... in a decision that doesn't age well.
No doubt UHF's failure at the box office helped fuel Orion Picture's bankruptcy filing. However, on home video and later DVD, UHF made lots of money and has cult status. That's because the very things they complain about - the fact that the plot wanders, that it seems like SCTV, that it is chock full of one liners - are what made it great for the small screen and group viewing, such as if you had a group of friends over and just wanted to watch something funny and completely non threatening.
Strangely enough they gave more favorable reviews to two films that are pretty much forgotten now - Shag and Valentino returns - both dealing with nostalgia from circa 1960.
Next they go into what is new on home video. They both give a big thumbs down to The Experts, a film so bad I don't even remember it. It starred John Travolta, who is unsuccessful in trying to invigorate his acting career at least with this film. It is about a Russian village built to be a model of American small town life in which the Russians train their agents to blend in. The problem is that 30 years later it is woefully behind the times, so the Soviets hire two Americans to modernize it, with them not understanding exactly where they are and for whom they are working - long story. The funny thing is that , today, in this film, it is Travolta who looks so odd with his mullet and short sleeved jacket which are both so completely 80s.
The second home video release discussed is Daffy and Porky -a set of Warner Brothers cartoons. Siskel and Ebert think it is so great to have cartoons from the 30s and 40s on cassette. They can't know that DVD and later streaming will make such releases much more commonplace.
No doubt UHF's failure at the box office helped fuel Orion Picture's bankruptcy filing. However, on home video and later DVD, UHF made lots of money and has cult status. That's because the very things they complain about - the fact that the plot wanders, that it seems like SCTV, that it is chock full of one liners - are what made it great for the small screen and group viewing, such as if you had a group of friends over and just wanted to watch something funny and completely non threatening.
Strangely enough they gave more favorable reviews to two films that are pretty much forgotten now - Shag and Valentino returns - both dealing with nostalgia from circa 1960.
Next they go into what is new on home video. They both give a big thumbs down to The Experts, a film so bad I don't even remember it. It starred John Travolta, who is unsuccessful in trying to invigorate his acting career at least with this film. It is about a Russian village built to be a model of American small town life in which the Russians train their agents to blend in. The problem is that 30 years later it is woefully behind the times, so the Soviets hire two Americans to modernize it, with them not understanding exactly where they are and for whom they are working - long story. The funny thing is that , today, in this film, it is Travolta who looks so odd with his mullet and short sleeved jacket which are both so completely 80s.
The second home video release discussed is Daffy and Porky -a set of Warner Brothers cartoons. Siskel and Ebert think it is so great to have cartoons from the 30s and 40s on cassette. They can't know that DVD and later streaming will make such releases much more commonplace.