The greatest movie ever made..!

Sadly Over-hyped

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

A fun, low cost movie with a serious undertone portrayed in a light hearted manner - a classic example of what the UK does best putting story, humour and entertainment at the fore-front of the movie experience.Reynolds plays an archaic Hollywood movie star looking to resurrect his career, via an agent whose relationship with the bailiff leaves him with a telephone and chair from which to do his business.The star of the movie at the beginning of the show is a cheeky hound, munching through Reynold's boots. A few predictable Hollywood tantrums from the ageing movie star add to the ambiance of the movie - but the underpinning theme is one of grouping together under adverse and conflicting human forces.Not quite a 'four weddings' nor a 'Notting Hill' but a lovely movie to watch over the Christmas festivities.

there were moments that i couldn't help smiled or laughed lightly. the screenplay was quite dramatic, the casting did a very nice job except signed up burt reynolds who actually performed quite poorly when he was doing the rehearsals and played king lear on the stage. he actually became the weakest part of this comedy. fooled him to stradford to play the role was a disastrous arrangement just like chosen him as that character. he performed so poorly on those stage scenes, this was his worst performance ever! and i have to discredit one of the viewers who claimed it's his best performance. it's watchable but not too good just because reynolds' lukewarm, absent-minded and out-of-placed poor performance; if this role recruited michael caine to play, it would be much better. i rest my case.

After a pointed opening, first showing an almost empty theater complete with someyoungchick euuuuing "Gross! He could be her grandfather!" at the end scene (Reynald's actor character kissing someotheryoungchick) of Steele's last film, then going to a brokendown slummy playhouse to show Steele's daughter dressed in modern clothing sucking a cigarette while delivering woodenly lifeless lines from Austin's Pride and Prejudice before removing her shirt in order to show her breasts to an actor of another race (note the male audience member clearly there just to see that), the film moves into an understatedly amusing exploration of what it means to be an older actor in a realm that attempts to deny aging exists. Along the way we get some brilliantly funny moments (as when a passerby mistakes Steele for Sean Connery) and a nice sprinkling of other thematic analyses on a light hearted note (eg class, pretension, the changes wrought in character by fame and/or fortune, eccentricity and acceptance of it). As mentioned in other reviews, this is not a gutbuster laffaminit production; it's far too realistic for that. I personally dislike most of the comedy genre because, as a friend put it, (most of) what is considered funny involves a total lack of reality and/or utter stupidity. Those enjoying that sort of humor will probably like this for its comedic value, but we laughed aloud several times. On the whole, a very good movie, and much better than the majority of modern fare in its ability to tell a story without relying on utterly gratuitous sexual/gore splattering/vicious-and-malicious/physical violence scenes.

Last DVD on the comedy shelf, it was either this or "18-year old virgin" or many things that weren't quite American Pie with Eugene Levy. This won, by default, and was actually a pretty decent laugh. Burt was a little unintelligible but the British cast all hit the spot and the scenery played its part. A little bit Local Hero meets Shakespeare in Love, sit back on a slow evening and let the film entertain you. It's all fairly predictable in pace but the writing is good and delivery effective. What's more important is something like this got made and provides an alternative to all those Eugene Levy movies! No offence, Mr. Levy