Rating: 
Summary: Dangerously funny!!!!
Review: Hat's off to Stanley Tucci for directing, writing, and starring in the most refreshingly original comedy I've seen since The Blues Brothers. This is a relentless character-driven comedy set in a timeless style reminiscent of the golden age of Hollywood. From the opening scene until the end of the credits this movie will hypnotize you with incredibly well timed physical comedy and perfectly delivered dialogue that lift the classicly esoteric situations to a new level of genius. This movie is not only well written but brilliantly realized by an incredible supporting cast including Billy Connely, Isabella Rosellini, Steve Buscemi and Campbell Scott.
Rating: 
Summary: The Imposters
Review: How nice it is to sit and watch a film that doesn't take itself too seriously. Surely not a great movie but filled with performers putting on their broadest, brashest, biggest face they can. Similar in flavor to many Marx Bros. and Laurel & Hardy stories... Mash them together with a stage farce and this is what you get. A good independant film.
Rating: 
Summary: Delightful spoof of old movie comedies.
Review: I dunno what Keith Simanton was on about, but this is a real movie; not quite as dazzling as its predecessor Big Night, but wonderful nontheless. Stanley Tucci and Ollie Platt are on the money as perenially out-of-work actors who stowe away on an ocean liner located in a dreamy amalgam of the 20s,30s and 40s. Cambell Scott is hilarious as the fascist Concierge; the rest of the cast is good, except that Isabella Rosellini somehow doesn't come across as the mysterious member of some European aristocracy (not her fault -- I think her old friends just love her so much that they wrote in a little role for her that doesn't have much to it). Satirical, silly,laugh-out-loud homage to the Marx brothers and their ilk (definitely not Crosby and Hope). Comedy is the hardest form, and this is the real thing.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Little Comedy
Review: I haven't seen any of the Marx Brothers films that many reviewers have referred to, but I imagine they're fantastic. Stanley Tucci and Oliver Platt deliver a terrifically wacky yet clever performance about two starving actors who become stoweaways on an ocean liner. This movie performs like a comedy should...funny, light-hearted and cheerful. A great movie to watch if you want to laugh after a hard day. Plus, it's nice to see some of your favorite drama stars perform as more humorous characters.
Rating: 
Summary: Odd start, Funny Finish
Review: I really need to view this one a few more times to do the beginning justice. The opening was compelling, but I kept wondering where Platt and Tucci were going with it. Things kick into gear once the action moves to the ship. I'd see it again for the performances of Lili Taylor and...of course!...Steve Buscemi. I appreciate the dark humor of Buscemi's character Happy Franks trying to off himself and failing at every turn (one of the attempts was with a magician's prop). Oliver Platt is sublime in the ballroom scene, as he tries frantically to warn would-be victims of the various plots and they just don't get it.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious DVD - A must
Review: I rented this movie on a whim one night ... I watched it 10 times in three days ! It was amazing ! The humor is very Marx Brother-ish, and the cast is amazing ! This is a true crowing moment for Stanley Tucci. I had seen him in other movies, but he always seemed to be " that guy in that movie ", very familiar. But this is a glory moment for him. This is a must won for an comedy fan !!!
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious DVD - A must
Review: I rented this movie on a whim one night ... I watched it 10 times in three days ! It was amazing ! The humor is very Marx Brother-ish, and the cast is amazing ! This is a true crowing moment for Stanley Tucci. I had seen him in other movies, but he always seemed to be " that guy in that movie ", very familiar. But this is a glory moment for him. This is a must won for an comedy fan !!!
Rating: 
Summary: Shockingly inept filmmaking
Review: I'm flat-out dumbstruck... I must be from a different planet. When I look back upon my life, the two hours I want back first are the 120 interminable minutes I spent watching 'The Imposters.' It is neither funny, clever, enjoyable or insightful. Its vaunted 'tribute' aspect - the take that it is a riff on the golden age of Hollywood - is highfalutin nonsense. Tucci did well and showed promise with 'Big Night.' How he got from there to 'The Imposters' (in one film!) is beyond comprehension. Maybe 'Big Night' was just the equivalent of a career .235 hitter suddenly hitting .320. Maybe 'The Imposters' was an anomaly and he can get his mojo back for the next one. Either way, there's a sense of career momentum stalled and opportunity squandered. I urge you not to waste your hard-earned dollars on this one.
Rating:
Summary: Imposters One-Up the Popular Dreck
Review: Imposters is a head above the leading name brand movies. It's witty and even side-splitting hilarious at moments. The leads are wonderful actors who make the most of their juicy roles. That goes for the German, too. A fine film for the discriminating viewer.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful period comedy [Wish it was on DVD!]
Review: It is no surprise that The Impostors didn't do much at the boxoffice. In a time when gross-out comedies are the rule, this stylish, charming effort is definitely the exception. What modern audiences may not realize is that comedy covers a rather broad area. Way back in the 1930s, W. C. Fields was doing now classic movies which were rude, crude and very funny, depending on what you finds amusing. In those days - and for the next fifty years - many different types of comedies were made. Perhaps today the media tends to want to believe the public's tastes are universally the same. I know that Hollywood's marketing strategies seem to come from one common pool of thought, which is why it often cannot market anything not fitting a certain mold. The Impostors is a fond tribute to a gentler form of humor. Writer, director and star Stanley Tucci has proven with this and 1996's Big Night that he is one of our brightest independent film makers. His biggest attribute is his ability to make us laugh at certain stereotypes without ever being cruel. His is a loving touch. The time seems to be the 1940s. Tucci and Oliver Platt play Maurice and Arthur, who are best friends and very out of work New York actors. Maurice is tall and thin and seems to be the heart of the pair, while short, chubby Maurice is its brain. Trying to con a baker out of some pastries, they wind up getting tickets to a production of Hamlet instead. During the performance the star, whom they can't stand anyway, winds up getting too drunk to finish the play. Later, in a bar, they are caught by the actor doing a rowdy impression of him. He becomes irate, and in the ensuing chase, the two somehow wind up as stowaways on a luxury liner. Naturally, the star winds up being one of the boat's passengers. The ship is peopled with delightful eccentrics, including a broke socialite and her depressed daughter, a deposed queen, a gay tennis star, a psychotic Arabian sheik and a couple of fortune hunters. For the most part, the crew is equally mad, and Maurice and Arthur find themselves trapped in this madhouse at sea. The film is full of sight gags and one-liners, most of which work. Lili Taylor, who later this year will appear as Eleanor in the remake of The Haunting and as Janis Joplin in the movie of the same name, is delightful as the sympathetic social director. Steve Buscemi nearly steals his scenes as a heartbroken crooner ironically named Happy Frank. I really enjoyed this little jewel, and a most viewers with a sense of the absurd should, too. I even liked the movie's tag line. "Why be yourself when you can be somebody else"? I am really looking forward to Mr. Tucci's next effort.
|
