Rating: 
Summary: WHAM! BAM!
Review: ..... and 'Thank ya'all'This extravaganzic curiosity made it to DVD in various guises ....this one ain't bad. BUT I'd visit the novel before plunging into this somewhat contemporary vision of Hollywood across the hills ...[nuffin's really changed!] RAQUEL/REX are suitably paired with 'his and & her' accoutremonts .... painfully coiffed and coutoured for this 'vision' as is LEGEND MAE WEST ~ still firing those 'zingerz ' from various anatomical points, but al least the darling diva was not 'wired for sound' as she was later in "Sextet" - a babe sorely missed - also her grand wit and style! Other points of note - babyfaced [yes he was] TOM SELLECK is part of Mae's entourage, and an almost unrecognisable FARRAH FAWCETT debuts as the love-object's [the rather dim young hunk]
aspiring love .... whatever happened to the boy? Possibly still 'tied up' in Mae's suite at the El Royale .... Not forgetting a brave and quite funny JOHN HUSTON .... nice to see this other legend of showbiz spoof tinseltown. NOPE, THIS ONE's A QUAINT HALLUCINATION - worth driving through occasionally - with the appropriate gear!
Rating: 
Summary: One of the BEST FILMS of the 1970's!
Review: .
MAE WEST!
RAQUEL WELCH!
FARRAH FAWCETT!
TOM SELLECK!
JOHN HUSTON! This film about the sex-changed titular character, played by REX REED ("Myron") who transforms into RAQUEL WELCH ("Myra") is one of the all-time camp-classics of all-time! This film was unbelievable when it was released in 1970 (actually, it was a BOMB!), but as time has progressed, it has become an absolute GEM of it's genre! (Think "Rocky Horror Picture Show".) Although the plot is difficult to follow at times, it really doesn't matter. It's still a very symbolic film of the early 70's, and was light-years ahead of it's time as a work of performance art on film. I STRONGLY recommend it for anyone with a bent sense of humor, who loves camp and the truly bizarre. I think everyone MUST SEE this film! It deserves a posthumous Oscar for Mae West... definitely her "swan-song" (and sing she does, in two production numbers!). I am SO GLAD this film FINALLY came out on DVD! The DVD transfer is wonderful. The picture has been restored to pristine quality, and the sound is great. Raquel Welch's commentary is enlightening at times, and quite humorous. However, I think it would have been a good idea if she had seen the film again prior to making her commentary. Evidently, she had only seen the film twice, over 30 years ago. Thirty years later, she merely sat in a screening and made her live commentary as the film unfolded before her. Seemingly she didn't have a very strong recollection of the plot of the film and was commenting on most of it as if it were the first time she had seen it. (She was looking for Tom Selleck in the scene in which he appears, and she missed him altogether!) That was rather lame at times, although for the most part Welch added some humor. It's the only DVD I've ever been able to sit through in it's entirety with the commentary track turned on. My only other negative comment is that while there are two versions of the film on this DVD (the "Theatrical Version" and the "Special Edition"), nowhere in the liner notes or on the packaging is any information given to inform us of the difference between the two versions. The time on the package lists a running time of 94 minutes, but it doesn't state for which version (or are both running times the same?). The only difference I could find between the two versions is that one ended with the final scene in black & white, and the other version ended with the same final scene in color. Big deal; what's up with that? As Raquel Welch herself says in the film, "Myra Breckenridge is a dish..." Well with this dish your plate is full, so enjoy the buffet and keep going back for more!
Rating:
Summary: "special" ??? edition ???
Review: Aside from the audio commentary, by Welch and Director Sarne, there is nothing new to see. No deleated scenes, no additional scenes, there are 4 previews, and a AMC backstory on the making of, which is somewhat interesting. For a film that was almost a notorious for what wound up on the cutting room floor, as what it contained, this "special edition" is a big letdown.
The best thing I can say, is that the picture quality is great, and the sound is good. Maybe someday, there will be a "restored"
edition.
Rating: 
Summary: Take that Moral values!!
Review: Based on Gore Vidal's gender bending novel of the same name, Myra Breckinridge is out to "re-align the sexes" in this hilariously awful cult favorite. One of Hollywood's greatest disasterpieces, it was the ideal movie for the gay audience, back when studios didn't realize there was one. A cinematic punch to the gut of our current obsession with moral values.
Rating:
Summary: Not a family movie!
Review: Fox has provided a beautiful widescreen transfer of this cult classic. The sound is great also. There are two audio commentaries. One by the director Mike Sarne and the other by star Raquel Welch. Some have said that director Sarne is settling old scores within his commentary, but really he is only setting the record straight. His is clearly the more insightful effort. Raquel takes herself and the movie too seriously and at the end of her spiel, with all of it's pseudo-intellectual pretensions, even admits that she doesn't know what she's talking about and is "here for the laughs." She seems put out that the movie didn't have mass appeal and wasn't a crowd pleaser, which is one of the reasons I find it so endearing. The AMC documentary on the "making of" is very interesting as well. It is included on the disc. All in all, this is a very good buy and an excellent example of what dvd is all about: Top quality sound and picture plus interesting extras. The movie itself, like anything else, is a matter of taste. If you like whacked-out late '60s/early '70s cinema like "The Magic Christian", The Monkees' "Head", "Beneath the Valley of the Dolls", "Candy", "Casino Royale", then you'll dig this flick. People (including Raquel) just don't seem to understand the premise which is: A gay film critic has an accident and while in a coma DREAMS he is a woman in Hollywood. When he wakes up (in the original BLACK & WHITE finale) he screams "Where are my t*ts?" Yes folks, the movie is about a dream and when was the last time you had a dream that wasn't a little weird and disjointed? But don't get me wrong... a lot of people will still find this film way too "out there" and it is definately a "culter." Not for squares or kids! Originally rated "X". Needless to say, I LOVE IT!!
Rating:
Summary: I didn't think that this was supposed to make me laugh...
Review: From someone who read the novel first, the movie didn't shock me as much as it has some of the other reviewers. The overuse of indecent language was to be expected from a story so full of sexual innuendo. Raquel Welch, who is so stunningly gorgeous for a transsexual in this film, and Mae West tried so very hard to save the movie. The scene in which the two share dialogue is confusing though, partly because the camera never spans so that you can see both women on the screen. The intense close-ups on the two women make it seem as though they were shot separately. Despite being mildly entertained by film's portrayal of Hollywood in the 1960s, Mae West's musical number was one of the two things that kept me going through the entire film, other than the random implanting of classic film scenes throughout that would jar me from my blank staring. This movie might be considered great for those who enjoy the loathsome films of that era, but for me, it just didn't do anything. Well, ok. It did do one thing. It made me laugh. But I wasn't laughing with the film, I was laughing at it. ;)
Rating:
Summary: Just a Really Great Movie That Pushes the Envolope
Review: i first saw this movie in film school in the early '80's. i loved it then (hallucinating on some funny chemicals) & i love it now (clean & sober for many years). they did a great job with this dvd transfer. the picture quality & sound are excellent. i love to be able to watch the two different endings: the theatrically released version (the one i saw so many years ago) AND the black & white ending version (wizard of oz dream version). they're both cool ideas. great people in this fascinating film. fascinating story, subject, subplots, surprises, indictments of social issues & on & on & on ... yeah, it's a little uneven. show me something that's not! gore vidal should know better than to disown it! a movie is never a book & a book is never a movie. thank god for stanley kubrick's free-form adaptations of lolita & the shining! sure, this film can be seen as only just "campy", if that's what you feel most comfortable pigeonholing it as. but it doesn't seem to me to have been made so it could be made fun of in that way. i think its social commentary & obliteration & blurring of sex roles were right & brave & intelligent to have been brought up, especially for its time. don't worry about all the alleged backstage shennanigans & clashing egos & clashing sensibilities that have been reported & rumored over the years. watch it at face value (while considering its context in time) & enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: THE TOP THREE ACTORS SHOULD HAVE RECEIVED OSCAR NOMINATIONS
Review: I have wanted to see Myra Breckinridge since it came out in 1970. Indeed, it has been a difficult movie to find anywhere. I was thrilled when it came on DVD just recently. When I first watched it, I was sort of disappointed. I expected more. What? I don't know. So I had to give it a chance. After viewing it once, I then watched it with Raquel's commentary, and then with the Director's commentary. Raquel gave a great performance, as did John Huston (Buck Loner) and Mae West (Letitia Van Allen) was quite attractive in this film. This was her first color film ever, and after a long hiatus from the silver screen. There was alot of anymosity on this set, and I fault the Director Michael Sarne for this. If he hadn't been so full of himself, this might have worked better. I don't know who's in control of the script, or changes in the script, but this constant rewriting of the story didn't make matters better for the actors. I think the acting is top rate, and the actors deserve credit for taking lemons and making them into lemonade. I wrote to Raquel Welch recently to tell her alot of this and more, and I mean what I say. And maybe she's right. In the commentary I believe she wished that John Huston had been the director. I agree with her on this. Someone who might have cared about people would have made this difficult and abstract story a success on film.
Rating: 
Summary: Yesterday's Bomb Returns
Review: I remember watching "Myra" when it first appeared and could barely sit through it. Most of the audience I watched it with in New York City got up and left. We all knew we had just paid good money to watch one of the most inept, God-Awful messes to ever come from a major studio. You cringe as you watch the mummified remains of Mae West totter around as if she's a wooden mannequin. Those horrendous one-liners she personally wrote herself make you wince. The very worst? A tall, handsome man says he needs to see her. Mae asks: "How tall are you?" He answers: "Six feet and seven inches." She tries to roll her eyes, and pat that plastic-looking blonde wig when she croaks: "Forget the six feet. Let's discuss the seven inches." Hearty har! Har! Raquel Welch is just as pitiful. She utters every line in this fluting, sing-song cadence without a drop of reality. The take-off on gays is nauseating. The black queen who minces and flutters his eyes is so repulsive you wonder what world he came from. Maybe parody was the theme. This movie is still a bomb from the past that hasn't improved over time. Ishtar--where are you?
Rating:
Summary: Not a "cult classic", but almost...
Review: It's amazing that a studio backed this mess of a story/film and released it, thinking that it would be a hit among anyone. This premise is just too out there for the average, "make me feel better and affirm my own biases" film-goer. With that said, because it's sooooooooo over the top and messy, it's quite wonderful. Mae West gets off some great one-liners, and my god, any film that can feature Mae West surrounded by dancing black men as she's rapping (YES, I said 80yr old Mae West RAPPING!!!)truly is something wonderful! Oh, and miss Welch has maybe the second best bed-hair in cinema (#1 is Miss Deneuve in Belle Du Jour, tres parfait bien sur!). Myra Brekinridge isn't for everyone, but approached with the right spirit, you'll love it!
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