Sneak Previews

In their first nationally-syndicated episode, and the first one titled “Sneak Previews”, Siskel and Ebert review Roger Altman’s ensemble comedy “A Wedding”, featuring Carol Burnett, Woody Allen’s first serious film “Interiors”, the Nazi thriller “The Boys from Brazil” starring Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier, Farrah Fawcett-Majors’ feature-film debut, “Somebody Killed Her Husband”, and an Agatha Christie murder-mystery, “Death on the Nile”. Their “Dog of the Week” picks are “Piranha” and Cheech & Chong’s “Up In Smoke”.

Gene and Roger investigate the private eye story “The Big Fix”, the comedy-mystery "Who is Killing the Great Chef’s of Europe?", Terrence Malick’s stunningly beautiful "Days of Heaven", into the world of Oz with Sidney Lumet’s “The Wiz”, and the NYC slice-of-life “Girl Friends”. In their "Dog of the Week" segment, Gene says avoid the chop-sexy picture "The Bod Squad" and Roger’s pick "Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride" has a great set of canines.

Gene and Roger ride into the balcony with the modern western “Comes a Horseman”, Alan Parker’s violent shocker “Midnight Express”, the schizophrenic ventriloquist thriller “Magic”, Sylvester Stallone’s “Paradise Alley”, and the animated adventure “Watership Down”. In their "Dog of the Week" segment, Roger picks the wet blanket “Slithis”, Gene does not recommend “The Devil’s Rain” or its deceptive marketing.

Roger and Gene reluctantly begin with the would-be-thriller “The Wild Geese”, the Medea-inspired “A Dream of Passion”, Donny and Marie in “Goin’ Coconuts”, the old-fashioned romance “Slow Dancing in the Big City”, and Claude Chabrol’s chilling drama “Violette” In their "Dog of the Week" segment, Gene warns to not let his pick “Dogs” get the bite on you, and Roger’s says send “Message from Space” to Mars.

Reviews of “The Lord of the Rings”, “Halloween”, “Autumn Sonata”, and “Goin’ South”.  Dogs of the week are “The Dragon Lives” and “The Hills Have Eyes”.

Roger and Gene review five would-be blockbusters during the holiday season beginning with “Oliver’s Story”, sequel to the 1970 smash hit, the story of three generations of a gypsy family, “King of the Gypsies”, the old-fashioned WWII action picture “Force 10 from Navarone”, Travolta and Tomlin’s embarrassing “Moment by Moment”, and the highly anticipated blockbuster “Superman”. Spot the Wonder Dog has the week off in order to devote more time to the holiday pictures.

Gene and Roger begin with Clint Eastwood’s pleasantly goofy comedy “Every Which Way But Loose”, a throwback sci-fi remake “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, Neil Simon’s ensemble “California Suite”, the drama “Uncle Joe Shannon” starring Burt Young, and Walt Disney’s classic “Pinocchio”.

Roger and Gene look back on the year 1978. Audiences went to escape and be entertained and not necessarily be challenged. They discuss the year’s trends, including the big winners at the box office. Plus, they each select their choices for the year’s best films and their “Dogs of the Year”, the very worst films of the last twelve months.

Gene and Roger review the first sympathy love story of the year, “Ice Castles”, bittersweet comedy “Same Time, Next Year”, old-style desert picture “Caravans”, a big Hollywood hit coming to network television for the first time, “American Graffiti”, and a 1930’s double feature parody “Movie, Movie”. In their "Dog of the Week" segment, Roger selects the expensively promoted 4-wall “Beyond and Back”, and Gene says “The Late Great Planet Earth” is a lot of nonsense.

Gene and Roger hitch a ride with the classic caper film “The​ Great ​Train ​Robbery”, Paul Schrader’s controversially inclined “Hardcore”, Robert Altman’s sci-fi picture “Quintet”, William Friedkin’s comic crime caper “The Brinks Job”, and Walter Hill’s stylized adventure “The​ Warriors”. In their “Dog of the Week” segment, Gene says “Secrets” is a phony ripoff, and Roger finds “The Stranger and the Gunfighter” has something to disappoint just about everyone.

Roger and Gene check out Disney’s slapstick comedy “The North Avenue Irregulars”, Peter Weir’s offbeat thriller “The Last Wave”, a mystery writer romance “Agatha”, union organizer drama “Norma Rae”, and the divisive French farce “Get Out Your Handkerchiefs”. In their “Dog of the Week” segment, Roger determines “Debbie Does Dallas” needs a gynecologist, and Gene thinks “Wonder Women” really goes out on a limb.

Gene and Roger start with the simple old-fashioned thriller “The China Syndrome”, the Gabe Kaplan-led comedy “Fast Break”, a character study “Once in Paris”, and an important American film, “The Deer Hunter”. In their “Dog of the Week” segment, Roger offers a Bruce Lee tribute of sorts “Kung Fu Master”, and Gene’s picks the insulting “Last Fist of Fury,” another Bruce Lee ripoff.

In this special edition of “Sneak Previews”, Gene and Roger examine the nominees and try to pick the winners at this year’s ceremony.

Gene and Roger revisit the age of Aquarius in Milos Foreman’s musical adaptation “Hair”, another Sherlock Holmes mystery “Murder by Decree”, Robert Altman’s offbeat “A Perfect Couple”, boxing remake “The Champ”, and an update of the comic strip “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century”. In their “Dog of the Week” segment, Gene decides to take a stab at Dracula, starting with “Love at First Bite”, and Roger sinks his teeth into the would-be-documentary “In Search of Dracula”.

Gene and Roger dissect the adaptation of Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar”, Peter Weir’s mysterious “Picnic at Hanging Rock”, a bowling drama with Rocky’s formula “Dreamer”, romantic fairy-tale “Old Boyfriends”, and mistakenly-titled “Hurricane”. In their segment “Dogs of the Week”, Roger says “Beyond the Door #2” is a badly dubbed Omen II, and Gene is not impressed with David Carradine’s fly-catching skills in “Circle of Iron”.

Roger and Gene acknowledge their differences with the bittersweet teenage romance “A Little Romance”, Truffaut’s concluding chapter in Antoine Doinel’s saga “Love on the Run”, George A. Romero’s satirical flesh-eating zombies of “Dawn of the Dead”, Woody Allen evolving persona in “Manhattan”, and the wartime romance “Hanover Street”. In their “Dog of the Week” segment, Gene laments the state of Sophia Loren’s career in “Firepower”, and Roger’s encounters some flesh-eating coeds in “Cannibal Girls”.

Gene and Roger encounter the latest inner-city drama “Boulevard Nights”, a horror cliché parade “Phantasm”, stylish Hitchcockian thriller “Last Embrace”, and love story “Voices”. In their “Dog of the Week” segment, Roger dishes on a spaghetti western with a budget of peanuts “Get Mean”, and Gene roots for the cops during “The​ Great Bank Hoax”.

Gene and Roger encounter another soap opera romance “The Promise”, Peter Sellers’ comic remake of “The Prisoner of Zenda”, Peter Bogdanovich’s character study “Saint Jack”, outer space horror hit “Alien”, and interstellar warfare of “Battlestar Galactica”. In their “Dog of the Week” segment, Roger oozes contempt for “The Brood”, while Gene challenges Anthony Quinn’s decision to make “The Passage”, trading on his once valid reputation as a fine actor.

Gene and Roger review a crop of summer releases beginning with the disaster sequel “Beyond the Poseidon Adventure”, future cult film “Rock n’ Roll High School”, tennis gambling and love collide in “Players”, not a sequel but prequel “Butch and Sundance: The Early Days”, and Kennedy assassination thriller “Winter Kills”. In their “Dog of the Week” segment, Gene uncovers Joey Travolta’s attempt to ripoff his brother in “Sunnyside” while Roger says “The Dark” has a really low opinion of its audience.

Gene and Roger demand originality in the movies, but Hollywood has given them another sequel,”Rocky II”, goofy comedy “The In-Laws”, a reteaming of George Segal and Glenda Jackson in “Lost and Found”, Clint Eastwood in Don Siegel’s tough thriller “Escape from Alcatraz”, and a reteaming of Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal in “The Main Event”. In their “Dog of the Week” segment, Roger has less than faint praise for “In Praise of Older Women”, and Gene questions why the last man on earth in “Ravagers” keeps running into new people.

Gene and Roger assess a slew of late-Summer horror pictures beginning with an instant rerun of Alien, “Prophecy”, there’s murder among the rich in “Bloodline”, the Bond franchise shows no signs of growing up or old in “Moonraker”, a romanticized take on the legend of “Dracula”, and a southwest town is terrorized by vampire bats in “Nightwing”. In their “Dog of the Week” segment, Gene warns us against distributors releasing old movies with new titles like “Malicious”, Roger picks imitation Disney fare “CHOMPS”.

Gene and Roger notice the dog starts barking early for crazed scientists and women sprinters in “Goldengirls”, George Burns befriends young runaway in “Just You and Me Kid”, working class high school graduates in slice of life comedy “Breaking Away”, Gene Wilder is a dim-witted rabbi from Poland in “The Frisco Kid”, and cartoonish western comedy “The Villain”. In their “Dog of the Week” segment, Roger is disgusted by the insulting horror film “Terror”, Gene didn’t stick around to finish the cheaply made Italian import “Grave Desires”.

Roger and Gene are not surprised how an institution can chew people up and spit them out in “North Dallas Forty”, characters from an early-70’s hit reunite for “More American Graffiti”, James Brolin and Margot Kidder endure keyhole slime and red-eyed pigs in “The Amityville Horror”, feature-length saga of Kermit on the road to Hollywood in “The Muppet Movie”, plus nostalgia and violence collide with south Bronx youth gang “The Wanderers”. In their “Dog of the Week” segment, Gene spits on cheap horror film “Patrick’, and Roger’s hits a new low with cheap shark or muddy catfish in “Up from the Depths”.

Gene and Roger endure fears of flying with arms dealers, missiles and stereotypes of “The Concorde Airport ‘79”, Farrah Fawcett-Majors is a private eyes’ companion in “Sunburn”, Dom Deluise tries his hand at directing “Hot Stuff”, Bill Murray is a wacky camp counselor in “Meatballs”, and John Ritter tries to save the country in futuristic comedy “Americathon”. Spot takes a break this week as Gene and Roger recap the best movies of the summer 1979.

Roger and Gene witness kids trying to survive in a society without the help of Lassie in “Rich Kids”, Albert Brooks makes a documentary parody in “Real Life”, a gay night club owner tries to impress his son’s future in-laws in French farce “La Cage Aux Folles”, Alan Alda discovers the price of power in “The Seduction of Joe Tynan”, and teenage crime gets a perceptive look in low-budget drama “Over the Edge”. In their “Dog of the Week” segment, Gene is appalled by the latest Bruce Lee fraud “Game of Death” and Roger declares “Summer Camp” is the first ripoff made before the original.

Gene and Roger discuss the latest tax-shelter deal of Charles Bronson as he tracks a witness to find “Love and Bullets”, H.G. Wells travels to modern day San Francisco in “Time After Time”, Monty Python’ controversial religious satire “Life of Brian”, a Los Angeles policeman is kidnapped in harrowing drama “The Onion Field”, and “Peppermint Soda”, a French coming of age drama with female perspective. In their “Dog of the Week” segment, Roger doesn’t ask why Dracula has a disco-loving granddaughter “Nocturna” who is running a crooked massage parlor, and Gene says Brooke Shields still can’t act alongside Peter Fonda in “Wanda Nevada”.