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The Road To Wellville

The Road To Wellville

List Price: $24.95
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Non-stop laughs, fantastic musical score, Alan Parker again!
Review: "The Road" is highly entertaining from the opening scene to the all-too-sudden end.

The cast, script, editing, direction, and musical score all epitomize Alan Parker's unparalleled creative genious. Every element of this movie deserves close attention, which is what makes it worth watching over and over...

I show this movie to friends who have no idea what they are in store for (WHY didn't this movie get more acclaim???). It always gets fantastic reviews, and that is what you will experience, too.

You will love this one!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A great cast, shame about the movie
Review: 'Road To Wellville' is possibly one of the biggest misfires of recent years. It charts the later years of Dr. Kellogs (Hopkins) and his health spa, visited by unhappy couple Broderick and Fonda alongside the misadventures of would-be tycoon Cusack. Just imagine a period comedy with plenty of farcical moments and crude jokes about enemas.

With such a fine cast, a person would be forgiven for having high expectations of this movie. However, about ten minutes in you know exactly what you've got in store, basically a juvenile comedy where any moments of depth (such as the subplot involving Kellog's children) seem pointless. The main problem is that the audience who the humour is aimed at aren't the typical audience who would want to see a period piece.

Still, there's still a few points of interest, although this is nearly all in the exceptional performances all round. Plus there's a certain novelty in seeing Hopkins play the eccentric rather than his more chilling roles that he is better known for.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: BRILLIANTLY FUNNY COMEDY (!!!)
Review: (I ONLY BOTHER TO WRITE REVIEWS ON 5 STAR MOVIES,
OR ZERO STAR MOVIES)

The wayward son provides 50% of the laughs, while
Dr Spitzvogel and "Der Handebunge technique"
provides another 30% [is this really possible on post-natal women???
or even Pre-Natal without anastheic (???)]
If you are seeing it for the 1st time you will
be rolling on the ground in laughter at some scenes.
That is assuming you are a person who finds 'Faulty Towers'
funny!!
Surprisingly there are people out there who do not find Faulty
Towers or the Monty Python movies funny in the slightest (???).
I know,
I've heard them admitting it on the radio.
Obviously people of German stock.
Or those who have gone completely out to get some meat.
When everybody knows
'VE HAVE MEAT HERE IN ZE BUILDING (!!!!!)'.


Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The Road to IIls-ville
Review: ... because that's what this movie made me. It deserves negative stars. Did any of the principles actually read the script before they signed on to do this project? You know you're in for a laugh riot when one of the first scenes is Anthony Hopkins expounding on the "bowels", which actually could be funny except that it most certainly wasn't. Nor was seeing Dana Carvey throw feces on people, or Bridget Fonda getting a "womb manipulation", or the many,many sufferings of Matthew Broderick that he endured for not a day, not a week, but unbelieveably for months, and ... oh well, I guess you get the idea by now. I'm a big fan of all the individual players in this movie, so it's dissapointing to see them in such a mess.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Victorian style oddity.
Review: A bizarre and slightly kinky voyage into the depths of victorian style oddity. This film manages to blend elements of Oliver Twist into a bizarre concoction of breakfast cereal, medical quackery and electro fetishism. Quite enjoyable really if you have an open mind.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Uneven, not for anyone, and not good
Review: A friend I really respect showed me this film. I can see how a bright person may like the film: it is a look at a semi-interesting topic, the wellness cults of Kellog's day, and in the right hands could have been an interesting commentary on health nazis of today. Instead the film becomes a scatological nightmare, with incredibly uneven pacing and confused plot(s) that end in a very dissapointing ending. The performances range from mildly interesting (Hopkins as Kellog) to pathetic (Dana Carvey as Kellogs adopted ne'er do well son). If you like endless poop jokes, the film is for you. If you think fanantics are wacky you'll like it too. Then again, even if you fit in the above categories you probably still will not like this flop.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Uneven, not for anyone, and not good
Review: A friend I really respect showed me this film. I can see how a bright person may like the film: it is a look at a semi-interesting topic, the wellness cults of Kellog's day, and in the right hands could have been an interesting commentary on health nazis of today. Instead the film becomes a scatological nightmare, with incredibly uneven pacing and confused plot(s) that end in a very dissapointing ending. The performances range from mildly interesting (Hopkins as Kellog) to pathetic (Dana Carvey as Kellogs adopted ne'er do well son). If you like endless poop jokes, the film is for you. If you think fanantics are wacky you'll like it too. Then again, even if you fit in the above categories you probably still will not like this flop.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Read the Book Instead
Review: After enjoying T. Coraghessan Boyle's hilarious novel, I was extremely disappointed by this awful film version. While the book's humor had at least some element of subtlety -- and the mannerisms and mores of turn-of-the-century America provided humor on their own -- Alan Parker has turned Boyle's story into an overly-broad, over-the-top farce. The cleverness of Boyle's writing is completely lost; what's left is some usually-talented (or at least sometimes-talented) actors competing to see who can ham it up the most. (Hopkins, as Dr. Kellogg, wins hands down).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Brilliant cast, direction, setting, sound, and laughs
Review: As a former resident of Battle Creek, MI, I can say this movie was particularly enjoyable as I envisioned the city as it was back then. Although not filmed on location (the Battle Creek Sanitarium now stands as a Federal building) the scenery is very similar, and all the location names mentioned in the film are 100% accurate. The cast of this movie is fantastic and started (or boosted) many careers. Anthony Hopkins gives a brilliant performance and I wish he was offered more roles of this sort. Dana Carvey is funny as well, but his role is supporting only. The real scene stealer is the under-sexed and modern Camryn Manheim, who gives a peek into her future career as a great dramatic actress. John Neville's classic one-liners in the bath scenes caused me to laugh like I haven't since "Married with Children." Matthew Broderick and Bridget Fonda excel, as do every actor -- the depth of comedic acting in this film is amazing! This film is fantastic for anyone who is sick of the health craze (any of them) and just wants a good laugh at how health-quacks worked and how many were taken by the fads. Some of Dr. J. H. Kellogg's inventions we have today -- corn flakes, electric blankets, but the bulk of his work was not based in science. This makes the movie so funny -- the crazy gadgets used on the residents is actually classic slapstick comedy, and the one liners are almost as good as Airplane! All in all, I recommend this film to make you laugh histerically, and it's a darned good history lesson, too. "More amperes please!"

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The Road to Wellville is Paved with Good Intentions
Review: But the jokes often fall shy of the mark. I mean really, how many intercourse and scatology gags can a person take in two hours? The novel was ribald, to say the least, but the cinmatic realization goes beyond necessary. I don't remember so many bodily functions in the novel. While this is the film's own particular problem, the movie does share some faults with the book, too - they're both overly long for the available subject matter, they're both a bit too wordy, and the subject that they share - whatever it is- is a little muddled. On the plus side, good costumes and period reconstructions; good music. No doubt the director meant well, but his point seems to have got lost along the way.


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