disgusting, overrated, pointless

Best movie ever!

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Yes, I love the Marx Bros. but some of their movies are not top notch. Similarly, this is not one of Barbra's best. It's a Rube Goldberg of a movie: She borrows $3,000 from a loan shark, then $4,000 to pay him off, and her "contract" gets sold twice again so she owes $7,000 to an urban cattle rustler. Confused? Oh course you are! However, many of the situations are funny but should be hilarious. Molly Picon plays "Mother Cherry" the benevolent "Jewish" madam and is terrific. Streisand almost scares one of her "Johns" to death, but, thankfully, she never actually connects with any of them. So "Mother" sells her contract to two greasy, sleazy bomb-makers and she gets chased thru the subway by the smartest German Shepard Dog since Rin-Tin-Tin; after unwittingly delivering a "bomb" to a police undercover man. Several ludicrous comic situations and some pay off better than others. The best one involves stolen cattle. She is supposed to transport them in a Winnebago and of course they stampede out of the truck and end up in Brooklyn traffic and, yes, in a chandelier store. All "For Pete's Sake", so he can buy $3000 in pork belly futures on an inside tip, and make a fortune. Michael Sarrazin plays Pete, her taxi-driving, over-sexed, struggling husband. He and Babs chase each other around the apartment a lot. She appears to be bra-less most of the time. A very lightweight comedy with a good supporting cast. But I think that both the Brahma bull and the dog are funnier than Barbra. The incredibly impossible, unbelievable storyline is fun but not memorable.

Audiences still had "What's Up Doc?" fresh in their minds by 1974, so on that alone--I think the movie did OK at the box office. But the differences are MANY; mainly the script which feels too much like a sit-com or a (bad) slapstick comedy. The cast of FPS is a mere shadow of the WUD cast, and Barbara - who looked pretty snazzy & sexy in WUP?, look horrible in that short wig in FPS (was it a wig or a bad haircut from Jon Peters?). FPS is not all that bad , and has some funny bits (the dog chasing her on the subway) but people expecting this to be "What's Up Doc, Part 2" were let down. The title sequence animation / song in the opening credits is cute enough.

I didn't see this picture, FOR PETE'S SAKE, when it came out because the notion, as the picture was marketed at the time, about Barbra Streisand turning tricks to support her husband, was ugly and prima facia ugly. Now that I've seen it I have to say I'm glad I didn't waste a dollar or how ever much it cost to see a movie at the time. It is flat out awful. Really it's nothing more than a series of gags constructed for Babs that are executed on a sub- I Love Lucy level. It's strange because director Peter Yates has shown himself to be a master of very complicated mise en scene in action films like BULLET. Here it's clear that no one working on this picture has the slightest sense of humor.Pete, a cab driver, wants to be rich and has the opportunity to invest in pork bellies (see, its funny already). His wife borrows the money from a loan shark and can't pay it back. Instead of being rubbed out for not paying back her loan her contract is sold, first to a madam who turns out Babs but, guess what, she has a series of hilarious accidents and never actually has sex. So typical. Right down to Pretty Woman, Hollywood movie hookers never, ever, have sex. Then one belabored, unfunny, poorly played and poorly executed gag after another. Michael Sarrazin, as Babs' husband, is injected onto the screen at intervals for reasons neither he nor the director really understands. In the old days, when women ruled the box office, women were the biggest and most important stars. The male stars were known as leading men. They were around to give the women something to play off of. In FOR PETE'S SAKE Barbra Streisand doesn't need anyone else to play off of. As a comic she has eliminated the straight man. The results are monumentally flat. And so unfunny. Just terrible.This will make you appreciate Peter Bogdanovich all the more, his ability to produce a coherent, constantly funny comedy with multiple characters playing off each other. Even the little known I WONDER WHO'S KILLING HER NOW, with a similar structure, is a masterpiece compared to this ego trip. I have the terrible feeling that Streisand had become a monster by this time and did everything her way, and the only that was photographed here was her out-sized ego. It's not for nothing that this bummer never gets revived. Like Orson Wells she directed from in front of the camera. Except that Wells had talent. Streisand only has fans.P.S. As if one didn't have enough reason to hate these people for appearing in a crap movie, check out the huge apartment across the street from Prospect Park. In New York we hate people with great apartments like this especially if they're rent controlled.

Barbra was 31 when she made this film. Her hair (a poor short-haired wig) was done by her then boyfriend,Jon Peters, and her outfits remind me of her "stoney end" phase (remember that?). This movie was released in 1974. Her co-star is 'ok' but he's no Brad Pitt. He does have one sexy bathtub scene. If you look quickly when he pulls Babs into the tub you'll see he is wearing a pair of white bikini briefs (poor editing, they should have cut that).Now a little outdated (I'm writing this in the year 2000) the film is funny overall with some greater funny moments.Barbra shows a real flair for comedy. I wish she had done more character acting in other films because in this one she dons a blond curly wig, big yellow hat and oval sunglasses then screams and runs like a little girl. She literally had me laughing uncontrollably several times.The plot is sort of hokey: her husband's brother and pompous wife insinuate Babs (Henry) conned her husband into an early marriage which robbed him of a good college education and a decent job (he's a taxi driver). They get an inside stock tip on 'pork bellies' and she borrows $3,000 from the mob. The tip doesn't pay off at first and her contract is sold to more and more crooks - and with each sale she screws up her assignments. She goes to work for a little old lady (Mrs. Cherry) who sends men clients to her apartment and Babs accidently breaks the nose of her first client then nearly kills the second, a judge who is taxi'd to the N.Y. apt by her husband. This second client is hidden in a trunk and revived in the back of a flower delivery truck then placed back in the taxi when Henry's husband isn't looking.The whole movie goes on like this - and she ends up in several funny situations, even unwittingly carrys a bomb (the wig, hat and glasses). She turns the package over to an undercover cop and is promptly arrested but runs away screaming through Central Park claiming he is a pervert (the cop is dressed in identical women's clothing)Eventually her contract is sold to a cattle rustler who fills up a motor-home with stolen cattle for delivery in downtown N.Y. She has an accident and the one lone bull and all the cows get lose running through New York streets and into shops. By the end of the picture the stock tip pays off and they end up rich and happy.If you like Barbra you'll like this movie. I say 'thumbs up'!