You won't be disappointed!

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Fresh and Exciting

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

A thoroughly appalling "comedy" detailing the wacky misadventures at an early 20th century health farm run by bizarre cereal magnate Dr. John Kellogg. Purportedly based on real events, one is hard-pressed to find much to laugh about in this over-long and criminally unfunny film. Anthony Hopkins, sporting buck teeth, has been drafted to play the nutty Kellogg. The events at the health farm largely unfold through the eyes of newly converted health maven Bridget Fonda and her less enthused husband Matthew Broderick, who is dragged along to have his system cleared of impurities.It is open for debate how much on screen is indeed factual, but it is certainly not open for debate how such a debacle could have been conceived with the talent involved. Director Alan Parker is responsible for some of our best dramas, including Midnight Express and Mississippi Burning. The cast is stocked with familiar faces, who have had far better days elsewhere. The humor is almost completely one-sided in scatological references and bodily functions - if you think the idea of someone getting a yogurt enema is the height of hilarity, then this is definitely the film for you. The film is also awash in gratuitous nudity, but no amount of eye candy (and much of it would not qualify for that description) can distract from the film's glaring shortcomings.Hopkins throws himself into the role of Kellogg, but it is little more than a cartoon character. Fonda alternates between nagging and dishrag in a dreadfully uninteresting role. Broderick fares best from the cast, largely because he is playing the only semi-developed character and the only one remotely normal or sympathetic. It is also a pleasant surprise how enticing he looks when naked - that close-up on the vibrating platform was a real eye-opener. John Cusack is on hand, but why is anyone's guess. His subplot - playing a nephew of one of Kellogg's patients involved in a shady scheme - goes no where and takes up too much screen time. Ditto, Dana Carvey as Kellogg's deranged son. Both subplots could have been completely excised from the film without anyone noticing and making the proceedings blessedly shorter. Camryn Manheim is light years beyond obnoxious as Fonda's confidante at the health farm.Truly there is literally nothing that works in this film. There is nary a chuckle to be found in its morass of jokes on poop, enemas, flatulence and body fluids. At the end, the question lingers as to how so many talented people ended up in this mess?

I never even knew about this film when it came out. Since I hear it only grossed 6.5 million that explains why. The producers probably didn't even keep in the theaters a week. I can't explain what makes a film flop at the box office, but this one certainly didn't deserve it.From start to finish I was totally enraptured by this witty story of a man who held views so controversial they are practically comical all by themselves. The movie is based on a novel which is a work of fiction, but it nevertheless draws its subject matter from some very true aspects of Dr. Kellogg's life that are quite unusual and almost always surprising. As these surprises are revealed to you throughout the film, they come as even more of a shock every time. There are a number of stories told throughout the sanitarium and each is a delight in and of itself. The stories all manage to interweave, sometimes in very comical ways, and despite their comedy, teach some very practical lessons. It is almost satirical.I give this film two thumbs up. Don't watch it in mixed company and it certainly isn't appropriate for children. But for those with a mature attitude and an appreciation of the health nut culture, it will make for a laugh-filled evening.

"With friends like these, who needs enemas." is the funniest line in the movie.If you laugh when you hear the words "shit", "poo", "enema" or "masturbation" you will enjoy this movie. Reliance on pompous people saying these words wore thin for me.I would have made a nice 30 minute short. It dragged on and on repeating the same elements.The actors shout as if they were on stage trying to emote to the back rows in some melodrama. I just wanted them to shut up. The musical score reminded be of an endlessly extended frantic Wendy's commercial.It is visually interesting with all the Victoriana, and the crazy health machines created by Dr. Kellogg.Lots of nudity of ugly people. The extras are a bizarre looking crew, picked for their grotesqueness.

I have rarely seen such a feast of bad-taste tosh in my life. One or two 'jokes' about bowel movements could be funny....two could be amusing.....but this film, dedicated to that end of the alimentary canal is about as much fun to watch as it is to receive the endless enemas it delights in bringing to our close attention. Parker's characters are shallow and boring. Hopkins plays a one-dimensional puritanical sadist. He abused his adopted son, likes to humiliate his patients, is impotent and does things to his own backside with devices. Fantastic. This character could have been generated by computer. What happened to Parker's creativity? The story simply does not exist. There is no relation at all between the various threads and they have no influence on the main storyline because it is either totally lacking or so weak as to be invisible. However I fear the most important criticism I have of this sorry waste of money is that it is simply NOT AT ALL FUNNY. During the entire, dragging, boring debacle, there were perhaps two occasions when it was worth a slight smile. Does Parker really think it is necessary to show a man in a shower with filthy underpants and then give us a close-up of the brown-black waste water emanating from them? Is it funny for a man to have an erection because of electrical charges applied to his feet? (Incidently this joke was played for several minutes and several scenes in the film.) Parker directed with a total lack of taste and finesse. I would like to take a copy of this lame disaster, and just as Mr. Parker wasted a couple of precious hours of my life showing me his sad anal fixation fantasies, procure a jar of Vaseline and then introduce him to new ways of 'enjoying film'.This film should have stayed where it belonged - on the cutting room floor. Parker - hang your head in shame, Sir!