Movies: From Best To Worst
Thanksgiving weekend moviegoers will have a chance to sample the best and worst of the year's cinematic offerings.
CBS This MorningMovie Critic Gene Siskel reports that two movies now at the box office will be on his year-end lists. One, Waking Ned Devine is among the best of the 1998 offerings; the other, Ringmaster will be on his list of the year's worst films.
In Ringmaster, a group of actors portray guests on a fictionalized version of the vulgar, lurid and depraved Jerry Springer Show. In the film, it's called The Jerry Show.
To its credit, Ringmaster does reveal that the boob-shaking, fist-waving, foul-mouthed participants are in it as much for the free trip to the taping as the flirtation with celebrity.
In a nauseating soliloquy, Springer lectures the audience not to judge "his people" harshly because this is simply the way poor people are. This is the way they handle their problems.
Springer claims that his show is a real representation of the underclass. That's claptrap. The best thing about Ringmaster is its title. Springer is running a circus.
From one of the year's worst movies, Siskel takes us to one of the year's best - an Irish village comedy called Waking Ned Devine.
The movie is about a couple of colorful old codgers who are thrilled by the news that someone in their tiny village has won the lottery's $10 million prize.
As luck would have it, the winning lottery ticket belongs to Ned Devine, who dropped dead with the coveted ticket in his hand. So, his two old friends plot to keep the jackpot for themselves.
Because Ned signed the ticket, one of the old guys has to pretend to be Ned Devine, and now this most clever script - from writer-director Kirk Jones - begins to get complicated.
The deception and the film build up some big-time comedy energy in a story that continuously complicates itself and delights the audience.
This is a rare film that older audiences can enjoy. It's a terrific picture, and it gets more and more complicated.
Unfortunately, the box-office statistics for the Jerry Springer movie will dwarf that of Waking Ned Devine and that sends the wrong signal to people because Waking Ned Devine is the film to see.