Wonderful Movie

Absolutely Fantastic

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

I actually saw a live performance of this in Summer Stock which I found slightly better than the film because ALL the performers were American rather than as here, a hybrid with Caine and Elliott representing the Old Country and Americans sounding mostly unconvincing as Brits. The work itself is solid and constructed to within an inch of its life but it's undeniable that once blue-eyed boy Bogdanovich hit into a triple play after starting off with great promise and this is one of his also-rans - there is not, for example, a bigger Cole Porter fan walking the planet than yours truly but Bogdanovich's 'At Long Last Love' was, if anything, more execrable than 'It's DeLovely'. On the other hand this does preserve a fine sub-Feydeau farce on celluloid.

I first encountered Noises Off... being performed by an amateur dramatic society at my local theatre.It starts off in a way which will be familiar to many theatregoers - a housekeeper is looking after the house of a wealthy couple who are away from England in tax exile. The estate agent who is dealing with letting the house arrives for an assignation with his girlfriend. Then the couple themselves arrive back unannounced and secretly. The estate agent's girlfriend works for the tax authorities.... and her father is a burglar... All the ingredients of a (to be frank) not very good stage farce are introduced. Then it becomes clear that we are not watching a farce, we are watching the final dress rehearsal for the first night of a professional company taking a farce on tour. As well as meeting the first act of the farce - its plot, dialogue and characters - we also meet the actors playing in it, the director, and the stage manager - and their various relationships.The second act of the film meets the company in mid-tour. They now have the farce performance slickly nailed down, but relationships between the company are disintegrating. The genius of act 2 is that it takes place behind stage - much of it is performed mute - we hear the dialogue of act 1 of the farce taking place on the other side of the scenery flats: despite personal problems, the play is still being performed with great professionalism (except by the alcoholic playing the burglar).By act 3, which is act 1 of the farce yet again, seen from the audience once more, the play has reached theatreland (the West End / Broadway), but relationships between the cast have deteriorated to the extent that they are now sabotaging each others' performances.This is a sparkling play - brilliantly clever, and screamingly funny on so many levels. The film, too, captures the best of the play, with a sparkling cast all performing at the top of their game.The play - and the film - are a delight, and are highly recommended.

I have seen this movie a number of times but I never left my feedback. But I have to say something on one of the most creative and innovative movies ever to be made. How they all can remember not only their lines, but direction and substance is phenomenal! Whether you want to get into theater or films you should, no, you HAVE to see this movie! It is amazingly scripted, acted and a laugh non-stop masterpiece! Ritter, Reeves and Elliot who are no longer with us (a crying shame for the entertainment industry) was impeccable, even when they mucked up. I wonder how much rehearsal and takes it took to get it right? Being an aspiring actress myself this will definitely go in my vault of favorites. Run, don't walk to your closest video store and BUY this movie! I PROMISE you, you will NOT regret it!

Fortunately, enough of the stage script survives its transfer to film that attentive viewers can tell why "Noises Off" remains one of the funniest farces ever to visit the Theatre.But somewhere along the way from stage to screen, "Noises Off" became calcified and entirely lost its edge. It's played broadly here by an able cast, all of whom clearly loved it on stage as well and now share the blame for this thoroughly noisy, but unfortunately moribund comedy show.Clearly, the film's severest critics in this conference are those (like myself) who enjoyed the show on stage in London or New York. If you didn't have that privilege, it may actually work to your advantage as you can come fresh to the film--and many, clearly, have enjoyed it tremendously. For myself, however, I remember laughing so hard in a Broadway theatre one night that my eyes flooded with tears. Didn't happen here, alas.