The Big Picture

I've watched this many times, and feel that this ranks with the best work of Christopher Guest. Kevin Bacon is outstanding as the idealistic young director Nick Chapman, who falls prey to the jaded Hollywood lifestyle - long before he can afford it personally or financially. Martin Short's role as Nick's agent is hilarious, and other good performances are turned in by Jennifer Jason Leigh, Terri Hatcher, and many others. This is Spinal Tap for the film industry, and well worth a look.

This film is a wonderful example of how to get a movie made in Hollywood.

Kevin Bacon stars as a hot new director, with a prestigious award to his credit who has one aim, to make his script his way.

What then ensues is a sequence of events that should serve as a warning to people wanting to make their own movie on what to be careful of.

Bacon's script starts as a simple movie of two couples on holiday together, while one half of them is having an affair, thanks to various obstacles it transforms into a trashy affair of beaches, cheerleaders and very little story, called Beachnuts.

While this happens Bacon's personal life is also falling apart thanks to the lures of Teri Hatcher's struggling young actress.

Finally, an extremely low-budget music video puts Bacon back on the map and this time he sticks to his guns.

The message for young movie-makers is, do not lose sight of what you want and be aware of the extreme fickleness of Hollywood, which this demonstrates exceedingly well.

This is a good film that is totally stolen by Martin Short. The scenes including his agent character are some of the funniest I've ever seen in a movie. He's absolutely brilliant.

If you can see past the blinding light of Short's performance, there's a likable movie here. Kevin Bacon and his character's storyline are compelling and involving. There are loads of funny cameo-type roles. There's one scene in particular that stands out. It's not funny, it's heartbreaking. I'm talking about the scene where Kevin Bacon picks up Michael McKean in his Porsche, gets a cell phone call, and asks McKean to step out of the car to take the call. Man, that's harsh. It's testament to Bacon's acting charm that his character can be redeemed at all after a stunt like that.

The one thing that seemed consistently not to work here is the fantasy sequences. The movie would play better without them.

This is an under-rated late 80's film that captures the changing entertainment scene of that decade, with much humor and irony.

While the usual "Hollywood is phony" theme exists here, that story is always interesting, and it really scores when it reminds us of how success can be gained and lost quickly.

Martin Short is the uncredited star here, with a couple of hilarious scenes, the best one at the outdoor patio restaurant where he praises Bacon without knowing any of his work. All in all, a nice movie about movies, with some special surprise locations for movie buffs!

The late J.T. Walsh offers a subtle performance here, with one of my favorite (perhaps a somewhat spoiler line, but nothing to do with the plot)...Bacon: "I'm from Ohio", with Walsh's comeback, "my first wife is from Illinois", as in everything outside of LA is one place. Perfect deadpan humor.

Film student Nick Chapman (Kevin Bacon) is nominated for an award at the National Film Institute. He's competing against the wacky Lydia Johnson (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and spoiled arrogant Jonathan Tristan-Bennet (Dan Schneider). After his win, he has big dreams but Hollywood is more than his naive expectations. There's studio head Allen Habel (J.T. Walsh), his wife Polo Habel (Fran Drescher), and his mistress Gretchen (Teri Hatcher). Allen starts changing Nick's movie. He's infatuated with Gretchen. He dumps his girlfriend Susan Rawlings and old friends like Emmet Sumner (Michael McKean).

Martin Short's bad hair really threw me off for a second. It suggests a broader, sillier comedy than I expected. Luckily, it doesn't go that way but this is not at the later Christopher Guest level. It takes all the standard Hollywood behind the scenes and puts it on the screen. It's quirky but no big laughs. It hits the nails on the head. Nick is not much in terms of rooting interest. This is early in the inside Hollywood satires. It could be darker. The girlfriend role needs a better actress. The most compelling character is actually Lydia who reconnects with the movie for a short while in the last third. The movie gets a lot better with her energy. It would help if his movie idea doesn't look so utterly self-congratulatory art-house. Overall, this is a nice lesser known Christopher Guest film.