Simply A Masterpiece

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Agree with those reviewers who consider this highly underrated. The concept is very clever -- a film noir parody that manages to be a true noir film that somehow morphs into a screwball romantic comedy without any loss of continuity. Dana Carvey plays a private detective who suffers amnesia whenever he goes to sleep as a result of a traumatic injury at a crime scene to which he is supposed to a critical and endangered witness for the prosecution. The situation is creepy -- similar to the Jim Carrey character in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Yet Carvey delivers a better performance than Jim Carrey in Enternal Sunshine, rendering his predicament both creepy and funny in a gentle slapstick kind of way. The rest of the cast give marvelous performances in this effort. Great direction and editing seamlessly blend genres that are ordinarily mutual exclusive. I didn't see this until recently. I'm surprised that it did not receive much more critical praise and attention than it did. Not to be missed by anyone who loves good Hollywood film making.

Pogue (Dana Carvey) wakes up one morning in Venice, California and doesn't remember a darn thing about his life. Suffering from daily short term memory loss, way before Drew Barrymore did, Pogue listens to a tape he made the day before. It states he is a private detective and that he has been called upon to testify against a gangster (Michael Gambon) who blew up an automobile containing Pogue's lovely girlfriend, Sara (Valeria Golino). Yet, Sara appears on his doorstep and asks for his help. How can this be? She directs him to follow her to a fashion show, where she will tell him more. In the meantime, Pogue is "arrested" by police officers, who take him to a surprise birthday party, where he is the guest of honor. It seems Pogue used to be a policeman and had contact with a D.A. (James Earl Jones), an assistant D.A. (Kevin Pollack) and others. But, Pogue fails to recognize anything that will jog his memory, not even with a doctor's help (Michael Murphy). Will Pogue and his darling canine, Baby, be able to dodge the bullets of those out to prevent him from testifying, without knowing exactly what is going down? This is a nice little film with a very fine cast. Jones is always welcome and Pollack is acidly funny most of the time, too. Golino is very lovely and Gambon is quite amusing as the designated gangster. As for Carvey, he has such great comic skills that it is a shame that he never gets to attain his usual "go for broke" humor, but he is still funny and a very attractive performer in his own right. Kudos to the little dog in the movie, too, as he is highly entertaining. As for the costumes, sets, and production values, they are quite adequate, and the script and direction show decided originality and zest. In short, if you love Carvey, you will like this film, even though his humor has been toned down. But, truly, anyone who loves off-the-beaten-path comedy films will embrace this one with zeal.

this movie is one of the best I've seen out of Dana Carvey's acting. it was funny, but it ran just a bit long, to the point that it got boring in the end. Still, I give it a 4/5; way better than Master of Disguise

I loved Clean Slate, very funny movie. I know the critics weren't too crazy about it, but I love it! This film and it's lead actor Dana Carvey, deserve more respect. Though his movies may not be great(with the exception of Wayne's World 1 and 2)he is a very talented comedian. I give this film 4 stars****