a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The King of Marvin Gardens like its predecessor "Five Easy Pieces" by the same director with Nicholson, isn't much of a film. A so called character study film, where nothing happens.Unfortunately I didn't know, otherwise I wouldn't of watched it. Anyway, the opening monologue by David was interesting, but the film was all down hill from there. The miss America pageant scene brought some joy, if only briefly. All the characters were mostly unlikable, Jason especially. Sally was the only one to show any real heart. It was all pretty pretentious, there wasn't anything here.

David Staebler (Jack Nicholson) is a Philly talk radio DJ taking care of his grandfather. He goes to Atlantic City to find his black-sheep brother Jason (Bruce Dern) in jail. Monopoly originated from Atlantic City and Marvin Gardens is the property right before Go To Jail. Jason tells David to find Lewis to set off a mercurial scheme to get a gambling license with Japanese investors. Jason has an even bigger plan to live big in Hawaii. Sally (Ellen Burstyn) is Jason's girlfriend and Jessica (Julia Anne Robinson) wants to be a pageant queen.I would like this movie so much more if I understood the proper plan and what Jason is trying to do with his scheme. Jason is so weaselly that he never really explains what's going on. On the other hand, that's what so real about Jason. He's no mastermind and it could be perfectly realistic that he has no plans. The question becomes what David is thinking about. Bruce Dern is absolutely brilliant as the unstable brother. This is a well-acted movie but I don't really understand what's going on.

"The King of Marvin Gardens" is an ensemble piece that turns on the collision of four dysfunctional people. Jack Nicholson plays a perennially depressed, bookish "straight" type opposite the "dynamic" and "goofy" Bruce Dern. Ellen Burstyn and Julia Ann Robinson play, essentially, a mother-step daughter team of hookers. None of these characters is compelling and all of them become quite grating in their various ways; Bruce Dern takes the prize as being the most annoying and tiresome of the bunch.The movie is set in Atlantic City and makes frequent use of the more lurid, campy or bizarre aspects of that location. Unfortunately, the antics of the four main actors are mostly forced, mannered and flat. I found myself cringing at the strained quality of the movie as it reached toward inspiring in the audience some sort of artsy, reverse-chic epiphany it was nowhere near attaining.There really is no plot, and almost any scene could be deleted without affecting the remainder of the film...except for the happy outcome that the thing would be that much shorter. I sat through most of this mess but at a certain point I finally succumbed to my urge to walk out and... walked out. It felt really good to say goodbye to "The King of Marvin Gardens."

It was the 3rd movie that i've watched from Rafelson in his golden 70's era (after Five Easy pieces n Stay Hungry).I found it brilliant. it could be named as "Five Easy Pieces,part ii". all of director's elements are present here:the story of frustrated Americans in 70's, their alienation from their families(i just reminded that poetic sequence in the final of " 5ive Easy Pieces",where jack talks to his handicap father n the symmetric sequence in "Marvin Gardens" is at the beginning when Jack narrates a fiction story about his grandfather).the movie truly criticizes the "American dream" and Rafelson is definitely 1 of the first directors who dared to create the story of this disillusioned generation with poetic n compelling structure.i am afraid that i'll remember "Marvin Gardens" by one sequence n 1 quote: the scene where two brothers arrange a show to elect(!) Miss America. that's a fantastic satire about "opportunism-like" evaluation of American dream.and the quote in near final where Jason (Dern) says: "if everything don't work out for you like magic,then it's all a mirage"...