For Your Consideration

This one has been on my ever-growing "must see" list for some time. I thoroughly enjoyed the classic "This Is Spinal Tap" (though my companions that night were considerably less enthusiastic about it). "Waiting For Guffman" was a delight. "Best In Show" was simply fantastic. And what Christopher Guest and company did with "A Mighty Wind" was nothing short of spectacular. They really captured the songs of the folk era. To my ear, anyway, and even though they mined the period for laughs it was with a respectful wink and nod. So having seen those films I was really looking forward to what they would do to Hollywood with "For Your Consideration". As it turns out, not near as much as I'd hoped. It pains to me give the usually smart and witty ensemble a 2-star rating. One problem I feel is that for the first time there wasn't any single character that I cared about. Not one. Catherine O'Hara, Harry Shearer, and Parker Posey probably get the most screen time. Michael McKean gets so little it's easy to forget he's in it. Christopher Guest is fairly humorous as a director of the film "Home For Purim" which suddenly catches buzz in Hollywood when Catherine O'Hara's character is rumored to be considered for an Oscar even while the film is still in production. Soon the rumor mill begins to churn helped along by an out-of-touch studio publicist (the younger actors have to clue him about the internet) smartly played by John Michael Higgins. Soon two other actors in the production enter the rumor mill as offering Oscar-worthy performances (somebody does eventually win one, but I won't reveal the character's identity). As the buzz really gets going Jane Lynch and Fred Willard are intermittently (and unfortunately all too frequently) featured as hosts of a prime time Hollywood show called "Hollywood Now" (similar to E.T. and Extra!). After awhile they just get to be too much. Fred Willard was side-splittingly funny as an out of his element dog show commentator in "Best In Show". Here he quickly becomes tiresome as an aged Mark McGrath-type (complete with spiked hair and stud earring) and Jane Lynch mostly tags along beside him and broadly smiles through her few lines. And I think this might be where much of the film went wrong. Several of these fine actors seemed to me to be miscast in the roles they play. Given that in these films much of dialogue is improvised (how much I'm not sure) it seems imperative that the right people be in the right roles for them. They should have found Fred something else to do or at least cut his screen time in half. And I say that with all due respect as I usually enjoy his work. I also felt there are a few too many scenes from "Home For Purim". The film simply isn't believeable as being Oscar-worthy which, I realize, is part of the joke, but I found it to instead drag the pacing of the "real" film down to a crawl without delivering many comedic gems as compensation. Cut a few of those scenes out and give more screen time to the under-utilized members of the ensemble (Michael McKean, Bob Balaban, Jennifer Coolidge, Jordan Black to name a few). I also expected a "behind-the-scenes" poke at the Academy's selection process and never got one. Indeed I expected a broader poke at the entertainment industry as a whole. It's admittedly arguable that they did indeed do just that, but, to me, the film focusing so much on the daily production of "Home For Purim" took away time from potentially richer comedic targets. In summary the premise had potential, but it missed the mark in my opinion. There are several highlights that make you think the film is finally hitting it's stride (Ricky Gervais is one as a studio honcho who suddenly becomes interested in the production once the Oscar hype begins), but not near enough to salvage the film in my opinion. Those who have worked in film probably recognize more of the inside jokes here than an outsider such as myself. Unfortunately all I can say in the end is to to get 'em next time, gang. You've earned this mulligan. And sign Gervais up for the next one.

I love all of Guest's movies but I have to say that this one is my favorite! All of the actors give AMAZING performances -- a MUST-SEE for Guest-fans, and a DEFINITE-SEE for anyone who has never seen a Guest movie before!

too funny.

I can not believe that I would ever give a pan to a Christopher Guest project, much less feel compeled at the (blessed) end of it to write a review. Home alone on Thanksgiving I was looking for something diversionary and hilarious to escape any holiday ruminations. Broswing I found this film and thought, Bingo, witty, silly, yet not insulting the intelligence. That has been my previous experiences with Spinal Tap, Princess Bride, Best In Show, etc... Not only was this film non of the above, I could not wait for it to be over. I would have stopped 20 mins into it had I not had to pay to rent it. I gave it the whole 20 mins to kick in thinking it was some kind of send up lead in. No. What you see from the beginning is what you get. Yes, I lost $3.99, but more importantly I lost 2 hours of my life, time that would have been much better spent on an infomercial. It's very sad. I know we're all getting older and can't be expected to be what we were, but to see such a decline is just sorry. Don't waste your money or time on this one. Hopefully, the next vehicle with Guest and his ensemble will be back to their old groove, or at least better than this. PS. Please forgive the spelling errors, it's late. Why doesn't itumes have spellcheck?

so much un-tapped talent..! the cast collaboration is insane. there was just no humor, not quick or dry ... it really had the makings of a good to great film, but it really missed. the plot was there but the characters were just all over the place. worth a RENT @ most.

Honestly. Horrible. I laughed maybe 3 times the whole movie. What's worse is that all of the remotely funny parts were given away in the trailer. Not nearly as good as Best in Show. A movie that makes fun of movie making much better is "Burn Hollywood Burn". For another good laugh at Hollywood see "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" with Robert Downey Jr. Both flicks are much much better. Would not rent or buy.

To me, this movie was every bit as great as Best In Show, A Mighty Wind and Waiting For Guffman....and, as is usually the case with the Guest movies, the more i've watched this film, the more i've enjoyed it. All the cast, as usual, have all the parts down perfectly. I highly recommend this movie to any fan of the above-mentioned movies.

Wow. I've enjoyed Guest's past movies, to a greater or lesser degree, but this is a bomb. It's kind of interesting, but not really. We had to force ourselves to keep watching. After about 20 minutes, it got funny for about ten minutes, and then the rest of the movie just put us to sleep. Sadly, this movie is very much not recommended.