Hey folks, Harry here. Seems that the seed of Aguirre has lost an 'r' and still continues to find his way into the hallowed Boston Halls. This time the lucky devil stumbled into the screening of MAN ON THE MOON... Now... Off the subject of this review... I've got a question for you good folks out there. In your town, place of residence... Have you been seeing the psychotronic images of Andy Kaufman with the web address.... AndyLives.Org at it's base? I feel as though I am being hypnotized by the darn things. Scary stuff I tell ya...
Harry,
I just saw Man on the Moon and the first thing I have to say is that unlike everything I have heard until now, Jim Carrey is not the best part of the movie, though he's good and so is the movie, but Milos Forman makes this movie works, which is no surprise since he is a great director.
As we all know, this is the story of the late (?) Andy Kaufman. Left the question mark there since he could be pulling the greatest prank of all time now, but he's probably dead, but fun to throw that out there.It follows Kaufman's rise to stardom and the people directly involved with him, like George Shapiro and Bob Dzmunda. But enough plot, let's give details of what made the movie pretty good.
Acting: Jim Carrey is becoming one ehck of an actor. He doesn't quite turn himself in Andy, but he's close and he gets the spirit of the comedian right, which is what really matter. Really put all his energy into the movie, got to admire him for it. Courtney love is a bad musician and a really lousy actress unless she plays herself (figuratively, not literally) like she did in Larry Flynt. Terrible here, luckily she's barely in the movie despite playing Andy's wife. Danny Devito is good as Shapiro, real good in fact, one of his better performances ever. Liked the real-life cameos as well like the cast of taxi, Jerry the King Lawler and Jim Ross (think the WWF will promote this movie a little?) and Lorne Michaels. The King is the best as he ahs some colorful moments. Overall: B+, and Carrey who really mattered, was very good.
Script: Made by the guys who made Larry Flynt, they know how to do biographies. The scripts a little looser than Flynt but good, has some genuinely funny moments thanks to Carrey and the direction. The opneing sequence is amazing, very original, works very, very well. Problem is trying to pack a whole life into 2 hours is hard, especially like Kaufmanbut they do a good job. Make good points abouyt genuis or craziness and represent Andy well during both the taxi and wrestling sequences. Overall: B
Direction: Forman masters the tone of this movie well, very hard to make a good dramady. usually, you like the comedy or the drama, but not both, but it flows seemlessly well thanks to Milos. The story telling is very clean if nothing exceptional. Most clever idea is the opening sequence like I said before. It may not be his finest hour, but its really good. Overall: A-.
So, I was hoping this would be a great film, and instead its a very good one, which is fine by me. It is very entertaining and everyone involved does a good to great job, except for Love. Definately should go see it when it comes out, but guard against unrealistic expectations. Until next time
Aguire Jr.
