Waiting for Guffman

Rating:
Summary: bizarrely real.
Review: Partly why I thought this movie was so laugh-out-loud hysterical was because I felt like I personally knew every single character in it. If you have EVER been in an amateur or community theater production of any shape or form, this movie is guaranteed to make you laugh.

Of course, it's a funny movie anyway, even if you aren't familiar with the making of a local musical or rehearsal process. The documentary-style filming fits very well with the loose, comic acting and the characters are deliciously cast. Some of the funniest parts are the song-and-dance numbers in the show the citizens of Blaine, Missouri are putting on: "Red, White and Blaine".

I'm not even going to try to explain why they're putting the musical on, but let me just tempt your intrest by noting that you will, once and for all, find out if alien spacecraft did, actually, land at one time in the United States.

Rating:
Summary: my 13th favorite movie of all time!!
Review: Man, Christopher Guest is a good director!! This is a great movie. It has an exciting plot and lots of laughs, and that Guffman is so darn entertaining. I really do like this film because it reminds me of a guy,(lets call him Kowetsky.)that i know. He is a math teacher at RCK. He has stupid remarks just like Guffman and he's got the colored sweatshirts too! They have so much in common that i almost thought it was the same character. So if you want some laughs and a good time, rent this movie! Who knows, Guffman might have similiar traits to someone you know...

Rating:
Summary: NOT MY THING
Review: I enjoy most comedies, this one I don't. If you don't want to laugh outloud this movie is great.

Rating:
Summary: What Funny Acting & Plot
Review: Having seen "Best in Show" first, realized quickly that many of the main cast are in both.

Christopher Guest is just unbelievable as the main character, a small town drama coach, who puts together a play honoring the centennial of Blaine, Missouri and its chair reputation. All the while hoping that a NY critic will come and take the play to Broadway.

The characters are real and hilarious, especially Dr. Pearl and Fred Willard and his wife. This is same great stuff as "Best in Show!"

One to keep and watch repeatedly for laughs.

Rating:
Summary: Loved it. As good as Best in Show
Review: Very similar format to Best in Show (and has a lot of the same actors in very different roles, which was fun to see). If you liked one, you'll probably like the other. Christopher Guest is amazing; he portrayed such COMPLETELY different characters in the two movies, and did it so convincingly.

Rating:
Summary: True comedy at its best
Review: A genius cast, hilarious script with outstanding characterization. Each character is unique and the actors portray them in comic brillance.A must see movie. If you loved Second City telivision, or America Tonight, with Martin Mull and Fred Willard,(which by the way, I am looking for dvd or vhs copies of this show or Fernwood Tonight),then you really will enjoy this comedy.

Rating:
Summary: One of the funniest there is ....
Review: This movie is absolutely hilarious. I have seen it so many times now and still it never fails to crack me up. Nothing in this film is loud or overly crass - it is just funny as in humans-are-so-wacked funny. Guest, Parker Posey, Levy, and O'Hara all have moments that will split your sides. And the epilogue is outrageous!

Rating:
Summary: One of the Funniest Movies Ever Made
Review: It is just funny in its unique little way. Not full of sex jokes, not full of stupid teen humor. Worth it.

I liked it.

Rating:
Summary: Funniest movie I've ever seen
Review: Christopher Guest is probably best known for being the alter ego of Nigel Tufnel, lead guitarist of Spinal Tap in the film This is Spinal Tap. What people often miss out on are his multiple talents. For example, in This is Spinal Tap, Guest not only gave a wonderfully silly, yet nuanced performance as the band's vapid guitar player, but he also co-wrote (with Rob Reiner, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer) the screenplay and co-wrote (also with Reiner, McKean, and Shearer) all of the band's songs on the soundtrack. This sort of "renaissance man" behavior would lead anyone to expect great things on the horizon from Guest.

And almost fifteen years later, it happened.

Waiting for Guffman is the story of the residents of Blaine, Missouri, celebrating its sesquicentennial (150th anniversary). With the help of Corky St. Clair (Guest), a Broadway veteran, they are going to put on a musical called Red, White, and Blaine. During rehearsals, Corky gets a letter stating that casting director Mort Guffman is coming to town to see the show. The cast gets really excited and puts on the show of their lives.

...With a man who appears to be Mort Guffman sitting in the front row...

Guffman is really the story behind the play, however. A story that anyone who has ever done community theatre will identify with. Particularly anyone who has ever done really bad community theatre.

But along with being a stunning satire on local theatre troupes, Waiting for Guffman is also almost totally improvised. Apart from the songs, which were written before, the actors were only given direction (by writers Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy) as to what should happen in a given scene, then were given free reign to improvise their own dialogue. This is what brings Waiting for Guffman to Recommendation level.

That and the fact that it's the funniest movie I've ever seen.

Fred Willard and Catherine O'Hara co-star and Blaine's semi-famous acting couple. Eugene Levy plays Dr. Allan Pearl, a dentist with a Johnny Carson fixation who has just discovered the show biz bug. Parker Posey is just adorable as Libby Mae, former Dairy Queen clerk getting a taste for the big time. The cast is perfect and this movie would not have been the same without them.

All in all, Waiting for Guffman is a stunning parody of community theatre, complete with Broadway-style songs about Blaine, stools, and UFO's written by Spinal Tap veterans Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer.

[Guest and company attempted to repeat the formula with Best in Show (which I found lacking), but this is such an original that it stands high above its successor.]

Rating:
Summary: Overated with a capital "O".
Review: I do understand that this movie is fresh and inventive but that's about it. A few laughs here and there but short of expectation. Particularly after seeing Best in Show, which is much funnier.

OK, they have fairly captured the whole community theatre thing, but that in itself doesn't make this film funny. And I'm sorry, but Christopher Guest's character is as irritating as a sack full of mosquitos. The sudden recent success of this movie is little more than a monument to the Y chromosome shrinkage in this country. Wish I hadn't bought this. 3 tickets to Peking, to get me as far away from Blaine as possible. And I'm being kind.