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Man on the Moon

Man on the Moon

List Price: $14.98
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Entertainer of Entertainers
Review: Andy Kaufman, now what can I say, not only was he a comic genius, in which he would experiment with the audience, but he never considered himself a comedian. I find him a very clever person and this film explains this through the acting talent of Jim Carrey. Unfortunatley Kaufman was hardely screened in the UK, except on TAXI, but if you know who he is or was, you have to see this film.

The film cleverly uses the REM track about Andy Kaufman in the main title and throughout the film. The score also contributed by REM, showing the relationship Kaufman had with them.

Again, you have to see this film, if you could say you understood Kaufman.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fascinating and quite clever
Review: Man on the Moon

Score: 71/100

Jim Carrey has really changed over his past few flicks. He is no longer going for the formulaic Dumb-Ventura's-Mask roles, but he has actually taken films more seriously and given drama's a thought. He did this in the exceptional Truman Show, and here he puts as much effort in as he did in The Truman Show. Carrey has shown us superbly that he can be humorous and dramatic, and that he can do it maturely and amazingly.

Man on the Moon is a biopic based on the life of Andy Kaufman (Carrey), an eccentric comedian who went onto enjoy a career as lovable foreign car mechanic Latka Gravas on TV's "Taxi" and later gained infamy as an inter-gender wrestling champ. The film studies some of Kaufman's comedy antics as well as his personal life and his relationship with his manager George Shapiro (Danny DeVito), his best friend/partner Bob Zmuda (Paul Gimatti) and his girlfriend Lynne Margulies (Courtney Love).

Man on the Moon is sometimes uneven and some unnecessary characters ploy into the story a bit too much at times, but this still remains reasonably fascinating and entertaining. At the start, this film is extremely funny, in particular the part where Carrey sings his "and the cat goes..." childhood song, but at the end of the day, Man on the Moon is a flat-out drama with a heartbreaking and dramatic climax. DeVito and Love share the silver screen nicely and both put in watchable and creditable performances, but it is Carrey who has suceeded in giving one of the best performances of 1999, and he should have been nominated for an Oscar, but thank God for the Golden Globes, where Carrey deservedly won over actors like Robert DeNiro and Sean Penn for his amazing on-screen performance.

Man on the Moon is a surprising and tragic flick, and it'll occasionally warm your heart. Recommended.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Why was this film made?
Review: Was Andy Kaufman the most unfunny man on TV in that rather empty period of comedy in the late seventies? And then to make a film about his life! I vaguely remember watching his cliche "foreign guy" portrayal in Taxi when I was a child and I didn't find him funny at seven years old! Throughout the film, I found myself hoping to catch glimpses of the real Jim Carrey, and yet was left only with this somewhat creepy portrayal of a guy that had the sense of humour of a second hand sofa. Viewed in the year 2001, Andy Kaufman comes across not so much as shocking but just a little sad. So congratulations to Jim Carrey for a really convincing performance, but please stick to your own humour next time - it beats the pants off Andy Kaufman!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Tour de Farce
Review: This is an unbelievably funny movie, with a brilliant performance by Jim Carrey. Having lived most of my adult life outside of the States, I had no idea who Andy Kaufman, but I suspected that the movie was based on a true story, because most such movies are excellent.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Misunderstood and Misinterpretated"
Review: Fifteen years after the unprobable death of joker Andy Kaufman, "Man on the Moon" was released to remember one of the most loyal characters to public entertainment, whom is modeled by a significant quantity of today's comic superstar's, including Jim Carrey. Every single scene within "Man on the Moon" is a reenactment of Kaufman's life, scripted in a raw, realistic method that could bear similarities to a biographical clip show. The life of Andy Kaufman is a fascinating journey, full of up's and down's that were all publicized by everyone who was anyone. What it boils down to is that Andy had his mind on show business prior to his years as a pre-teen, and he wanted more than anything else to grow up and become what he grew up and became, but, he had to overcome a misinterpretation: he possessed a sense of humor that was only child-based. He wasn't naturally funny, in other words. Despite this, Andy would go to extremes to be famous: everything from imitating Elvis to wrestling women. When he didn't like the looks of his work, he actually took a job as a busboy, all the while denying he was the celebrity that customers believed he was. Andy Kaufman was a highly misunderstood person because the fact that he never meant to hurt anyone could've been hard to swallow. Fame was in his blood and Andy Kaufman felt he was destined for it.

Jim Carrey shot down what I feel was his best performance ever, making an absolute replica of the legend in the way he looked, walked, talked and felt towards himself and others. Not to mention, Danny De Vito performed a notable role as Andy's manager and Courtney Love's role fit well as his girlfriend. At times, "Man on the Moon" is out-of-control hilarious and can transition to being devastatingly sad. "Man on the Moon" is a brilliant recollection of the life of the intriguing public figure Andy Kaufman, covering all of the events in his life from beginning to end.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: If i were Kaufan i'd get [angry with] this movie
Review: I couldn't believe this. It's very boring and offensive. Most of the time I like Jim Carrey movies but this one really got in the way. This is a definite flaw. It shows nudity on it that is very offensive. It's not the worst though. the Blair Witch Project won that one. If you like Jim, get dissapointed. Also get dissapointed at The Grinch for also being boring. Me Myself and Irene is a much better movie than this garbage.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Hey,Jim,can you belive no one liked this movie?
Review: Neither can I!Ok this movie was so-so.Jim Carrey does a SPECTACULAR job being Kaufman!How does he do it?I would give this movie 5 stars but I can't becuase the movie it self dident answer any questions about Andy.It just kinda watched what he did.So I averaged it out to 3 stars..which are for Jim.He deseves all the credit.Anyone eles agree?Well theres not much to say about this movie.Just that Jim Carrey is that best actor in the world!No matter how bad the movie is!Ehehe..sorry I love Jim what can I say.(And Im only a teenager o.O sorry Im not one of those girls who likes Justin Timberlake ok....ok im rambling Bye!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Your Man On The Moon Is Jim Carrey!
Review: Jim Carrey stars as the late Andy Kaufman, who was considered the most innovative, eccentric and engimatic comic of his time. A master at provoking audiences, Kaufman could generate belly laughs, stony silence, tears or brawls. Danny DeVito also stars as Kaufman's manager, Courtney Love co-stars as the woman who befriends and eventually falls in love with Kaufman.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great bio of the MOST ORIGINAL comic of our time
Review: Am I the only person who believes that Jim Carrey not only deserved a Oscar nomination for this performance, but he should have WON IT. Carrey earned new respect from me as he had to play not just one, but THREE entirely different characters in this movie and he pulled it ALL OFF. If you haven't seen this masterpiece, and you aren't familiar with Andy Kaufman, this might end up being a really odd movie, but then again, Andy was definitely one of THE ALL-TIME STRANGEST persons this planet has

ever seen. Not only did Carrey have to play Andy himself, but also Andy's alter-ego, Latka Gravas--both he did incredibly, but he ALSO managed to pull in a totally believable performance as Andy's twisted & absolutely terrible lounge-act, 'Tony Clifton'. On this scale alone, Carrey deserved an incredible amount of praise for doing it SO WELL.

Whether you were a fan of Andy Kaufman or not, this movie is still a must-see simply because of Jim Carrey. We will probably NEVER see another comic as strange on so many different levels as Andy Kaufman, and the more you find out in this movie, the more you will come to appreciate how accurate that statement is. He was on a whole-different playing field than the rest of us, and he simply defied any possible description. From lip-synching to the theme song of 'Mighty Mouse' on Saturday Night Live to declaring himself the 'Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion' (seriously he did that--on LIVE TV no less), to pulling so many pranks that people didn't even believe it when he died, not even his FAMILY. Truly Andy Kaufman was a unique individual, and we will probably never know him any better than how this movie portrays him as eccentric and demonically inspired--if you are ever curious as to how Andy really was, this film just might surprise you, again and again--and Carrey's performance will awe you entirely. Highly recommended.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Let's re-invent a famous person !!!
Review: As they did with Larry Flynt in The People Versus Larry Flynt, Director Milos (Amadeus) Forman and writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski shave the edges off Kaufman and make him an odd, yet wonderful and misunderstood bigger than life show biz legend. Jim Carey tries very hard to capture the essence of Kaufman, and on occasion he mimics Kaufman's routines quite well, but he plays the off-stage Andy in such an dis-honestly naive, aw-shucks fashion it insults Kaufman and everyone who has come in contact with or knew him.

Although longtime Kaufman collaborator and silent partner Bob Zmuda gets a writing/consultant screen credit, I only saw evidence of his fingerprints in the movie in it's opening sequence and at the very end of the film.

The first few minutes of the film got my hopes way up. Carey as Andy begins the film by playing a practical joke. A rather sweet-tempered one, but one which would have been right up Andy and Bob's alley. Carey comes close for a few moments to capturing the essence of Andy in this opening sequence. He never gets that close again throughout the movie. The rest of the film is a combination of a shallow, in-sightless show biz bio and a best of Andy's career highlights as performed by a really good...impersonator.

Unfortunately there some real dishonesty going on in the film. In real life, Danny DeVito and Kaufman wound up being pretty good friends of each other. Danny was heavily involved in the production of the film. Perhaps he hoped to give Andy a form of immortality by getting this movie made.

Will non-Kaufman fans care about this film which shows a quirky, weird but nice and rather naive guy, becoming a brief 70's fad ...? Non fans won't understand how Kaufman reminded audiences and critics that his version of stand-up comedy was not about doing jokes with punchlines, or being predictable, but was about being unpredictable and making people think about the rather preposterous idea that a man on stage was supposed to make them laugh and entertain them for the price of a few drinks. Andy was raising the bar. He was elevating comedy to the level of performance art. In much the same way, that Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor and George Carlin transcended the form of stand-up comic to become something at times political, at times personal and at times a communal experience where lines are temporarily erased, Kaufman too transcended stand-up comedy to become an important piece in an ever developing art form which can (as happened in Kaufman's case), chase it's own tail and turn itself inside out. You don't get that from the film at all.

The film doesn't show some of the most outrageous practical jokes and planned media events that Bob Zmuda and Andy staged throughout the country. Whether it was suddenly breaking out into a fist fight during a mid-western children's t.v. show, or impersonating personalities and then denying their existence and the impersonation completely.

The movie doesn't show Kaufman as being the saavy, smart, almost too intelligent man that he was. It shows us how he acted as naively as his character Latka at times, without letting us know, that this was Andy manipulating people to get what he wanted and needed.

When the network was giving Taxi creators a hard time to make drastic changes on the show, Andy insisted on bringing in his friend Tony Clifton (which at times was Andy and at other times was Bob Zmuda). It wasn't merely a strange stunt to play a practical joke on his cast members, it was a diversionary tactic to help keep Taxi on the air. It almost worked. The show was eventually canceled , but it did switch networks and continue another year.

In real life Kaufman's friend worried that Kauffman who was a manic-depressive, might be schizophrenic as well. The movie shows Kaufman confounding the network brass with an almost humorless bizarre television special, yet never shows us that Kaufman was manipulating the network into a position of giving him exactly what he wanted, and they would never have budged an inch, if he wasn't trying to take a mile.

The movie seemed to cover the wrestling bits quite well, yet it made it appear that Andy eventually was making sense and what he was doing was perfectly acceptable after all. He wasn't merely parodying wrestling but wrestling fans. Obviously the wrestling game which makes a few rich off the efforts of many, has survived Andy unscathed.

When the movie covered Andy's love life, we suffered several shots of Courtney Love playing Lynn Marguilles reacting to Andy's bits with support, or horror, or embarrassment or laughter, or anger. The character which was written with one and a half dimensions (a half dimension less than in a mediocre t.v. movie) was being used to tell us, the movie audience how to react to Andy's bits on stage. Love, as Marguilles was being used as the equivalent of a t.v. laugh track. Andy would have walked out of his own movie if he saw that.

In the movie we see Kaufman during one of his t.v. show hiatus, working at Jerry's Deli as a bus boy. It wasn't just a gag or even to get close to the people again, Andy was sure that at any moment the career would be over and he would wake up from the dream and be a real person again. He was afraid he would forget the real person. So he worked as a bus-boy at Jerry's Deli, or a box boy, stacking grocery store shelves in the middle of night (Ralphs, and Hughes mostly). He didn't last long as a bar-tender however. The film didn't show that.

And the way the film showed his attempts at understanding his spiritual side and his cancer treatments was straight out of a of a shallow television biopic.

It was an odd thing for Foreman to decide he would get a lot of publicity out of re-uniting the cast of Taxi, pouring on tons of make-up all over them and having them act as themselves nearly 20 years earlier for a few short minutes in the film. Of course they didn't have Danny Devito reprise his Louie role because he was already playing Kaufman's manager in the film. (Devito was wonderful as Kaufman's manager though).

When it came time for the funeral scene in the movie I was watching in utter disbelief at what I was seeing. In real life, only Devito and I believe Marilu Henner attended the wake for Kaufman. But this is the movies, and well, we will just have the entire cast of Taxi who agreed to be in the movie, pretend they were actually at Kaufman's funeral. It was one of the most surreal and dishonest moments I've ever seen on film. ...

Make sure you see the real Andy in one of his several concert tapes of CVD's. The Midnight Special is a good one to enjoy. Accept no substitutes.

Chris Jarmick Author of The Glass Cocoon with Serena F. Holder - A steamy cyber thriller available January 2001. Please order it today. Thank You


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