Good Times

The best parts of this movie are Cher singing, Cher berating future U.S. Congressman Sonny ("Why don't you take off that hat...you look like an idiot."), and Cher in a jungle suit lying on a tree (Great Gams, Sonnyman!).

This movie is about Sonny and Cher making a movie. The script is awful -- both of them. And the "satirical" situations are ridiculous. Watch this, if you must, as a period piece of the freewheeling '60s. (Was the scriptwriter on LSD?)

If you like stupid humor, then this movie's for you. Otherwise, this is a movie you can "watch" from another room with your ears.

I recommend that you fast forward through all the dialog scenes and watch only the musical numbers, which are quite good (and the reason I bumped my rating up a point). Or buy the soundtrack, if you can find it, and listen to that while you do housework or something else productive.

If you enjoy off the wall humor, and have a fondness for 60's nostalgia, you will like this movie (in my opinion). I found the film to be good-natured, a bit silly in spots, and touched with a slightly warped sense of humor that held my attention for the relatively short run-time. I just wish that Cher had a larger role in this one, but, I guess (at the time), Sonny was considered the real "talent." Granted, Sonny can't sing very well (especially so when compared to Cher), however, he seems to be having a "good time" making the movies within the movie. The Western spoof is especially entertaining.

This is a guilty pleasure movie. It amused me, made me smile a few times, and that is enough for me to recommend it!

This is the starring debut for Sonny and Cher (their screen debut being WILD ON THE BEACH). It is a hodge-podge of Sonny's fantasies of a movie-star career and Cher's not wanting to have any part of it (a carry-over from real life... ironic, huh?) It has one of their best songs DON'T TALK TO STRANGERS, and Sonny's comedy timing is surprisingly good. They could have done a lot better with a real script, I feel, but it WAS 1967...

The puppy, the monkeys, the elephants, the crocodile, the lions, the tiger and the horses in this film are all natural so, I would say that they all are playing well. I do not know if I can say the same about Sonny & Cher. Cher's luck is that she looks very good. And both of them, Sonny & Cher, they are singing beautiful songs, very entertaining. George Sanders is George Sanders, big ego, big personality. It is one of the first films of the great William Friedkin. Just a musical without great expectations. The third episode, in which Sonny is a detective, is much more funny than the first two. Watch it only if you don't have anything better to do.

Pop-singing duo (and mod-dressed lovebirds) Sonny & Cher are tapped to star in their own movie, but the couple are distressed over the corny script. Sonny Bono's soundtrack to "Good Times", which he produced and arranged (impeccably so), sounds like the very best of Phil Spector; the songs may give non-fans a glimpse at true musical genius. Unfortunately, all this aural greatness comes at the expense of a wayward, throw-away feature. Sonny & Cher spend most of their time on-screen bickering in a too-real example of marital discord. Debuting director William Friedkin stuffs the proceedings with eye-candy, but he can't get any momentum going in the fantasy scenes and they just peter out. It's a strenuous comedy, the biggest mistake of which was to plunk the leads down in the middle of so much unhappiness. They don't want to make the movie, they're being forced to make the movie, they fight about compromising their ideals about making the damn movie. Only the opening and closing montages are sunny, the rest is much too heavy--even with all that groovy music in the background. ** from ****