This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The movie starts very well, it continues very well, up to the half of it, then it all becomes monotonous and hard to follow. Absolutely blame on the script, because the actors are all excellent, Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Sally Field, Joanne Woodward, and, in smaller roles, Carl Reiner, Strother Martin, Robby Benson and Norman Fell. There are many fun scenes but, overall, the film is a failure, it's not easy at all to make a great comedy about death and suicide. Dom DeLuise is the most hilarious, the jokes about Polish people that his father told him are the funniest of the whole movie. One of the last roles for Myrna Loy and Pat O'Brien.

Burt Reynolds' film "The End" delights me. From beginning to end, the movie charmed me with one set piece after another with relentless gifted performances emerging as the protagonist Wendell Sony Lawson encounters one person after another discounting him and his impending end. The pace seems a tad slow, but that does not diminish the flow of the story. Nothing interferes with that flow.The silliness here works. I think that in some ways Dom Deluise almost overwhelm the second half of the film, but for most viewers his performance seems to make the movie and I suppose it does. I love the confession that Sonny tries to make early in the movie to the unfocused youthful priest played by Robby Benson. The telephone call to an indifference suicide hot line is also lovely, along with the sour milk used to down sleeping pills.I very much liked the score and the editing. Nine migth be tad high, but I do like this film.

Up there with Groundhog Day for philoso-comedy. Carl Reiner makes every second count. Dom is desperately lovable. Sally shows she can act. And Burt is at his understated best. Unfortunately for Burt, he was 25 years too early with this now timely reflection on death and dying -- boomers did not want to be worried about death in 1978. Now that we are beginning to realize that we too are mortal, this movie should get the appreciation it deserves. Those of you who are turned off by movies dealing with ethical and personal dilemmas won't like this movie. You would think that with all the attention paid to the ethics of extending life and assisted suicide that this movie would be required viewing for the right AND left. I am convinced the Burt will be remembered because of this movie. Death be not proud.

Some great scenes and imaginative ideas hold interest for the first half of the movie, but once Dom De Luise takes over, ironic satire is dwarfed by outrageous slapstick, and what remains is a feast for those who wish to see a 1970's updating of The Three Stooges, but the satirical dark humor of the first half is then rendered meaningless, except for one inspired bit near the very end of the film. If you don't mind a lot of slapstick, you should find this very amusing.