My 5 Wives

My first introduction to Rodney Dangerfield was `CaddyShack'. He was hilarious and witty. My 5 Wives is a watchable movie but does tend to be a stage for Rodney's old ‘one liners'. I had the occasional chuckles, but overall this one may get flack from some quarters for its subject matter. Rodney (twice divorced) moves to `Poligomyville' Utah to buy land to build a ski resort. On purchasing the land he finds himself the proud owner of 5 new wives also. That's right, the proud owner. When the original owner of the land died, the new owner gets his wives as part of the deal. Fortunately for Rodney (now well into his later years), all of his new wives are gorgeous 20 somethings. If you like risque', slapstick boy/girl gags, this one is for you. If you're looking for something with a little more to it. Leave it.

Tsk! Tsk! Tsk! I'm embarrassed by a few of the unpleasant, negative reviews for My 5 Wives. Review this film as a Lampoon, sure, why not? But review it with a sharp Harpoon? Now, that's unnecessary overkill. Dangerfield deserves better given his legacy and contributions to the industry. It was Dangerfield who gave career starts to struggling comedians like Jim Carrey and Tim Allen. He took them under his wing and shepherded them until they could find their own "comedic voices."

Jacob Rodney Cohen, born November 22, 1921, was a multifaceted, stand-up comedian, actor, producer, screenwriter, musician and author. His self-deprecating one-line jokes such as, "I get no respect," have risen to the status of iconic humor. Who else could have the King of late night talk shows, Johnny Carson, laughing to tears when Dangerfield was his guest? Dangerfield was so well loved that UCLA's Division of Neurosurgery named a suite of operating rooms after him and gave him the "Rodney Respect Award." Dangerfield's status was elevated to some pretty rarified company. Other recipients of the "Rodney Respect Award" include Tim Allen, Jim Carrey, Louie Anderson, Bob Saget, Chelsea Handler, Chuck Lorre, Kelsey Grammer, Brad Garrett, Jon Lovitz and Jamie Masada.

Sure, My 5 Wives isn't Caddyshack or Easy Money. And yes, the plot is a tad tenuous. But that doesn't stop Dangerfield from zinging out classic one liners. Indeed, any film with Dangerfield in it immediately became a stage for his outrageous improvisations, and no film escaped his witty humor. For this alone, My 5 Wives deserves "a lot more respect."

Even back then his style of humor was rarely used. Sure, most comics make fun of themselves from time to time but his was based on it all the time. It's something that if you didn't grow up with it you probably won't find it funny. The whole body shaming and other things that is so popular now is exactly what he did to himself. Would he be attacked for doing it to himself now?

Anyway, the show is far fetched like all of his movies. But it is basically a clean version of what was popular back then. A lot of his adult humor was based on innuendos and things only adults would get...Back then of course now not so much.

He's kind of the slap stick comedian but with words. Another flashback was Andrew Dice Clay. Now that was a comedian who was definitely r-rated. This is probably the longest he has ever made a show without swearing.

Give it a shot if you are a fan of the 80s, 90s because this is what it was all about. A lot of it is kind of dated because a lot of his routine was in a way social based and we have changed quite a bit since the 80s, IMO not all for the good.

Being an avid Rodney fan, I probably liked this flick a lot more than if I weren't. I thought his last effort - Meet Wally Sparks - was pretty poor, and I found this to be an improvement, perhaps because it uses Rodney's old stand-up persona to greater effect. Once you pretend you don't know that polygamy is illegal in the U.S, you can sit back and enjoy the many jokes about the difficulty Rodney has in, er, fulfilling his husbandly duties toward his five wives. This is hardly a great comedy, but well worth catching for devoted fans of Mr. Dangerfield.

NOTICE: if you're slow to get one-liners, you won't get most of the jokes. If you're fast on your toes(you need to be, at least the first half of the movie is a full-speed-ahead barrage of one liners), and your mind is usually in the gutter, this is the movie for you. You might watch this a few times, and keep getting jokes that you didn't get before. Absolutely a riot. Dangerfield proves that he is still the coolest "Dirty old man" around. I laughed so hard I couldn't breath.