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

WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Konterr Brilliant and touching

quarterwavevertical Gilbert and Sullivan were well-known for poking fun at the celebrities and public officials of their day. They did so in a number of well-crafted operettas (e. g., "HMS Pinafor" and "The Mikado") to the delight of audiences. I've heard that many of those lampooned, satirized, or otherwise pilloried in those works considered it an honour to be treated in that fashion.Regrettably, the movie "S.O.B." is far below that standard. It has all the subtlety of a head-on collision and, worse, is haphazard and unfunny in its presentation.I imagine that it was meant to be some sort of inside joke as it seemed that many of the characters were based on real people, some of which were, presumably, easily recognized by those in Hollywood. Since most of us lead real lives in the real world, just who the targets of the director's barbs actually were is never made clear nor is there any attempt to explain who they are to the audience.The whole movie comes off as a two-hour long temper tantrum by director Blake Edwards. How DARE Hollywood not regard everything he does as pure genius? The fact of the matter is that artistic misfires have happened for centuries. Beethoven, for example, revised his opera "Leonora" three times before he finally had success after making major changes, including renaming it as "Fidelio".But this isn't the first time that Edwards satirized Hollywood. About 15 years earlier, he made the movie "The Party" with Peter Sellers in the lead. Although that film didn't have much of a plot, it was certainly more polished than this clunker of a film.For the most part, the actors drift through their parts, almost as if they knew it was a paycheque movie. The only character that's interesting is the phoney-baloney physician played by Robert Preston, but most of the rest are redundant as they contribute next to nothing to the overall story. Why, for example, was Marisa Berenson's character included? (Why is she even in the movie to begin with as she certainly isn't much of an actress. Watch her in "Barry Lyndon" and you'll know why I made that comment.)In addition, there are details in the movie that are absolutely unimportant and could easily have been deleted. I mean, does the audience really need to know about Robert Vaughn's character's personal habits?Not even the ending is particularly original. The funeral arrangements appear to have been lifted from the movies "The Loved One" and "The Vikings".It pained me to see William Holden in this clunker. It was to be his last movie and his performance was quite disappointing, considering that his finest role was probably that of Pike Bishop in "The Wild Bunch". He certainly didn't look at all well in "S.O.B." and died soon after it was released.I first saw this movie on cable TV about a year after it was in the theatres. I thought it was dreadful back then. I saw it again recently and it hasn't improved with time.Avoid this one and watch "The Party" instead.

kenjha In this satirical look at Hollywood, a film producer tries to commit suicide after a big-budget flop, but then decides to reshoot it as porn. It has some very funny moments but runs out of steam long before its excessive running time. It boasts a terrific all-star cast, but Preston steals the film as a wise-cracking doctor. Andrews, playing a wholesome actress not unlike herself, flashes her breasts in an attempt to boost the box office of the reshot film. Mulligan plays her husband, presumably modeled after Edwards. In his final film, Holden plays a hard-drinking, hedonistic director. In a sad irony, the actor drank himself to death months after the film was released.

ww1buff65 I "discovered" this movie on cable in the mid-late 80's and immediately fell in love with it. It's witty, scathingly funny and some of it is so rapid-fire that it requires viewing multiple times to catch all that is being said. I heard some Hollywood type espousing once that "stereotypes are only stereotypes because they're true." We've all seen the stereotypical, ego-centric Hollywood agents and other sycophants portrayed in various movies/shows/etc. but rarely have they all been assembled in one hysterical place and portrayed by such a star-studded rogues gallery! Robert Preston is my favorite as the perpetually drunk/stoned quack doctor, and William Holden's last performance as the aged, burned-out director is particularly poignant when he gives a brief speech of "encouragement" to Felix (Richard Mulligan) about consciously trying to kill himself with drugs, booze and sexual excesses for the past 40 years. So some of the "moments of truth" are not just realizations about the business itself, but about the actors playing the roles. An all-around great movie.

claudja777 the best comedy of the eighties.Brilliant,funny,grotesque,noir,dramatic,all these stiles mixed greatly thanks to an almost perfect script(nothing to do with the comedy of the last 20 years,based on a simple "situation" which exhaust itself after 20 minute)and a great and ironic Julie Andrews on a parody of herself and of her career-which has been less shiny of what it deserved to be-,not to forgive all the other actors,william holden overall in his last stage,but also the great "double Oscar winner" shelley winters and "J.R." Larry Hagman.An irresistible film full of ideas and definitely rich of style and elegance, with something which is almost impossible to find in nowadays movies:an atmosphere