steven@ism70.UUCP (05/21/85)
BREWSTER'S MILLIONS Starring Richard Pryor and John Candy. Also starring Lonette McKee, Stephen Collins, Jerry Orbach, Pat Hingle and Hume Cronyn. Directed by Walter Hill. Written by Herschel Weingrod and Timothy Harris. Based on a novel by George Barr McCutcheon. Produced by Lawrence Gordon and Joel Silver. Photographed by Ric Waite. Production Designed by John Vallone. Edited by Freeman Davies and Mark Ripps. Music by Ry Cooder. From Universal Pictures (1985). You'd think the guys up in Universal City would have learned. Last summer, their anchor Summer release was the bomb _S_t_r_e_e_t_s_ _o_f _F_i_r_e, directed by none other than action autuer Walter Hill, making an experimental foray into the modern musical genre. So what do they do this year? Give Walter the prime spot in the Universal lineup once again, this time letting him helm, of all things, a comedy. Now don't get me wrong, Hill's great at action. _4_8_ _H_r_s_., the minimalist _T_h_e_ _D_r_i_v_e_r and _T_h_e_ _L_o_n_g_ _R_i_d_e_r_s show a lot of style; when buoyed with a good script, he can really deliver the goods. Maybe the guys up in the Black Tower were doing some thinking when they gave the OK to a script by Herschel Weingrod and Tim Harris, late of _T_r_a_d_i_n_g_ _P_l_a_c_e_s. You'd think. Well... Minor league pitcher Monty Brewster (Richard Pryor) gets a proposition he can't refuse: if he can spend 30 million dollars in 30 days and have no assets left, he'll receive an inheritance from his long-lost Uncle Rupert (Hume Cronyn, wheezing his way into your heart) totaling a cool 300 million dollars. Of course, he can't tell anyone, least of all his good buddy John Candy. Pretty but cold accountant Lonette McKee tries to remain professional amidst the chaos of totaling up the bills of someone who walks into restaurants and orders $400 bottles of wine for everyone in the place. First of all, blame Walter Hill for much of the failure of this film to deliver any real laughs. Pryor's character isn't seen as being so down in the dumps that he really deserves this good fortune. Spending 30 million dollars wildly can be fun; it shows through in some scenes where that idea sparks through intermittently. But Pryor doesn't do anything really clever with the dough (well, one thing). Hill buries lots of laughs with frenetic staging and some loud, raucous background action that doesn't build; it just distracts. The script fails to deliver anything like a memorable comic line for either lead. Plus, the movie loses John Candy for the last half hour of the picture (1/3 of it, since the pic barely runs 100 minutes)! Half of the fun of a project like this comes from watching Pryor and Candy do some schtick together -- unfortunately, Weingrod and Harris saddle Pryor with a stipulation that he can't tell anyone why he must spend all his dough. Another source for interaction goes by the boards. Collins seems miscast in a murky love rectangle (Pryor to McKee to Collins to Tovah Feldshuh as Collin's ex-girfriend). McKee acts way too cold to see why Pryor would want to bother with her. Walter's next project takes him, inappropriately enough, to the sticks in a road comedy called _C_r_o_s_s_r_o_a_d_s, starring Ralph Macchio and Jami Gertz. Hold on tight. Two stars out of four.
esco@ssc-vax.UUCP (Michael Esco) (05/24/85)
> BREWSTER'S MILLIONS > Starring Richard Pryor and John Candy. > Directed by Walter Hill. Written by Herschel Weingrod and Timothy > Harris. Based on a novel by George Barr McCutcheon. Produced by > Lawrence Gordon and Joel Silver. Were they trying to save money in filming this by reusing so many things from `48 Hours'? I noticed the car, the bar, the women, and some of the clothes were all in `48 Hours'. Or maybe these were some sort of good luck charm for Hill. Did anyone else see these things? Were there other carry overs from other movies? Michael Esco Boeing Aerospace
evan@petfe.UUCP (Evan Marcus) (05/27/85)
For Christ's sake, aren't you supposed to put SPOILER at the beginning
of one of these???????
--Evan Marcus
--
{ucbvax|decvax}!vax135!petsd!pedsgd!pedsga!evan
...!petfe!evan
"We're all different."
"I'm not."davew@shark.UUCP (Dave Williams) (05/28/85)
In article <13100103@ism70.UUCP> steven@ism70.UUCP writes: > > >BREWSTER'S MILLIONS > >Starring Richard Pryor and John Candy. The original BREWSTER'S MILLIONS was done in the mid-forties with Dennis O'Keefe. In that version he had to spend 1 million in order to inherit another 6.5 million. Shows you what inflation can do. If this movie is one laugh as funny as the original it should be a winner. -- Dave Williams Tektronix, Inc. Graphic Workstations Division "The 6000 Family" "The workstations that made Wilsonville famous."
waltt@tekecs.UUCP (Walt Tucker) (05/28/85)
> >BREWSTER'S MILLIONS > > > >Starring Richard Pryor and John Candy. > > The original BREWSTER'S MILLIONS was done in the mid-forties with > Dennis O'Keefe. In that version he had to spend 1 million in order > to inherit another 6.5 million. Shows you what inflation can do. > If this movie is one laugh as funny as the original it should be > a winner. The Portland Oregonian, the movie review segment of the local news, and "At the Movies" (Siskel & Ebert) have all mentioned that this is the SIXTH remake of "Brewster's Millions." I don't know when all the versions were done, but the one above is at least one of the early ones, if not the earliest. By the way, none of reviewers in the three mediums mentioned liked the movie. They didn't say it was ultra bad, but they did say it wasn't that good. Gene and Roger both gave it thumbs down. Or, it may be bad, but it's not really good. -- Walt Tucker Tektronix, Inc.
wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (05/31/85)
The comment on this being the sixth remake that I read said that the first version was made (as a silent, of course) in *1914*, with Fatty Arbuckle. That sounds a bit wrong -- 1914 seems too early, but maybe my historical-film-chronology memory is warped...
leeper@mtgzz.UUCP (m.r.leeper) (06/03/85)
>The comment on this being the sixth remake that I read said >that the first version was made (as a silent, of course) in >*1914*, with Fatty Arbuckle. That sounds a bit wrong -- >1914 seems too early, but maybe my >historical-film-chronology memory is warped... Arbuckle started making films in 1910 and more than half of his filmography in Katz' FILM ENCYCLOPEDIA are in or before 1914. Mark Leeper ...ihnp4!mtgzz!leeper
newman@bgsuvax.UUCP (Tim Newman) (06/04/85)
Personally, my impression of this film is that it would have been great as a 45-60 minute film (unfortunately, that's not feature film length). The laughs seemed good for the first 45 minutes, and with that plot, I thought that an hour was about all that should have been squeezed out of it ... Tim Newman