CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

yo-c I wasn't sure what to expect going into this. I had started reading the play by Michael Frayn and decided to watch the film to get an idea of what it would look like. I was expecting a cheap movie with unknown actors and average cinematography. I was not expecting to see Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve in a hilarious romp that had me in stitches from start to finish.The first act shows a troupe of actors rehearsing for their own farce, "Nothing On". This rehearsal would precede their first performance that night. But they are clearly not ready to perform. The rehearsal is constantly interrupted by forgotten stage directions, faulty doors, the absence of Selsdon (Denholm Elliott), Frederick (Christopher Reeve) asking about his character, Philip's motives and Brooke losing her contacts. You can feel the tension in director Lloyd (Michael Caine) as he realises how incompetent his cast is.Things only get worse in the second act. This is by far the strongest act. After a few good and a few not so good performances, we now get a glimpse at behind the scenes of one of their performances. However, the cast now hate each other as they believe partners are cheating on them. The brilliance of this act comes from the fact that the actors try to remain silent behind the set and yet they are constantly trying to fight each other or mess with each other. A fantastic moment plays out as the actors attempt to swing an axe at each other only to have it snatched out their hands.The third and final act once again shows the stage from the audience's point of view as the actors have become even more frustrated with each other and slowly drop out of their characters and veer more and more from their lines. Things drastically fall apart and the audience (of the film) is left chewing their fingernails in discomfort.The farce that the actors are playing on stage is also brilliantly written in and of itself. At times (when the actors are properly performing the play) it is easy to forget that this is a play inside a play and get absorbed into the action of "Nothing On". It follows a host of characters as they race around a house trying not to let anyone else know they are there. It also involves sardines. A lot of sardines.The cast do a brilliant job of both their film roles and their play roles. In the film they have American accents, but in the play they have British accents. This makes it clear when they drop in and out of their roles, which they do more and more as the film goes on. This blurred line between between their play character and film character is performed so perfectly as well.The action plays out in a very cartoon-like way. This is true to the farcical style and works flawlessly. The constant flow of action as multiple things are working at once means the film can be watched over and over and something new can be seen every time.The camera is never static and pans seamlessly between action as it shows a pair of characters doing one thing as another pair do something else. The dynamic camera puts you right in the action and makes you feel just as uncomfortable as the actors would be.I was pleasantly surprised to see that the dialogue had been taken almost directly from the Michael Frayn's writing. Only a few words had been adapted to fit the American setting.Overall, this was a uproariously good time and an excellent rendition of the original play. The film serves the play tremendously and is brilliant in its own right too. The cast have performed superbly and the cinematography was dynamic enough so that it still felt like a film and not a stage production.

itamarscomix It's quite clear from watching Noises Off... that it was meant to be seen as a stage play. Peter Bogdanovich made a noble attempt to translate it to the big screen, but it's also quite clear that he himself recognized it for being first and foremost a stage play, and didn't really make an effort to make the film version a work that stands by its own right, as other great directors had done with plays before and after him (eg, Lumet with '12 Angry Men', Forman with 'Hair' or Polanski with 'Carnage'). Instead, Bogdanovich lets the play work itself, and merely adds some narration and a framing device which seem pretty useless, little more than something for the audience to grab on to in their search for a coherent plot (which isn't an integral part of the original play). The problems in filming this play are most obvious in the second act, almost in its entirety a slapstick/comedy of errors sequence that hinges on perfect, relentless timing and on the audience grasping the big picture - which they can't with the camera moving around constantly. The sequence is still funny, but it's very difficult to follow the events and to really get the impression of the perfectly timed comedy.Unfortunately, I've never seen the play performed live. I hope to do so someday; but for now, I'll take the film as a perfectly good replacement. Because, for all its inherent problems, it's still one of the best comedy films of the 90's, thanks to the wonderful script, and thanks to a first rate cast with perfect timing - and timing is what Noises Off... is all about. Well, that and sardines. Carol Burnett is hilarious; Christopher Reeve and John Ritter deliver comedic performances I never thought they had in them; and Michael Caine masters over the whole thing brilliantly. They, and the rest of the cast, are enough to carry the film through, and while it's not enough to completely remove the feeling that the stage play is probably better, it's enough to make it a terrific comedy, always hilarious, often depressing (probably more so for anyone with experience in live theater). And sardines, of course.

blanche-2 "Noises Off" is based on a popular play. Directed by Peter Bogdonavich, it tells the story of a bedroom farce, "Nothing On," which is, in fact, a dud of a play - and what goes on backstage and on-stage as the actors rehearse, play out of town, and open on Broadway. Thanks to break-ups, jealousies, and drunkenness, the offstage happenings spill over into the play, as the actors grow to hate one another more and more. Anyone with experience in theater will love it the most, but it's fun for everyone.The cast is top-notch - Michael Caine is the harried director, and the stars of the "play" are Carol Burnett, John Ritter, Christopher Reeve, Marilu Henner, Nicolette Sheridan, Mark-Linn Baker, and Denholm Elliott. Julie Hagerty is the near-hysterical stage manager.There's a lot of slapstick and much "actor talk" with the actors searching for motivations; there's a drunk actor (Elliott) who pops up from time to time asking if it's his cue yet. (Soon, the cast finds his stash of booze and start chugalugging themselves.) Caine is terrific as a Valium-popping director driven to near-madness. The play is much better than the film, even though the film is terribly funny.Unfortunately, for me anyway, it's just terribly sad to see handsome, robust Christopher Reeve walking around and the talented, deceased John Ritter. Boy, life sure has some same twists. So does "Noises Off" - but unlike some of life's twists, these twists are accompanied by plenty of belly laughs.

Krys78 I have seen this movie a number of times but I never left my feedback. But I have to say something on one of the most creative and innovative movies ever to be made. How they all can remember not only their lines, but direction and substance is phenomenal! Whether you want to get into theater or films you should, no, you HAVE to see this movie! It is amazingly scripted, acted and a laugh non-stop masterpiece! Ritter, Reeves and Elliot who are no longer with us (a crying shame for the entertainment industry) was impeccable, even when they mucked up. I wonder how much rehearsal and takes it took to get it right? Being an aspiring actress myself this will definitely go in my vault of favorites. Run, don't walk to your closest video store and BUY this movie! I PROMISE you, you will NOT regret it!