Tootsie

Rating:
Summary: Tootsie- The Classic Comedy
Review: Dustin Hoffman is Michael Dorsey and Dorothy Michaels in this classic comedy. Michael Dorsey was an unemployed actor for 20 years. One day when Michael's girlfriend, Sandy,(Teri Garr) tries out for a soap opera and doesn't make it Michael tries out for the part as Dorothy Michaels and gets the part. Everything from wedding proposals to falling in love with a female co-star on the show named Julie(Jessica Lang) Sydney Pollock directs and co-stars in this brilliant comedy the will have you laughing the whole time. A defiant classic and must-have.

Rating:
Summary: Toot, Toot, Tootsie-Hello!
Review: Another of the many superb performances by legendary film actor Dustin Hoffman. This is a very funny and entertaining film about a male actor who is down on his luck as far as his career goes, and decides to take an extreme measure by assuming a female identity to land a lucrative position on a daytime soap opera. At first, the charade works; his life as a woman gain him wide acceptance and needed income. However, along the way he inadvertantly breaks the hearts of three people, two men and one woman. The problems become so bad he finally decides to abandon his female identity in front of millions of TV viewers; the resulting scene ranks among one of the most famous in film history. Hoffman showed he earned a nomination for Best Actor Oscar and would have won if Ben Kingsley's performance in "Gandhi" hadn't been released in the same year.

Rating:
Summary: Looks great on DVD - But the "extras" are weak!!!!
Review: Finally, one of the all time greatest movies is out on DVD! The digital anamorphic picture is excellent as is the newly remastered Dolby digital 5:1 sound. BUT THE DVD "BONUS" FEATURES ARE WEAK!!! There is no commentary from the director or anyone in the movie, no alternate scenes or outakes, not even a original trailer for the movie!!! The only "bonus" material included are the "Production Notes" which are printed on a sheet of paper inside the DVD packaging and 3 trailers for Groundhog Day, Hook and one other movie that have nothing to do with Tootsie!!!! Also included is a cheesy filmography for Hoffman, Lange, Murry and Pollak.

This DVD was in production at Columbia Tristar for a number of years... besides the excellent video and sound transfers - WHAT THE HECK TOOK THEM SO LONG!?!? For a film that was recently ranked as #2 as one of the funniest films of all time, it sure got a shabby treatment upon its DVD re-release.

In short, buy this DVD for the excellent sound and video quality... not for any DVD supplemental material. It is 5 Star movie, but a 2 Star DVD release.

Rating:
Summary: Pan'n'scan - Bad!
Review: Great movie, but this isn't a very good film-to-video transfer. For one, they really botch the "pan'n'scan", which is the method of reducing the original widescreen ratio to fit the more square-shaped television screen. This involves focusing in on a key portion of the screen, kind of like 'filming the film'. I'm partial to widescreen, but as far as comedies go, the full imagery isn't as important. Still, the scans from one portion of a shot to other are just plain awkward, and look nothing like the natural moves of the film. Almost as bad as the full screen version of Ghostbusters II. Go for the widescreen DVD, and see the film as it was meant to be seen.

Rating:
Summary: Roll Tootsie
Review: One of the other reviewers here comments that "Tootsie" is a movie that doesn't get much notice anymore. I don't know if that's true or not, but if it is true, it's a real tragedy. In my opinion, this is one of the best comedies ever made. It's somewhere between the blatant slapstick of "The Great Race" and the witty sophistication of "The Pink Panther", and it doesn't have a car chase in it, but this movie is nonstop funny from beginning to end. There is humor in just about every scene, and funny lines abound. Dustin Hoffman, one of the best actors of his generation, gives one of his best peformances as a tempermental actor who can't get a job and secretly tries out for a female role on a big daytime soap opera in drag. Of course, he gets the part and becomes enormously popular, largely because he refuses to put up with the crap that other actresses put up with. Not only is Hoffman excellent, but the rest of the cast is also outstanding. Jessica Lange got a best supporting actress oscar. The oscar for best picture should have landed here, as well. If you've never seen this one, do yourself a favor -- get a copy and watch it. If you haven't seen it in years, get a copy and watch it again. Either way, you won't be sorry. This is one Hollywood's best comedies.

Rating:
Summary: Funny actors and funny script.
Review: Dustin Hoffman plays a unemployed actor who dresses as a woman to get a big role in a long running soap opera, but things get complicated when he meets the show's co-star Jessica Lange and starts to fall in love with her, and he tries to figure a way out of this large funny mess, which is full of laughs and some serious moments. Wonderfully directed by Sydney Pollack with a screenplay co-written by MASH creator Larry Gelbert.

Rating:
Summary: better than you can possibly imagine!!!
Review: hysterically funny, but with a great romance and gender politics to boot; entire cast is great, from Dustin Hoffman and Jessica Lange (Oscar-winning role) right down to George Gaynes and Bill Murray ("I wouldn't play hard to get..."); seeing it is knowing how a real bad idea can be brilliant if done the perfect way; every scene is magical and memorable, and it all fades perfectly into a nice little Stephen Bishop ballad; PLEASE WATCH THIS MOVIE!

Rating:
Summary: Way more than a farce
Review: Tootsie is one of those movies you watch and see something new in every time. If you saw this once in the 80's and went away thinking it was a sharp farce from a major studio, you were right -- but it has a bunch of other sides going for it too.

It is a great comedy. This movie has perfect timing -- just that rhythm that makes you laugh. I won't overanalyze. But man, it works. Scene after scene just works. You never hit a false note.

What movie ever kick started more character actors' careers? Dabney Coleman made hay for about a decade in spinoffs of his creepy director. Geena Davis had just a few lines, but her career really only started when Dorothy Michaels gave her some "tips" in the dressing room. Doctor Brewster is a blustery, flustered riot; he got some TV roles from this movie. Jessica Lange got an Oscar -- maybe the only one for this movie, which was a travesty. Sidney Pollack, playing Michael Dorsey's agent while he directed, gets some amazing laughs. And when you watch the movie, you'll see a bunch more little gems of performances. The producer of the soap is great. And what about Bill Murray? I almost forgot him. Somebody really cast this movie incredibly well. Oh, and Charles Durning. Oh, and Teri Garr is perfect. And... and...

Amazon maybe isn't the place to pick apart a bunch of serious themes, but Tootsie also packs some ideological bang. The whole premise is that Dustin Hoffman's actor is a self centered perfectionist, and that he figures a lot of things out (about women, about himself) while he's wearing his wig to make a buck. You're going to laugh when Michael's desperate to do the Eleanor Roosevelt story, sure, but there's something there, too. If there's another, better movie about the relationship between the sexes I haven't seen it.

Cutting it short: Tootsie is the only romantic comedy I can think of that really deserved a Best Picture award. It doesn't get remembered much, but it's a five star movie without a doubt, and it really deserves more recognition.

Rating:
Summary: Tootsie: Hilarity and Humanity
Review: TOOTSIE is the tale of Michael Dorsey, a brilliant New YorkCity actor who is unemployable, because he is so disagreeable to work with. In a desperate act to get work he disguises himself as Dorothy Michaels, an older Southern woman, and lands a job in a soap opera. Soon he finds not only is he a better person as a woman, but he is falling in love with his costar, played by Jessica Lange.

TOOTSIE has a complex and superb script, and great performances all around. Bill Murray is a standout as Hoffman's writer/roomate, as is Sydney Pollack who cast himself as the troublesome actor's agent, who has to cope with his client's antics. Also, surprisingly, TOOTSIE's cinematography is very expressive and of a high quality.

The real highlight of TOOTSIE is not Dustin Hoffman in a dress, but rather the film's complex messages. One thing TOOTSIE comment's on is society's resentment of powerful or assertive women, and how meeker or more submissive women are often times used and taken advantage of. The film also relates how unattractive women are usually overlooked by men, because they are judged physically and not by their personalities.

TOOTSIE is a film that is leaps and bounds ahead of MRS. DOUBTFIRE, highly enjoyable, and very watchable too. END

Rating:
Summary: One of Hoffman's best, but a little too zany for my taste
Review: This movie is a good one for those rainy Saturday nights when you have nothing to do and can curl up with someone you love and have a few good laughs. I must be honest, I am not generally a Dustin Hoffman fan, but if I had to say, I'd rate this movie as one of his best. It raises an interesting question, "What does a guy do who's down on his luck, does something desperate and, afterwards, when common sense reigns again, he finds that he can't back out of the choice he has made without ruining his life?" This is basically the idea behind this movie, and Hoffman does an incredible job as the nervous, slightly overbearing, not-so-slightly arrogant theater teacher who is forced into an unbelievable set of circumstances as a result of his rather unorthodox method of finding work. There is some absolutely priceless interplay between the characters here. This movie really makes one wonder what one values in a relationship -- platonic or otherwise. Have I intrigued you enough? Final analysis: Like I said, this is one of Hoffman's best, and a great suggestion if you wanted to rent a comedy over the weekend, but unless you enjoy some very fast-paced, sitcom-like humor in your movies, this is not one to see twice.