Absolutely Brilliant!

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Realistic and honest, this film deserves much more recognition.Film making and music stands out in quality. But above all, the screenplay is superb and effective. The film may seem a typical dramatic real-life story of any of us, if it were not for the fact that in the film, the context is seen from outside, and in life we see it from the inside, from a limited view.The lives of three very different people are joined together, each of them with their own personal problems, in which Jeff Bridges portrays a man disgusted with his life, and he is carried away by a passive attitude. When a ray of light suddenly appears in his life (Michelle Pfeiffer), he keeps standing on his ground. He also has problems with his brother, who is opposed to him in every possible way.The movie presents this situations and characters with an objective view, since no one seems to be portrayed as good or bad. 8,5/10

I can still well remember the reaction that my coworker Bruce had after seeing "The Fabulous Baker Boys" on its opening day in October 1989. A later-shift worker, Bruce had caught a morning showing of the film, and that afternoon tried to get across to us, through red-faced giggles, just how hot Michelle Pfeiffer had been while singing "Makin' Whoopee." Well, it's taken me a full 22 years to catch up with this picture, but now that I have, I can finally see what all the, uh, whoopty-do was about. And yet, strangely, that by-now classic scene, with la Pfeiffer warbling and writhing atop the piano, strikes this viewer--who thinks that ANYTHING Michelle Pfeiffer does is ultrasexy--as merely more of the same. Even her "frumpy" Selena Kyle in "Batman Returns" and dressed-down, depressed waitress in "Frankie and Johnny" were, to these eyes, stunning; is it just me, or is Michelle Pfeiffer kinda good looking? To quote an old Little Richard song, more closely associated with the actress Jayne Mansfield, "the girl can't help it."Anyway, in the film in question, we meet a pair of brothers, Frank and Jack Baker (played, respectively, by Beau and Jeff Bridges), who have been doing their double-piano act professionally together for over 15 years. Though obviously hugely talented, their schmaltzy act has remained static for all that time...not that the hotel lounge and tiki bar audiences they routinely play in front of seem to notice. Older brother Frank, a happily married family man, seems content to let things go as they have been, but Jack, a chain-smoking, morose womanizer, is obviously quite unhappy; we later see that his dream is to be a jazz pianist playing more improvisatory fare. Hoping to shake up their act a bit, the team decides to hire a female singer, and after auditioning 37 dismal prospects--possibly the film's single funniest scene; cutie pie Jennifer Tilly's rendition of "Candy Man" is a hoot--finally selects a beautiful young woman whose only previous entertaining experience had been in an escort agency. She is Susie Diamond, a woman as tough, bright, priceless, multifaceted and hardheaded as her name suggests, played, of course, by our Michelle. Susie's advent, naturally, causes major changes in both the brothers' relationship and in the act itself...."The Fabulous Baker Boys" is very much a three-person story, but the film's stars have such excellent chemistry together that the viewer never minds at all. The film has a wonderfully mournful, jazzy soundtrack, courtesy of Dave Grusin, and writer/director Steve Kloves has done a fine job in both departments. His picture looks sleek and shiny, and though set in the city of Seattle, never, strangely enough, gives us a single shot of that darn Space Needle, to its credit. The film contains many memorable scenes; I love the steamy one in which Jack gives Susie a New Year's Eve back massage, the one in which Jack and Susie have it out in the street after she quits the team, and the one in which the Bakers effortlessly pound out "You're Sixteen" in Frank's garage. The acting from all three principals is of course first rate, although the picture is an especial success for Pfeiffer, who not only looks stunning and gives a deservedly Oscar-nominated performance (ultimately "losing" to Jessica Tandy's career-capper Oscar for "Driving Miss Daisy"), but also gets to demonstrate what a nice way she has with a torch song, as well. During the course of the film, the viewer is treated to the awesome spectacle of this phenomenally beautiful woman warbling such standards as "More Than You Know," "Ten Cents a Dance," "Can't Take My Eyes Off You," "The Look of Love," "My Funny Valentine," "Feelings" and, of course, "Makin' Whoopee," and she really is better than good. In a picture where all the elements come together deliciously, Michelle's supersexy singing is the yummy icing on the cake. Indeed, I find myself getting a bit red faced and giggly, a la my old work buddy Bruce, just thinking about it....

In a curious case of life imitating art, casting real brothers Beau and Jeff Bridges as the lounge pianists Frank and Jack Baker is a super idea for chemical reasons. The ease and tension in the two men's connection is utterly natural and really draws you into this low-level romcom.The double act realises that, professionally, it needs a shot in the arm - the men probably understand that they need some sort of novelty to reinvigorate them as well, as the act not only pales for the diminishing customer base but also hangs heavily on them. Pfeiffer's Susie Diamond is almost too brash to be true (it's clear the writer-director Kloves had Desperately Seeking-Madonna in mind) but the combined talents of Pfeiffer and Jeff Bridges pull it off.It's odd as the film is principally remembered for a set piece in which Susie gives a sexually electric performance of Makin' Whoopee on a piano in a red dress. This is by no means the highlight of the film, although it neatly demonstrates how a little bit of circus magic, such as the Baker Boys consciously import to their act, goes a long way. That's showbiz. 5/10

I had real high expectations for the movie that earned Michelle Pfeiffer every critic award in the book plus the Golden Globe (Drama) for best actress. But this movie sinks a high low. It's a depressing romp about two brothers who have a lame piano act that consists of Grusin renditions meant for eighty year-olds with no social life. So they decide to get a female singer to spice up the act. Pfeiffer is their singer, a cynical ex-hooker who has a passable voice but sexy delivery that shows us why Pfeiffer is considered one of the most gorgeous contemporary screen actresses.Jeff Bridges has a boring role of a subdued man with major past issues, while his brother does a good job as an uptight control freak.The best part of the movie is Pfeiffer's performance of "Makin' Whoopee"- a segment endlessly imitated afterwards (including by Blanche on THE GOLDEN GIRLS). There's also a great seduction scene that follows it.The movie only glows when Pfeiffer is on screen, with the exception of a funny part by Jennifer Tilly. But I'm glad Jessica Tandy beat Pfeiffer for the Oscar- after watching this movie you will be too.