Matt Singer has written the Ultimate Geek History of one of the movies’ – and television’s – most dysfunctional couples with “Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever” (Penguin).

For those who remember Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert on their highly rated and influential weekly show that was all about film reviews, “Opposable Thumbs” hits at the heart of the duo’s trademark Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down verdict on each film.

“Their influence is still felt today,” said Singer, 42, a film critic and film writer for decades.  “I watched the show growing up and it absolutely was the thing that really got me first interested in movies.”

But did these two Chicago film critics – Siskel reviewed for the Chicago Tribune and Ebert, the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1975, was at the Chicago Sun-Times — really “change movies forever”?

“You know, they had this very contentious relationship. They fought all the time. They were legitimate rivals and competitors that didn’t necessarily like each other, especially at the start,” Singer said.  “So, a lot of the show’s mythology is about those stories. Pranking each other, fighting. Yelling at each other! And absolutely, if I was going to do this book, that has to be part of it.

“But I also wanted to talk about film and film criticism — and that’s what that subtitle suggests: The impact these guys had on the world of film, film criticism on television and popular culture at large. They had an enormous impact on all of those things in terms of introducing this style of film criticism, this back and forth, which is still so prevalent in podcasts and YouTube. All these different places.

“They certainly were influential in championing filmmakers and movies that they loved, fighting for causes that they believed in, like film preservation or fighting against the colorization of black and white movies. All sorts of things.”

“Opposable Thumbs” offers a bonus surprise – an appendix of 24 obscure films both critics championed and loved.

“How that happened was in my research, I went back and rewatched as many episodes of the show as I could. Of course, there are the movies that are the classics. What surprised me was how many movies that not only had I not seen but in some cases never heard of.  Movies that kind of vanished into thin air.

“As I was watching these episodes, it made me want to go watch those films.”

So, the Appendix salutes “these important film critics that were so important to me personally,” Singer said, while also injecting film criticism into a book bursting with backstage stories.

 “Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever” releases Oct. 24 

Two motorists were killed and six injured in a fiery crash late Monday afternoon on Interstate 94 in western Wisconsin, authorities said.

The seven-vehicle crash happened around 5:38 p.m. on westbound I-94 near Wilson in St. Croix County, the Wisconsin State Patrol said in a news release.

State Patrol troopers, St. Croix County sheriff’s deputies and multiple fire and EMS units responded to the scene, near the Highway 128 overpass. Two motorists were pronounced dead at the scene.

Highway video captured by MN Crime shows a white semitrailer truck moving at a high rate of speed and ramming into the back of a car and another semi, causing a trail of flames as the vehicles disappear from the camera’s view.

The State Patrol did not release release a possible cause of the crash Monday night, nor the identities of those injured and killed.

“Due to the complexity of the crash and the on-going investigation, another update will be given by 11 a.m. tomorrow morning,” the news release says.

Western Wisconsin: I-94 closed after multi-fatal crash and explosion involving at least four vehicles, including two semi-trucks.
WARNING: The video is not suitable for all audiences. pic.twitter.com/JSdjfaV18o

I am a proud Jew. And I am proud of my people.  But today, I am also greatly ashamed of many of my people.  Earlier last week hundreds of my Jewish brothers and sisters sat in the U.S. capital and demanded a “cease-fire” between Israel and Hamas.  To them, and to the rest of my Jewish brethren I must make the following plea:

I am tired of this. Wake up. This atrocity happens every 100 years. Whether pogroms, crusades, inquisitions, blood libels, the Holocaust, the Yom Kippur War, or the conflict with Hamas where 1,400 members of our family were raped, burned alive, kidnapped, and shot in mass executions, this is not new.

It has been the role of the Jews in the world to be murdered and then to get blamed for our own killing. This trauma has defined us.  We have holidays to mark them. But for the first time in modern history things are different. Jewish blood is no longer cheap. This was a slaughter of our people. It is happening in real time. It is the event that we experience every century, at least. This is the time to say stop. This is the time to say enough. Why can’t a Jew be proud?  I am proud to be strong. I am proud that murdering my people no longer results in a hall pass. I am proud that I have a state of Israel to stick up for me. That you don’t just go get to kill a bunch of Jews and get away with it. We are not sheep anymore. The loss of Palestinian life that will continue to grow is an absolute tragedy.  But this is entirely preventable by Hamas, and has been encouraged by those terrorist thugs.

I am proud — there is finally a consequence to massacring Jews.  For the first time, war is that consequence. Because when you do not fight back, murderous, slanderous libel just comes back 10-fold.

Passivity as Jews are slaughtered and the world looks on is no longer the norm. Because that is what it means to be a people who have the right of self-determination. You do not get to molest us freely anymore. True, we must hold our values that are undeniably morally superior to those of Hamas. But the answer to killing our people can no longer be silence. Because silence is unacceptable and appeasement is deadly. Wake up. Wake. Up. It is time to demand an end to these murderous thugs. Because appeasement and cease-fires only result in the deaths of more Israelis and Palestinians.

If you support the Palestinian cause and if you support the Israeli cause you must demand that this war be seen through to the rightful conclusion. Hamas must be completely destroyed.  Today, I am ashamed for those of my Jewish family who demand a ceasefire.  But I am also proud.  Because my life, and the lives of Jews, finally have value.  And we will be avenged.

AJ Edelman is an Israeli American Olympian and captain of the Israeli Bobsled Team-Edelman.  When not training and competing he can be found in Brookline.