Actuakers
One of my all time favorites.
Pacionsbo
Absolutely Fantastic
Zandra
The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
sol1218
***SPOILERS*** Not too convincing film about a hot shot and well intentioned priest who gets in over his heed in trying to saved his beloved Catholic Church from going bankrupt.The Second World War is soon to be over and the Catholic Church has suffered major financial losses because of it. American priest Father John Flaherthy, Christopher Reeve, comes up with this master plan to save the church but there's just one hitch: It involves the Mafia who's the only one who can make it happen. Getting involved with his childhood friend-from Brooklyn NY- Lodo Varese, Joseph Cartese, a master sergeant in the US Army Father John has Lodo through his Mafia and black market connections sell thousands of cartons of cigarettes from the Vatican commissary, that Father John is the administrator of, for a mark up of over 400%. The very naive Father John thinks that his friend Lodo together with his Mafia boss Don Vito "the Apple" Appolini, Jason Miller, will be as honest about this strange arrangement that he cooked up in secretly saving the church as he is.While all this is going on Father John, using the alias of US Army Lt. Finnigen, gets involved with the not yet confirmed Catholic nun Clara Genevieve Bjold, whom he rescued from getting drenched from a sudden downpour with her fellow nuns while driving his army jeep. In a matter of days the very handsome Father John, or Lt . Finnigen, had the impressionable Clara, who thought that he was a black marketeer, have an affair with him. Thinking that she was involved with a corrupt US Army solider not a Catholic priest, or Monsignor which he was at the time, Clara flipped out when she saw Father John at a ceremony at the Vatican together with his mentor Cardinal Santoni, Fernando Rey, and the Holy Father himself the Pope played by Leonardo Cimino!Father John not knowing what to say later, while in Church praying for forgiveness, let himself have it, by being sapped around,by an outraged Clara who accused him of ruining her, as well as his, life! The relationship between Father John, a CPA before he entered the church, and his good friend Lodo also started to sour with Lodo taking off with some 40 million dollars of the church's money as well as losing over 600 million dollars playing the very speculative currency markets.***SPOILER ALERT*** The mad as hell Don Vito who's money, in connection with the Catholic Church, Lodo also ripped off has a hit put out on him which a tearful Father John begs him to put off. This turned out to be about the only good thing that Father John did in the movie and even that backfired on him!Insulting, especially to Roman Catholics, in how the movie treats members of the clothe by making them look worse then the hoods and gangsters that their shown to be working with. Christopher Reeve as the corrupt Father John is anything but sympathetic in his being so obsessed with both money and sex, as well as power, that whatever good there was in him quickly evaporated within the first ten minutes of the movie. Even though Father John's attempt to save the Catholic Church from going bankrupt was in the end successful his methods were anything but Christ-like. Which made you wonder if, in the movie, with the underhanded and sleazy tactics that Father John used to save it was in fact worth saving at all!
dawny-doo
saw this as a sneak preview, and there was a lot of mumbling in full theater as reeve was cast as priest, to begin with. more mumbling ensued as film went on, then laughter, and occasional comments from crowd. loved scenes as lines of people approached the pope, and the overhead camera view was hysterical when eyes met. one comment from crowd was directed at diminuative pope character- "ET phone home". i've been looking for it on video for years for a good laugh, but couldn't even find it among reeve's credits. kudos to bujold for listing everything no matter how nasty... i don't remember anyone leaving the theater, as i've seen in some sneak previews, probably because the of the 'so bad it was good' factor.
smccallister
A really bad movie essentially has to be a broken promise. You go to see a Troma flick or something by Ed Wood, and you pretty much know the expectations are low, and they'll be realized. On the other hand, when you've got a decent budget, a fairly ambitious plot, studio backing, and a cast of well-known actors -- that's what it takes to set up a really bad movie. Monsignor is harder to appreciate for all its awfulness in light of the real life tragedy suffered by Christopher Reeve. But it must be said that Reeve's acting is at the heart of this Really Bad Movie. Reeve plays a priest who essentially breaks every rule and vow -- and is rewarded with rapid and consistent promotion, all the way to the heights of the Vatican. Corrupt, sleeps with nuns -- and he becomes the Vatican's trusted financial manager. There doesn't seem to be much logic behind his brilliant career -- or behind much else that happens in this film. Some bad films are hard to watch, but this one is more in the head-scratcher category... what the hell were they thinking?
Wizard-8
Now, I didn't rent this thinking it would be a good movie. I had heard this was an uproarious unintentional comedy, so that's what I was expecting. There are a few laughs to be found, but I found this movie to be a mostly dull and murky drama. Reeve is totally miscast and out of his league here, even if the screenplay was better.
