Rating: Summary: Boring, but entertaining Review: He was a star of TV's Taxi, a regular on Saturday Night Live and one of the most outrageous personalities in pop culture history. his name was Andy Kaufman. Jim Carrey stars as the legendary comedian, from his early club days to his untimely death in 1984.
Rating: Summary: I'm still not a fan. Review: Decent flick, but I still say Kaufman is highly overrated. While I'm sure this is a 'must own' for his fans, I'd tell anyone else to rent it. Performances are excellent all around, but the movie does little to explain his behavior. "The People vs Larry Flint" was a much better Milos Forman movie. Go buy that.
Rating: Summary: Don't expect to laugh much Review: One of the most disappointing films of the year. This film is a sort-of biography, not a comedy. Carrey is wooden and mechanical in his characterization of Andy Kaufman, whose life really wasn't that interesting anyway (so, why the heck make a movie about him? ) You will find yourself waiting for the comedy to start -- trust me, it won't. And the mediocre comedy re-enactments won't be powerful enough to make you laugh. Avoid this film.
Rating: Summary: The best movie ever! Review: Okay,maybe not the best movie ever but certainly the comedy of the year.The movie perfectly portrays the life of Andy Kaufman,very little facts were changed for the movie.Jim Carry's performance can almost be descibed as brilliant,one begins to think Carry actuallyis Kaufman.I perfect choice for anyone who loves Kaufman.Carry,or a good comedy.
Rating: Summary: An amazing biopic; under appreciated... WHY! Review: How strange is this; a biopic about a groundbreaking and enigmatic comedian's life (Andy Kaufman), starring one of Hollywood's top actors (Jim Carrey), illustrated through an Academy Award winning director (Milos Forman) is considered a bad movie! Why? Because nobody knows or likes Andy Kaufman? Because it was rated R? It's more like under appreciated... This is an amazing movie in which we see Andy brought back to life through Jim Carrey's performance. In fact, you do not see Carrey anywhere in this film. All the jokes and gags are by Andy, not Jim, ANDY. The rest of the casts' performance supports the movie, such as Paul Giamatti's portrayal as Bob Zmuda and Courtney Love's portrayal as Andy supporting and loving girlfriend, Lynn Marguiles. It's odd how it did bad at the box office and with some critics, who were writing it off as one of the worst films of 1999. Now that it's on video and DVD, it's getting good reviews! Where was the support during the 2000 Academy Awards (it didn't even get 1 nomination!)? You have to understand and figure out the movie before passing judgement.
Rating: Summary: The Performance of Jim Carrey's career! Review: It's too bad that some people who haven't seen this movie are so close minded that they think all Jim Carrey can do is mindless comedy. They are so wrong. Jim Carrey captures Andy Kaufman's spirit and puts it on screen for us all to see. The movie puts him up there and says "this is Andy." We observe a very important part of his life and become part of it in the movie. Very Entertaining and thought provoking. It's too bad this movie got shafted at the box office, it certainly deserved success, and a best actor nomination! The DVD is a must have because it features two REM music videos, and a behind the scenes featurette. Highly Reccomended!
Rating: Summary: A tour de force performance by Jim Carrey Review: This realistic biographical treatment of the life of Andy Kaufman is a tour de force triumph for Jim Carrey in the starring role. Carrey portrays Kaufman with such spooky accuracy that one has to wonder whether this was an impersonation or a possession. Kaufman could not have played Kaufman any better. Andy Kaufman was an audacious pioneer in the world of shock comedy. His most popular work in 'Taxi' was not his most important and was the work he liked the least. Kaufman was a ruthless manipulator of human emotion. He didn't care whether people loved him or hated him, laughed or cursed him as long as they were reacting. He would go to any lengths, no matter how ridiculous or distasteful to shock his audience and put one over on them. Though not the first in this regard (Don Rickles and Don Imus were offending people's sensibilities long before Kaufman emerged) his antics raised the bar for shock comedy, aiding people like of Howard Stern, Sam Kinison and Andrew Dice Clay. Though I don't personally believe this is a particularly constructive direction, I must concede that Kaufman broke through some major barriers. The film's biggest shortcoming is its neglect of the inner Kaufman. Some of the best scenes explaining Kaufman's motivations and reactions to his own behavior ended up in the deleted scenes bonus feature on the DVD. This relegated the film to becoming an Andy Kaufman greatest hits film without Andy. While it was entertaining as such, the burning question remains unanswered, namely, "What is this guy thinking as he behaves this way?" I can't say enough about Jim Carrey's performance. He totally immersed himself in the character down to the most meticulous detail. As he explained in the featurette, he didn't just try to impersonate Kaufman, he was intent on becoming him 24 hours a day. People who knew Kaufman well, like Danny DeVito and Kaufman's girlfriend Lynne Margulies, said that it was like Andy had taken over Carrey's body. With each film he makes I gain a new appreciation for Carrey's skills as a comedian and actor. Though much of his early work was tripe, his range of abilities continues to expand with each new role. In many ways he reminds me of Jerry Lewis, a brilliant mind behind the face of the village idiot. I rated this film an 8/10. It is a must see for Andy Kaufman fans and will still be entertaining for those who missed Kaufman's work. Unfortunately, it lacked insight and that made it incomplete.
Rating: Summary: Great Film/Extremely Hard To Find Extras On DVD Review: I loved this movie, and would have given it five stars if if weren't so difficult to find certain extras on the DVD. The disc promises footage of the real-life Andy Kauffman, and it can only be found by clicking on barely-noticable pictures of Kaufmann's face in the biography extra, which is meant to be read from off of the screen. I was only able to find it by virtue of a site which helps people find hidden extras on discs. I'm still trying to find the theatrical trailer, which is also supposed to be on the disc. Is this Universal's idea of trying to do something which Kauffman would have done (i.e., the deliberately poor television signal on his special)? The movie, however, is great. Sure, they went a little overboard with some of the scenes just being recreations of Kauffman's routines, and there wasn't enough detail into his personal life, but that doesn't mean that this wasn't a great movie. It was basically supposed to be the story of his (extremely unique) method of entertaining which,in essence, was to provoke the audience, and how his routine led most people to doubt his real-life cancer diagnosis at the end of his life. This film is a great parallel with "The Boy Who Cried Wolf". I don't think that the film would have been effective if it had dwelled more upon his life outside of his routine, as other biographical movies are so prone to do. As far as I'm concerned Carrey should have at least been nominated for an Oscar. The opening scene was a riot. It was almost as if he was channeling Kauffman's spirit throughout the entire production. This was a beautiful film, and it's a shame that so very few people have seen it. Perhaps I'm biased-I think Kauffman was a genius. I think that even people who disliked the real-life Kauffman would find as much virtue in this film as I have.
Rating: Summary: Not too Good! Review: Jim Carrey's performance was great, too bad Andy Kaufman's life wasn't, so don't make a movie about it. I was really looking forward to this movie it was a great disappointment to me and my family. The only reason I gave this 2 stars is because of Carrey's performance. Kaufman had problems but they would have been better shown in a documentary form in about 30 min. not a 2 hour movie. Kaufman was very hard to feel sorry for even in the end. Also he wasn't very funny at all, Taxi was the only thing he done well. I wouldn't recommend this to anybody. Sorry Jim!
Rating: Summary: Great performance, but who WAS Andy Kaufman? Review: Jim Carrey does a brilliant portrayal of the mysterious Andy Kaufmann, this we know. But, aside from reminding us how OLD the cast from "Taxi" has gotten (Jeff Conaway, we hardly knew ye!), the film provides little else. Perhaps the lack of insight into Andy's personality was exactly the point of the movie: Kaufmann WAS mysterious even to those closest to him (and himself). Still, I can't help but feel a bit cheated. I was hoping Milos Foreman would help answer some basic questions and help us see Andy Kaufmann for who he really was -- not for all the personalities he portrayed in his routines. The movie basically rehashes the rise of his career and his battle with cancer, but it never lets us past those manic performances to see the person. That's what I watched the movie to see and was sorely disappointed. The three stars are for Jim Carrey's performance. The movie itself, however, left me flat.
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