Back at the Movies

A convicted killer on the run for the murder of his wife. A New York couple on the trail of a murder in their building. And a Taiwanese man in the closet! Today we go back to August 1993 and discuss a soon-to-be action classic, an early film from directing legend Ang Lee and, sigh, Woody Allen returning to his comedy roots with co-star Diane Keaton.

It's Denzel *and* Mary Steenburgen Week as we revisit the olden days of 1993 when people were still freaking out about AIDS and flagrant Supreme Court corruption had to be kept on the down-low. And how does Leonardo DiCaprio's performance in What's Eating Gilbert Grape hold up today? Join us as we discuss all this and more Back at the Movies.

Join us Back at the Movies as we sit in Saturday detention and watch two more iconic Brat Pack movies: The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire. We sadly couldn't find Siskel and Ebert's discussion about The Breakfast Club, but they (and we!) certainly have a lot to say about St. Elmo's Fire.

What's happening, hot stuff? In honor of the new Hulu documentary BRATS, we're mixing it up and doing a grab bag of Siskel & Ebert reviews of movies starring the legendary Brat Pack. This week, it's a Molly Ringwald double header, as we revisit the iconic teen films SIXTEEN CANDLES and PRETTY IN PINK. 

In today’s episode from October 11th 1997, it’s a battle of the 90’s hunks, as we revisit Boogie Nights starring Mark “Marky Mark” Wahlberg, and Seven Years in Tibet starring Brad Pitt. We’re talking porn and Nazis, and we'll decide which is longer: Dirk Diggler’s uh, special talent, or Seven Years in Tibet’s runtime? All that and more, including Julianne Moore, Back at the Movies.

On today’s episode, which aired February 9th 1991, we try not to let Siskel kill our buzz too much as we delve into two "woman in peril" movies: the iconic The Silence of the Lambs and the less-iconic Sleeping with the Enemy. We also discuss Steve Martin’s LA Story and if the traffic jokes still land 30 years later. So put the lotion in the basket and rearrange those kitchen cupboards like a proper stalker, and join us Back at the Movies.

The summer of 1989 at the multiplex was all about Batman and Honey I Shrunk the Kids, but by August 5th it was time to make room for the grown-ups, with two very different movies about adults: sex, lies and videotape and Parenthood. We couldn’t wait to revisit future Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh’s Cannes sensation, and future Oscar-winner Ron Howard’s multigenerational dramedy. What’s it like revisiting the movie that kickstarted the independent film movement of the 90s? And does the movie that introduced us to the “diarrhea song” still tug at our heartstrings? Join us as we dive into this and more Back at the Movies.

On today’s episode from December 26th, 1987, we spend time with Siskel & Ebert and two comedy legends, Robin Williams and Eddie Murphy. Both Good Morning, Vietnam and Eddie Murphy Raw were huge hits that year and were built around their stars’ personas, further cementing Williams and Murphy as two of the biggest stars of the decade. Do their brands of humor hold up all these years later? Can topical humor from back then work today? We get into all that as well as a Bill Cosby movie that most certainly does not hold up. We also look at a movie with a much different vibe starring Christine Lahti.

Madonna may sing “You Must Love Me” at the end of Evita, but… must we? On this episode from December 21st 1996, we’re focusing on two movies from genres that were flailing in the mid 1990s: musicals and horror. Thirty years later, was Madonna as bad as we remember in Evita? And what did the guys think of Scream, which no one at the time was expecting to be the sleeper hit it ended up being that winter? We’ll also hit the road with cult slackers Beavis and Butthead as they do AMERICA, and discuss the surprising thumbs on this one. Join us as we dive into a bizarre 1996 holiday season Back at the Movies.

Welcome to Back at the Movies with Meranda Broder and Dylan Wilcox. The balcony is open.