California Suite

Rating:
Summary: The talents of many fine actors are wasted in Cal. Suite.
Review: California Suite might have worked 30 years ago, but today it just seems dated, tired, and too cute for its own good.

Let's start with the best of a bad idea. Michael Caine and Maggie Smith have traveled from London to L.A. for the Academy Awards. The character Maggie plays is up for a best actress Oscar and she is clearly out of her element in Hollywood. She loses the competition, but ironically, she did win the Oscar for her work in California Suite. She is a wonderful actress and Michael Caine is her equal in every respect. Whenever they are on screen -- a third of the film -- we take an interest in their problems. If the film stopped with their story, I would give it a qualified recommendation.

Worst is the story of Jane Fonda and Alan Alda, a divorced, middle-aged couple. Their daughter escaped from Jane in NYC by flying out to L.A. to visit dad, a Hollywood big shot. We get plenty of Neil Simon's witty repartee in a decidedly unfunny story of two parents who no longer know one another. Fonda has become a neurotic bitch and Alda is a mellow Hollywood type who tries to talk some sense into a woman who is tired of life and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Even the talents of Fonda and Alda can't breathe any life into the overworked soap opera Neil Simon has written for them.

What little humor we find in this film comes from Richard Prior, Bill Cosby, Walter Matthau, and Elaine May. Prior and Cosby are two doctors on vacation with their wives. They argue and compete with one another about everything. A little of this goes a very long way. Cosby and Prior are superb commedians, but they don't have much to work with. Walter Matthau unexpectedly finds himself in bed with a call girl after a drunken night on the town with his brother. Elaine May finds the girl in husband Walter's hotel bed. We watch these scenes with amazement. The entire premise is stupid and full of cliches. Again, the considerable talents of Matthau and May can't make it work.

The bottom line. The talents of many fine actors are wasted in this overlong bit of fluff we which would be a stretch to call a comedy. The few good bits with Smith and Caine are lost in a game of trivial pursuit where no one comes out a winner, least of all the audience. Only die hard Neil Simon fans are likely to find much enjoyment at the California Suite.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best adaptations of a Neil Simon play.
Review: Clever direction means that this doesn't seem too play-like and the hotel rooms never seem claustrophobic. A very strong cast is assembled here, with Caine cast against type as a closet case preparing to receive an Oscar with his bitter and scathing wife Maggie Smith. Alan Alda turns in a moving performance as Billy, and Pryor and Cosby, both usually associated with other actors, show us what a good double-act they could have been. It seems to be four plays in one, with the tone of the comedy varying from piece to piece. Alda's section is touching comedy, Walter Matthau's is farce, Caine's is wry observation while Cosby's is farce again. The brevity of the individual pieces means that the film moves along at a cracking pace, leaving you wanting more. If you do want more, I suggest Neil Simon's Plaza Suite.

Rating:
Summary: fantastic!
Review: It's worth a look just for the cast (Prior, Cosby, Alda, Fonda, Smith, Caine, Matthau, etc.), but trust me, you won't be disappointed. Prior & Crosby had me in tears. It does get a bit dramatic towards the end, so I'd probably give this 4.5 stars, but I laughed so hard at points, it gets rounded up to 5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: fantastic!
Review: It's worth a look just for the cast (Prior, Cosby, Alda, Fonda, Smith, Caine, Matthau, etc.), but trust me, you won't be disappointed. Prior & Crosby had me in tears. It does get a bit dramatic towards the end, so I'd probably give this 4.5 stars, but I laughed so hard at points, it gets rounded up to 5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: fantastic!
Review: It's worth a look just for the cast (Prior, Cosby, Alda, Fonda, Smith, Caine, Matthau, etc.), but trust me, you won't be disappointed. Prior & Crosby had me in tears. It does get a bit dramatic towards the end, so I'd probably give this 4.5 stars, but I laughed so hard at points, it gets rounded up to 5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Tip-Top tragi-comedy par excellence
Review: Jane fonder and Alan Alder are hysterical, claws are drawn at dawn as she muses to her one-time hubby about how very 'California' he is, all boyish charms and effervescence, as she...ever the sharp New Yorker...pops another ciggy in her cake-hole and manages the impossible, a verbal tirade while inhaling. (Reminded me of the blood letting dialogue delivered so deftly by Kate Hepburn in 'The Lion in Winter'). Walter Matthau is side splitting as he seeks to cheat on the good wife (Elaine May..she is so sweet most men would cheat with her not on her), of course for Walt it all goes Royally wrong. .
Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor play rich-man poor-man doctors et spouse on the vacation from hell in LA...and take competitiveness to interstellar levels. What totally ices this summer pudding though is Maggie smiths' awesome performance as an Englishwoman coping....just...with not getting the Oscar for which she's been nominated...for not having a clue how to dress in superficial, bitchy, hot LA...for not noticing her husband eyeing up every man under 30 (Michael Cain at sympathetic best), and not lobbing herself out the emergency escape hatch on the flight home..."Oh my God!...tell them I want to get off...darling tell them I want to get off..they're only playing my f-ing film". She did get that Oscar though. What a performance

Rating:
Summary: Makes you want to go on vacation
Review: This film in wonderful. All of storylines went interesting and made you want to hang on to find out.

Rating:
Summary: FUNNY!!
Review: This is a funny movie...different people with different issues!! Could have had a little more Alan Alda, but it wasn't just about him...all characters had fair air time. Good movie.