If Ever I See You Again

I believe I've enjoyed this movie more than any other love story that was never promoted. I wish J. Brooks would write,direct, and act in more movies. By the way, I thought the music was exceptional considering that I had never heard any of them before. This ranks as a "10" in my book.

There are different types of bad movies.

This falls into the pretentious bad category, which is the most fun. It is the sort of movie created by someone who takes himself far, far too seriously. He has a degree of talent but not nearly as much as he thinks he has so his strivings for Meaning and Significance and Truth are as clichéd as .... a commercial.

Joe Brooks, a jingle writer of the era, was the 'creative genius' behind this effort. Director, writer, star, teeth grindingly sappy ballad writer. Hey, it was the 'auteur' era so why not get in on the action ? Fortunately, the summer special effects blockbuster was discovered at precisely that time so the threat of Joe Brooks, auteur, was nipped in the bud.

Piece of garbage about a widowed man (Joseph Brooks) who finds new love with a college flame (Shelley Hack)...but will it last? You seriously won't care.

Badly acted (Hack is so bad you stare at the TV in disbelief), poor direction with some really terrible songs (although the title song was a minor hit). I heard this movie was a good one for romantics--I'm a big romantic myself but I HATED this thing. It's done so poorly in so many departments it boggles the mind. If you want to see a good movie about a man finding love after his wide died get "Chapter Two". THAT one is fun, romantic and believable with a knockout performance by Marsha Mason. This one lacks everything the first one has.

When it first came out they actually had an advertising campaign telling guys to take someone they loved and lost to this movie--it might bring them back together (!!!!) My guess is if anyone took a woman to this movie she probably still hates him to this day!

I love to watch movies from the 1970s, especially romances, to check out the cheesy clothes, huge, poofy hair, bad disco music, etc. This and Moment by Moment, made the same year, win 1978's most cheesy romances of the year. Shelley Hack, who went on to replace Kate Jackson on Charlie's Angels, is beautiful but looks uncomfortable throughout. I've read she asks interviewers not to mention this film. Joe Brooks, who basically did everything in this movie (co-star, director, writer, producer, wrote and arranged the music), can't save the film either.

Still, if you love cheesy 70s movies, you'll lap this one up!

Saw this movie back in the mid-80's on HBO just as I'd gone to work for a medium-sized advertising agency. The best parts of this film are the ones where Joe Brooks has to pitch his music to clients and deal with them in the recording studio along with their ignorance and complete lack of knowledge. As a jingle writer and producer, Joe knows this dynamic very well, and as portrayed here, it's dead-on - the most accurate and honest part of the film. It's extremely relatable if you're in the advertising business. Joe Brooks probably has a hundred stories that are just as funny and inane as the ones presented here, maybe enough for an entire film. That might wear thin pretty quickly, but it would more entertaining than the bulk of "If Ever I See You Again."