The two Chicago critics take turns presenting their worst films list. They are as follows, in no particular order. Although they do designate the two that are worst.
Whispers In the Dark
Toys
Medicine Man
Folks
Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot
Shadows And Fog
Christopher Columbus
The two worst -
Shining Through
Frozen Assets
Siskel and Ebert are witty as usual, but their comments on Shining Through were howlingly funny, to be exceeded only by the excerpts of the movie itself where Melanie Griffith seems to think her credentials for being a spy rest on her mastery of German recipes. It's hard to believe that both Melanie Griffith and Michael Douglas did not read the script and realize how it sounded like a SNL parody of itself. Big names who also made bad script choices this year - Robin WIlliams in Toys, Sean Connery in Medicine Man, and Woody Allen in Shadows and Fog. Allen has no excuse because he wrote, directed, and starred in his film, as usual.
The one really sad note is that of Frozen Assets. Shelley Long was trading on rapidly diminishing fame at this point, as she had left Cheers five years earlier. She should have known by now what rang true as a vehicle for comedy and what did not, but she apparently did not.
At the end of the show there is a pitch for Siskel and Ebert's big guide book to buying and renting VHS tapes in circulation. Truly a look back.