day . This even extended to several films that went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture: The Silence of the Lambs and Unforgiven . Yet, Ebert also noted in a memoriam episode of Siskel and Ebert that when Siskel found a movie that he truly treasured, he embraced it as something special. Directly addressing his late colleague, Ebert said: "I know for sure that seeing

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2240-466: The Light Brigade (1936) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). The historical adventure film continued to be a popular Hollywood genre into the mid-1950s featuring various male stars such as Tyrone Power , Douglas Fairbanks Jr. , Burt Lancaster , and Stewart Granger . Imperialism -themed adventure films continued in the 1950s with a greater emphasis on location shooting . Examples include

2310-561: The Lost Ark (1981), The Mummy (1999), and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003). Few other films embarked on more serious tones, such as Ridley Scott 's Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven (2005). Since the late 1970s, both action and adventure films have become synonymous with the high-budgeted and profitable Hollywood films and franchises. While both genres took on challenging material, towards

2380-484: The Movies (1973) stated that adventure "is not confined to a particular genre [...] it is a quality which turns up in almost every sort of story film; indeed the most obvious adventures movies, the sword-and-bosom epics, are usually among the least interesting." American historian Brian Taves wrote in 1993 that having such wide-ranging application of the genre would render it meaningless. Despite their different definitions, both Taves and Cameron stated that genre required

2450-475: The Right Thing , Goodfellas , Schindler's List , Hoop Dreams , and Fargo . There would have been a tenth, but Ebert declined to rank the 9 + 1 ⁄ 2 -hour documentary Shoah as 1985's best film because he felt it was inappropriate to compare it to the rest of the year's candidates. Six times, Siskel's number one choice did not appear on Ebert's top ten list at all: Straight Time , Ragtime , Once Upon

2520-487: The United Kingdom but in the United States and other English-speaking territories it was re-titled ffolkes . When it was first broadcast on American television in 1983, it was renamed Assault Force . In West Germany it was known as Sprengkommando Atlantik (lit. "Demolition Squad Atlantic"). "The film's had so many title changes I've lost count," said Moore. "But everyone seems to like the character I play." The film

2590-400: The activation of the detonators, leaving Kramer for dead, and prevent the bomb drop on Esther . Kramer, mortally wounded, makes one last attempt to blow up Jennifer , but is stopped by ffolkes and dies. Following the successful conclusion of the mission, ffolkes is rewarded for his service with three kittens named after Esther , Ruth and Jennifer . It was released as North Sea Hijack in

2660-501: The adventure film was defined from a fictional narrative and excluded films based on historical events and people such as Zulu (1964) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962), finding they belonged to other types of narratives such as the historical film and the war film . Chapman summarized the complicated nature of the genre, stating that the "Adventure film is a less clearly defined than most: indeed, this might be one reason why film historians have left it pretty much alone." He described

2730-415: The art director, costume designer, fencing master, stunt arranger, cinematographer and actor just much as the writer and director. For the swashbuckler is truly the sum of all their work." Both action and adventure are often used together as film genres, and are even used interchangeably. For Taves, he compared the styles saying that adventure films were "something beyond action" and were elevated "beyond

2800-584: The box office hit King Solomon's Mines (1950) which was shot in Africa. 1960s fantasy films such as Jason and the Argonauts (1963) combined the set-pieces and fantastic locations of historical adventures with renewed emphasis on special effects. By the 1970s, The Three Musketeers (1973) marked a point where the historical adventure has been firmly associated with what Tasker described as "comic - even camp - tone" that would inform later films such as Raiders of

2870-445: The broadest sense of the term." Tasker noted this specifically, that even when disregarding its historical setting, the film concerned a quest, with travel and developing moral sense of the hero's place in the world. Tasker wrote that these films films have no consistent iconography, their set design and special effects, ranging from stop-motion, to digital imagery and 3D are given a privileged place in these genres. Chapman also noted

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2940-464: The decade. Erb found that the jungle imagery of these films of the 1930s frequently showcased the jungle world as frequently alternating between "demonic and edenic " images, while Tasker said the jungle films and other adventure films of the period would establish a travelogue allure of these settings as romantic spaces. Within the Classical Hollywood cinema , one of the major other styles

3010-676: The eventual replacement for Siskel, Richard Roeper . Siskel and Ebert were known for their many appearances on late-night talk shows, including appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman sixteen times and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson fifteen times. They also appeared together on The Oprah Winfrey Show , The Arsenio Hall Show , Howard Stern , The Tonight Show with Jay Leno , and Late Night with Conan O'Brien . In 1982, 1983, and 1985, Siskel, along with Ebert, appeared as themselves on Saturday Night Live . For their first two appearances, they reviewed sketches from that night's telecast and reviewed sketches from

3080-581: The fall, stating, "I'm in a hurry to get well because I don't want Roger to get more screen time than I." Siskel died at a hospital in Evanston, Illinois , on February 20, 1999, nine months after his diagnosis and surgery; he was 53 years old. His funeral was held two days later at the North Suburban Synagogue Beth El . He is interred at Westlawn Cemetery in Norridge, Illinois . Siskel

3150-585: The film from a charity auction. Another all-time favorite was Dr. Strangelove . A favorite from childhood was Dumbo , which he often mentioned as the first film that had an influence on him. Siskel compiled "best of the year" film lists from 1969 to 1998, which helped to provide an overview of his critical preferences. His top choices were: From 1969 until his death in February 1999, he and Ebert were in agreement on nine annual top selections: Z , The Godfather , Nashville , The Right Stuff , Do

3220-431: The genre in context with the historical adventure, and said explicitly excluding films with fantasy settings such as Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) as they involved the supernatural over human agency. Taves wrote that "unlike adventure, fantasy presents a netherworld where events violate physical reality and the bounds of human possibility." Comparatively, in his overview of British adventure cinema, James Chapman said

3290-767: The genre that would continue into the 21st century with film series like The Lord of the Rings , Harry Potter , and Pirates of the Caribbean . In their analysis of the genre in 2018, Johan Höglund and Agnieszka Soltysik Monnet found that the contemporary adventure form often appears in trans-genre work where the adventure component is perceived as secondary. They exemplified that in films such ranging from Top Gun (1986), Godzilla (2014), to Lone Survivor (2013), which range from fantasy film to science fiction film to war film genres, all adhere to traditional adventure narratives. Adventure films are generally perceived with

3360-493: The great scenes in that year's television. In 1995, Siskel and Ebert guest-starred on an episode of the animated TV series The Critic entitled "Siskel & Ebert & Jay & Alice". In the episode, Siskel and Ebert split and each wants protagonist Jay Sherman, a fellow movie critic, as his new partner. The episode is a parody of the film Sleepless in Seattle . An early appearance of Siskel, taken from Opening Soon at

3430-515: The late 1970s of an adventure style geared towards more family-oriented audiences with films like Star Wars (1977) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Star Wars exemplifies a resurgent adventure strand of the 1970s cinema with characters like the Jedi Knights who swing from ropes and wield light sabers recall sword-fighting and swashbuckling films. Tasker commented that this led to a commercially lucrative and culturally conservative version of

3500-531: The market towards the late 1970s, with films such as Star Wars (1977) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). This trend continued into the 21st century. Adventure is a broad film genre. Early writing on the genre had wide categorizations. Critic André Bazin went as far to say in the 1950s that "there is not difference between Hopalong Cassidy and Tarzan except for their costumes and the arena in which they demonstrate their prowess." Ian Cameron in Adventure in

3570-475: The other commented on his partner. When asked what he thought was the biggest difference between himself and Ebert, Siskel unhesitatingly replied: "I'm a better reviewer than he is", but a few moments later, he said that anyone who read an Ebert review would read "an extremely well-written review". At the 1999 Academy Awards ceremony, after its in memoriam montage of deceased stars and film contributors (which did not include Siskel), host Whoopi Goldberg gave

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3640-461: The other would pick up the same frequency. When we were in a group together, we were always intensely aware of one another. Sometimes this took the form of camaraderie, sometimes shared opinions, sometimes hostility. When both men appeared together on The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers , Joan Rivers conducted a "together and separately" interview with them, which at one point had each of them wear Walkman-style headphones, playing loud music, while

3710-470: The paper's entertainment sections. The demotion occurred after Siskel and Ebert decided to shift production of their weekly movie-review show, then known as At the Movies (later known as Siskel & Ebert ), from Tribune Entertainment to the Walt Disney Company 's Buena Vista Television unit. Editor James Squires stated on the move, "He's done a great job for us. It's a question of how much

3780-1120: The physical challenge" and by "its moral and intellectual flavour." Forms of filmmaking that would become film genres were mostly defined in other media before Thomas Edison devised the Kinetograph in the late 1890s. Genres, such as adventure fiction were developed as written fiction. In the early Hollywood cinema, early adventure cinema were both original stories as well as adaptations of popular media such as adventure stories, magazines, and folk tales. Films were adapted from adventure stories such as King Solomon's Mines (1885), She (1887), and Treasure Island (1883). Tasker described both action and adventure cinema are resistant to any historical evolutionary chronology. Both genres are self-reflexive and draw from conventions of other genres ranging from horror to historical imperial adventure. Taves found that that films that were swashbucklers or pirate-themed adventures were often humorous, and that they retained viability even when parodied. Many silent films with action and adventure scenarios flourished in

3850-712: The plain Jane object of the makeover, is forced to demonstrate the biggest emotional range as a character, and she is equal to the assignment. I look forward to seeing her in her next movie." In 1975, Siskel teamed up with Ebert, film reviewer for the Chicago Sun-Times , to host a show on local Chicago PBS station WTTW which eventually became Sneak Previews . Their "thumbs-up, thumbs-down" system soon became an easily recognizable trademark, popular enough to be parodied on comedy shows such as Second City Television , In Living Color , Bizarre , and in movies such as Hollywood Shuffle and Godzilla . Sneak Previews gained

3920-550: The show, they reviewed At First Sight , Another Day in Paradise , The Hi-Lo Country , Playing by Heart , and The Theory of Flight . Siskel gave thumbs up to all of them, except for Playing by Heart . Following Siskel's death, Ebert continued the series with rotating guest hosts, which included Martin Scorsese , Janet Maslin , Peter Bogdanovich , Todd McCarthy , Lisa Schwarzbaum , Kenneth Turan , Elvis Mitchell , and

3990-432: The similarly effects driven sound film King Kong (1933). In her study of King Kong , Cynthia Erb noted a conventions of both travel documentary and jungle adventure traditions. Tasker wrote that the best known displays of these films were those that focused on the character of Tarzan which found more significantly commercial success with the success of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films featuring Johnny Weissmuller during

4060-439: The studio. Siskel did not disclose the severity of his illness to anyone outside of his family; publicly, he said that the surgery removed an unspecified "growth" on his brain, and that he was recovering well. He eventually returned to the studio, but was noted to appear more lethargic and mellow than usual. On February 3, 1999, he announced that he was taking a leave of absence from the show, but that he expected to be back by

4130-500: The style as being commonly applied to narratives where action and visual spectacle were foregrounded. He included styles like the swashbuckler , the British empire film, the sensationalized spy thriller, and mythological fantasy films as part of adventure cinema genre. Writing about the adventure genre in the 1970s, Jeffrey Richards said that "since the way a swashbuckler moves and looks is just as important as what it says, we must look at

4200-401: The style as not being a discrete genre in its own, but a flexible, overarching category that encompasses a range of different related narrative forms. British author and academic Yvonne Tasker wrote in her 2015 book The Hollywood Action and Adventure Film (2015) that adventure films imply a story that is located within a fantasy of exoticized setting. She found that these films often apply

4270-505: The supply ship to take out the terrorist leaders from within while his men board from underwater. However, Kramer distrusts ffolkes and has him removed from Esther . With his original plan thus upset, ffolkes persuades the Prime Minister to have the ransom helicopter drop off a bomb on Esther in case his team fails to take out Kramer's gang in time. Then he approaches the ship from underwater, and despite some mishaps he manages to thwart

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4340-422: The syndication arm of the Walt Disney Company . The new incarnation of the show was originally titled Siskel & Ebert & the Movies , but later shortened to Siskel & Ebert . At the Movies also continued for a few more years with other hosts until its cancellation in 1990. The last five movies Siskel reviewed with Ebert on the show before his death aired during the weekend of January 23–24, 1999. On

4410-428: The terrorists and retake the platforms. ffolkes enacts his plan by traveling to Jennifer as the aide of Admiral Brindsen, who was tasked by the Prime Minister to supervise the operation. With Ruth out of Esther' s sight, ffolkes first asks the admiralty to prepare a fake explosion in order to distract Kramer from blowing up Ruth and to buy them more time, then arranges for having Brindsen and himself brought aboard

4480-634: Was a Chicago sports fan, especially of his hometown basketball team, the Chicago Bulls , and would cover locker-room celebrations for WBBM-TV news broadcasts following Bulls championships in the 1990s. Siskel was also a member of the advisory committee of the Film Center at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago , and a strong supporter of the Film Center mission. He wrote hundreds of articles applauding

4550-403: Was a commercial disappointment and received mixed reviews . The Guardian said: "as pulp melodramas go, it's quite fun". The Los Angeles Times called it: "a vigorous but lacklustre high-seas adventure...there are lots more conferences than bravura acts of daring...even so, it is ingenious and well crafted." Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel selected the film as one of their "dogs of the year" in

4620-497: Was diagnosed with brain cancer in May 1998 but remained in the public eye as Ebert's professional partner until his death the following year. Siskel was born in Chicago on January 26, 1946, the youngest of three children born to Ida (née Kalis) and Nathan William Siskel, who were Russian Jewish immigrants. His father died when he was four and his mother died when he was nine; thereafter, he

4690-516: Was raised by his aunt and uncle. He attended Culver Academies , where he experienced anti-Semitism firsthand when a schoolmate gave him a piece of toast on which jam was spread in the shape of a swastika. Siskel graduated from Yale University with a degree in philosophy in 1967. While at Yale, Siskel was classmates with poet Paul Monette and future New York Governor George Pataki . Siskel studied writing under Pulitzer Prize -winning author John Hersey , whose reference would later help Siskel get

4760-628: Was the first time he walked out on a movie he was reviewing since Million Dollar Duck in 1971; he later explained that he did not include Maniac because he did not review Maniac as an assignment for his newspaper or part of his and Ebert's weekly TV reviews but only as a "Dog of the Week", a feature of the TV show in which each critic would single out the very worst movie they had seen that week. Both critics had specific sensitivities and feelings that would often vary in extremes to certain kinds of bad films. Ebert

4830-648: Was the historical adventure film. These films were typically set in the past and drew from the Fairbanks films such as The Black Pirate (1926) and The Mark of Zorro (1920). They feature violence in a less intense manner than other contemporary genres such as the Western or war film . While not specifically associated with one Hollywood studio, Warner Bros. released a series of popular historical adventures featuring Errol Flynn such as Captain Blood (1935), The Charge of

4900-483: Was very sensitive to films about race and ethnicity; Siskel was sensitive to films about families and family relationships, and had a special hatred for films like House Arrest (1996) and Like Father Like Son (1987), both of which were about parents and their children. Following Siskel's death in 1999, Ebert wrote: Gene was a lifelong friend, and our professional competition only strengthened that bond. I can't even imagine what will it be like without him. ...As

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