#140RVW
Less a movie than a film school exercise as Steve Martin remixes old noir films with even older one-liners. Still works more often than not.
What’s more:
On paper this really shouldn’t work; inserting yourself into a bunch of old movies and making smart ass remarks. It would be sort of like having a bunch of guys sitting in the audience and heckling a movie and just showing the backs of their heads…wait a second…
But it does work, because the year is 1982 and Steve Martin is about the funniest person on the planet. Some of the jokes work very well, my favorite being a running gag scolding Bogart for not wearing a tie. Many others are just rote smarmy responses that simply advance the story. Actually, it’s probably true to say that while this exercise in remixing old films works, it isn’t funny so much as irreverent.
The concept of mashing up old films into a new film is intriguing, though. I’m sure someone will make (and probably already has) a truly unique project this way, though it will probably never see the light of day for rights reasons…
Poster:
Trailer:
Bechdel Test:
Fail
| Main Cast | Steve Martin Rigby Reardon, Rachel Ward Juliet Forrest, Alan Ladd The Exterminator (archive footage), Carl Reiner Field Marshall VonKluck |
| Rating | PG |
| Release Date | Fri 21 May 1982 UTC |
| Director | Carl Reiner |
| Genres | Comedy, Crime, Mystery, Thriller |
| Plot | Film noir parody with a detective uncovering a sinister plot. Characters from real noirs appear as scenes from various films are intercut. |
| Poster |  |
| Runtime | 88 |
| Tagline | Laugh… or I’ll blow your lips off! |
| Writers | Carl Reiner (written by) &, George Gipe (written by) … |
| Year | 1982 |
