Rating: 
Summary: Give Me More!
Review: I really enjoyed this movie and thought that it was very well done, but I was disappointed to see that there weren't more details on the rise to Andy Kaufman's fame. How did he become accepted enough to get onto Saturday Night Live? The movie jumps right in to Andy's fame. I wish that there were more. It just wasn't long enough.One other grievance that I have with this film is that Courtney Love didn't do a great job. While watching the film, I didn't believe that she was really in love with him. I kind of wish that she had done a better performance. But all in all I thought that this was a pretty good film, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who liked Kaufman's career, or finds him even the least bit intruiging. It really gives great insight to understand the unusual comedy stylings of Andy Kaufman.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining insight into a unique, creative man
Review: Definitely one of the best performances of Carrey's career and hard proof that he is a superb actor. Andy Kauffman was a definite eccentric... either nuts, super creative or both. I remember seeing Andy live on Saturday Night Live doing his "MIghty Mouse" routine and I grew up watching Taxi... but I was a kid and I really had no idea of all the other Andy antics, including the whole wrestling scene. I not only found the film entertaining, but enlightening into an aspect this unique person's life. There were moments where I was doubled-over with laughter and others with a lump in my throat. A friend of mine told me that near the last year of Kauffman's life, he traded in his meditation and metaphysical beliefs and instead started looking back to faith in God and became quite religious during the last months of his life during his battle w/ cancer. He also became closer to his siblings and parents. Since the film covered nearly every other aspect of his life, including his childhood, it's a shame that such an important part of someone's life was not included. In that respect, I would say that the film was more incomplete than inaccurate, but showing an incomplete version of someone's life leaves a lasting wrong impression. Nonetheless, this was a fine piece of movie making and superb acting by Carrey, DaVito and the rest of the cast. There is nudity and lots of language, so this isn't a film you'd want to show really young kids. I wish the DVD included out-takes and perhaps a feature-ette of some Kauffman's highlights would have been a nice touch.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as i heard....
Review: Man on the moon was an excelent biography, but a very poor and boring comedy. If you feel like laughing, this isnt for you. However, if you want to see the life of andy kauffman, by all means get it. I was pretty disapointed though...
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely hysterical!
Review: Saw this Dvd for now,the third time it is absolutely hysterical.I knew nothing about Andy Kaufmann except for a few Taxi reruns,but Jim Carrey is brilliant in this movie.You will laugh,you will cry,you will be on the floor in hysterics when Jim is potraying Tony Clifton,(Andy's lounge singer machismo).I 100%recommend this film even if you know nothing about Andy.
Rating:
Summary: Jim Carrey + Andy Kaufman = PERFECT
Review: I am not the biggest Andy Kaufman fan out there, but I was always interested in him. I orignally did not want to see this movie because it got some bad reviews. I ended up watching it with my family, and I LOVED IT! This movie did very well when it came to the details of his personal life, and about his on-stage performance. I would recommed this movie to anyone who is looking for a well made, true story.
Rating:
Summary: A fitting movie for a genius
Review: I saw this movie 5 times in the theaters. Carrey does a wonderful job of explaining Kaufmans genius and talent. If you arent intrested in the great mans life, than dont watch it. If you 'get' Andy Kaufman's brillance, than watch it, you wont be dissapointed.
Rating:
Summary: Postmodernism 101
Review: What we have here is Jim Carrey playing Andy Kaufman playing Jim Carrey, who isn't bad playing Andy Kaufman, even though they look nothing alike, but Jim Carrey nails Andy's voices and mannerisms. We also have cameos by actors like Judd Hirsch, Marilu Henner, and Christopher Lloyd playing themselves as characters on a T.V. show ("Taxi") twenty years before this movie was made. And the beauty of all this is that it's somehow believable. I must disagree, however, with those reviewers who praise Courtney Love's performance. If you're going to single her out, you've got to give a nod to Jerry "The King" Lawler, who plays (guess who?) himself pretending to hate Carrey's Kaufman with the same intensity that the younger Lawler pretended to hate the real Kaufman. Love doesn't really give a performance; she's just there, hanging on Jim/Andy's arm and looking like, well, Courtney Love. She's much better in 200 Cigarettes. The DVD features deleted scenes, some of which are goofy and others that shouldn't have been cut, such as the one where Jim/Andy lets his parents know that his wrestling injuries are...well, you know the rest. That scene captures the total effect of the movie--that our grasp on "reality" is tentative at best. And that seems to be the true legacy of Andy Kaufman.
Rating: 
Summary: Comedy or Drama?
Review: I wasn't fimiliar with Andy Kaufman's work until I watched the Comedy Central autobiography about him. Kaufman was a unique entertainer who often confused his audience with bizarre skits and his outlandish behaviour, people loved him or hated him. The movie takes you from Kaufman's early days struggling as a comic to the end when he dies from cancer. I thought the movie was average, I didn't get too know who was the real Andy Kaufman. The movie is basically about the highlights in his career and not much else. Jim Carrey deeply immersed himself into the role of Kaufman and his alter-ego Tony Clifton. His performance was truely convincing. I would rent this movie....
Rating:
Summary: Interesting movie
Review: Jim Carrey is quite the acting stud, and his vocal mimicry of Kaufman is amazingly on cue. I believe I hated Andy most of the time, but this movie may heighten your appreciation for his anti-comedy and stinky goofiness. As a movie experience, it's a pretty slick little vehicle, minus that offensive kissy-kissy line of Devito's, to the effect that "you're insane . . . but you might be brilliant!" The director should let the viewer be the judge of that.
Rating:
Summary: .
Review: Riding on my conceptual appreciation of Andy Kaufman's existential personality games, I admit I liked Man on the Moon quite a bit the first time through, by sole virtue of learning more about him. But recently viewing it for the 2nd time, on video, I've come to realize that no -- it isn't really that great of a movie. Carrey's performance is inspired, intricate, and interesting, that I'll give you. But, in ways, it still felt like he laid it on a bit thick, and to tell the truth, I would've preferred to have seen Ed Norton (who was 2nd up for the role) tackle the project instead. So, the problems. First of all, after you've seen it once, the beginning of the film is just gimmicky and annoying. Even the first time I thought it was a bit transparent and silly. Like: "Hey, golly, this is JUST LIKE WHAT KAUFMAN would've done, that Mr. Foreman is sure clever!" Eh. After the genuinely amusing and effective cut from Kaufman's childhood games to his improv performance, things do get generally interesting, but this is, as I mentioned, solely by virtue that you're getting a peek into Kaufman's life and world. When I really started paying attention to the script itself, I realized how dull and predictable it was, and how essentially flat the characters were. At points the movie feels too much like an indulgent hodgepodge, and important relationships (Kaufman/Lynn, Kaufman/Zemuda, Kaufman/Contemporary Performers) -- are left vastly underexplored. The whole film hinges itself upon its own cleverness, and its pride at its assumption that it truly understands and appreciates Kaufman's genius. It is the kind of movie that fails to layer its themes into the story itself, and instead chooses to bombard you with them, to shove them down your throat every couple of minutes through a slightly-too-perfect bit of dialogue ("There is no real you," -- "Oh yeah, I forgot,") or something of the sort. It is an obnoxious film in this respect, far too aware of what it wants to say and what it wants to evoke. Some might argue that the films ambiguity is in keeping with the schtick that *was* Kaufman's professional and, to some extent, private life. But I just feel like that's too easy a rationalization. The film is challenging and thought-provoking ONLY insofar as Kaufman himself was -- in-and-of-itself it isn't much to write home about. The film's primary strength is that its subject matter is interesting enough to inspire its audience to overlook its flaws, which I feel are quite major once you *do* get around to noticing them. I find Kaufman fascinating and I respect the efforts of everyone involved in this project, and as I say, I *did* enjoy the movie. But unfortunately, having seen it twice now, I have to admit, I don't feel it's "underappreciated" or "underrated" at all. It's an interesting movie but also a gimmicky, sentimental, and cheaply ambiguous one, that fails to take the tough look at Kaufman it should have. It exploits Kaufman's gimmicks AS ITS OWN, obnoxiously so, while ignoring potentially rich areas like the exploration of the aforementioned relationships, or a deeper investigation of some of Kaufman's less savory turns (his movie sellout, his constant cheating on Lynn, the tension between him and his costars, etc.) In the end, Man on the Moon is interesting and worth a watch, but in my opinion, it's hardly the overlooked masterpiece a lot of reviews claim it to be.
|
