It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

Rather rubbish.

1975's 'It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time' is supposed to be a comedy but I can't say I laughed, or even really chuckled, once, it's a bit of a slog to sit through; despite a short run time of 90 minutes.

A flick seemingly most known for being the second film role of John Candy, who I'm surprised to see got a spin-off from this with co-star Lawrence Dane - neither of them stood out to me to be honest, especially (the eventually great) Candy. Of the other cast members, Stefanie Powers is alright but Anthony Newley's character kinda irritated more than anything else unfortunately.

I shall still check out spin-off 'Find the Lady', in hope more than expectation that it'll be better than this - presumably with Candy as lead, it stands more of a chance than it otherwise would to be fair.

I borrowed it from work where we test TVs and yes, the movie isn't the greatest but does have one merit: It is a time capsule. The thing that got me was a lot of the seventies culture and life style in the movie is there, like the old pulse dial telephones, the old vehicles, like the yellow beatle, and the VW minibus. Oh, and there's the stubbies! Those old bear bottles, before bear bottles where what I know them to be today. That is what I watched the movie for.

Lame plot, yes, for sure, but it also had a very young John Candy (May he rest in peace) in it as well, and that says something for sure. This movie should be kept for time capsule reasons, and should also be kept as an example of what a poor movie looks like: Something film school students should watch for sure.

I unfortunately purchased this movie and the sequel, "Find the Lady" for 10 bucks. I am a big fan of John Candy and the back of the box made it seem better than it is. But after I watched the first one, I threw both of them out without ever seeing "Find the Lady." This movie is just slapstick with no point. It's not even Three-Stooges-quality slapstick, it's just plain pointless. I should've listened to that first review, but I saw it anyway. Don't make my same mistake. If you purchased the same two-pack as I did, do yourself a favor and give it to someone you don't like for his / her birthday.

In other words, it seemed like a good idea to check this out at the library, but it was a waste of time. The cover is very misleading. I don't know if all the copies are like this, but the one I got has this big picture of John Candy, (looking about the way he looked in Only the Lonely) and a small picture of Stephanie Powers looking older (and with much darker hair than in the actual movie). I kept waiting for John Candy to appear, and barely tolerating the lowbrow humor and ridiculous plot, and low and behold, he finally appears in about the last half hour of the movie, looking young and baby-faced and much thinner than I've ever seen him before (more chubby than fat, to put it bluntly) and he barely has much of a part, and you don't learn much about his character at all. He's seen from the back and profile in much of his scenes. The cover of the movie leads you to believe there is more to his character, proclaiming, "A heart as big as all outdoors, and a body to match". This is probably a comment on the actor personally, not the character he portrayed in this movie. It sounds like the perfect description for his character in "The Great Outdoors", "Uncle Buck" and just about any other movie he actually "starred" in. What a joke. And not a funny one, at that. If you're a John Candy fan, see any of his other movies, and mercifully pass this one up. You'll wonder, why did he bother? And more to the point, why did you? I'm glad I didn't fork out any money to view this stinker.

It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time is not supposed to be a classic. it's just goofy fun. 80-90% of the movies made annually are just candy.

when a movie is this "bad"...it's interesting to just look at other aspects of it. the direction...writing...what possibly passed as humor at that time. i think its amusing to just "watch" people act. see the wheels turning in their eyes as their minds bring out the next line of dialog.

don't be hard on movies like "Good Idea". they are not supposed to stand the test of time. it's just candy.