**** REVIEW INCLUDES "GREAT DIALOG" SPOILERS ****
Wow was I surprised to see all the positive reviews of this movie here. I thought I was alone in being entertained by this. External reviews often completely trash this movie without finding anything positive.
Well get this chemical makeup: Stunning and popular star Lara Flynn Boyle overtly titillating us and wearing skimpy outfits even including a bikini(!), Timothy Hutton, habitual scene stealer Oliver Platt during younger and thinner days, superstar Faye Dunaway, and Steven Webber from the TV show "Wings." How's that for voltage? Add in a proved plot line with a long pedigree (Hand that rocks the cradle, Single White Female, many more), some great whacky dialog, and top it off with the inspired idea of a corporate thriller set in a cookie company with the climax in an industrial kitchen, and yeah...I'll bank that. How could you possibly lose?
Actually I really like this movie, even just watching it straight. The only problem I have is Faye Dunaway's really bad, hammy, mugging acting, and toward the end Boyle picks up some of the same style, but other than that I like it. However, if you make me analyze it, OK, it's riddled with plot holes, dropped threads, unanswered questions, implausibilities, etc, but that really doesn't matter if the movie succeeds in entertaining me. And it does. So with that in mind, you could look at it as one of the "so bad it's good" genre, and it does succeed on that level. I agree with others that the ending seems as tho it was written on the spot when someone lost the rest of the script.
It actually has a lot of good stuff in it. For example:
One of my favorite literary devices is the "buddy thing," which is an entertainment staple: Laurel and Hardy, Skipper and Gilligan, Kip and friend in Bosom Buddies, Balky and Larry in "Perfect Strangers," etc. This movie features that, but in four directions: Hutton and his boss, Hutton and his buddy (Webber), Hutton and his rival (Platt), Hutton and Boyle. Lots of fun there.
The highlight for me is some of the whacky dialog, which I'm still quoting years later. For example: "You're BLOWIN' it man." "YOU'VE GOT THIS PROBLEM." And one of the greatest lines ever: "Good gosh how hard can it be? I'm not asking you to splice DNA you just DO IT!"
Wonderful stuff.
Finally, it's no surprise that Hutton and Platt both turn in performances that are well worth watching.
I would have liked to give this movie a 10, because it's really one of my favorites, but I couldn't do that in good conscience, so I had to go easy on the superlative.
Wow was I surprised to see all the positive reviews of this movie here. I thought I was alone in being entertained by this. External reviews often completely trash this movie without finding anything positive.
Well get this chemical makeup: Stunning and popular star Lara Flynn Boyle overtly titillating us and wearing skimpy outfits even including a bikini(!), Timothy Hutton, habitual scene stealer Oliver Platt during younger and thinner days, superstar Faye Dunaway, and Steven Webber from the TV show "Wings." How's that for voltage? Add in a proved plot line with a long pedigree (Hand that rocks the cradle, Single White Female, many more), some great whacky dialog, and top it off with the inspired idea of a corporate thriller set in a cookie company with the climax in an industrial kitchen, and yeah...I'll bank that. How could you possibly lose?
Actually I really like this movie, even just watching it straight. The only problem I have is Faye Dunaway's really bad, hammy, mugging acting, and toward the end Boyle picks up some of the same style, but other than that I like it. However, if you make me analyze it, OK, it's riddled with plot holes, dropped threads, unanswered questions, implausibilities, etc, but that really doesn't matter if the movie succeeds in entertaining me. And it does. So with that in mind, you could look at it as one of the "so bad it's good" genre, and it does succeed on that level. I agree with others that the ending seems as tho it was written on the spot when someone lost the rest of the script.
It actually has a lot of good stuff in it. For example:
One of my favorite literary devices is the "buddy thing," which is an entertainment staple: Laurel and Hardy, Skipper and Gilligan, Kip and friend in Bosom Buddies, Balky and Larry in "Perfect Strangers," etc. This movie features that, but in four directions: Hutton and his boss, Hutton and his buddy (Webber), Hutton and his rival (Platt), Hutton and Boyle. Lots of fun there.
The highlight for me is some of the whacky dialog, which I'm still quoting years later. For example: "You're BLOWIN' it man." "YOU'VE GOT THIS PROBLEM." And one of the greatest lines ever: "Good gosh how hard can it be? I'm not asking you to splice DNA you just DO IT!"
Wonderful stuff.
Finally, it's no surprise that Hutton and Platt both turn in performances that are well worth watching.
I would have liked to give this movie a 10, because it's really one of my favorites, but I couldn't do that in good conscience, so I had to go easy on the superlative.