MOVIES - March 22, 1990

Siskel Gives Thumbs Down to Fox: Film critic Gene Siskel said Wednesday that 20th Century Fox has no sense of humor because it will withhold future film clips. After Siskel and fellow critic Roger Ebert panned the Fox film “Nuns on the Run,” the studio indefinitely banned the pair from screening previews of its films. “They’re accusing us of not having a sense of humor and I’m accusing them of not having one,” Siskel said on the CBS-TV program “CBS This Morning.” Siskel, a Chicago Tribune film critic, and Ebert, a film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, were guests last week on the “Live--Regis & Kathie Lee” television show and panned the Fox movie by saying it didn’t contain a single laugh. Last week, Thomas Sherak, Fox president of domestic distribution and marketing, said the ban was due to the duo crossing the line from being critics to performers. Siskel and Ebert said they would still review Fox movies on their syndicated television show--without clips.