La vie en mauve

Everything about "All Night Long" is off and never turns on. Why is it always the films with the best people that wind up being so bad? In this film's case of wasted star talent, the victim here is Gene Hackman. He portrays a middle aged drug store employee who feels that he has squandered his life so he solves his boredom problems by going on little nighttime charades with the odd insomniacs who prowl the streets during late night. Hackman is extremely miscast in this kind of role and Barbra Streisand's presence doesn't help to save it either.

This is not a typical Streisand film for Streisand fans!!/ This is a very good comedy drama about mid life crisis. Gene Hackman is the guy in this quandry...He wants to hold onto to his fast fading youth change his career, his marital situation etc... problems with his nagging wife, Diane Ladd, and his difficult son, Dennis Quaid, leads him to the arms of Cheryl , BLONDE SEXY CHERYL, PORTRAYED BEAUTIFULLY BY STREISAND !!. Not Fanny Brice, or Dolly Levi, or even Katie.. this is a different totally different Streisand in a beautiful subtle comic performance...She's like a subdued Marilyn Monroe, and plays the part so well you totally forget its Bab! Thats acting world, and she should have been praised ,not panned for this performance !! Hackman is excellent, & the entire cast plays their roles well. Not a great movie, but certainly not the disaster most critics declared it to be.. nice enjoyable adult comedy, with a an interesting slant on a mid life crisis.Deserves to be seen !! When I saw this film opening day in NJ,,there were about 15 people in theatre... critics had already killed it, unfairly... go see for yourself!!

Gene Hackman is completely winning as George Dupler, an average Joe who vents after repeatedly being passed over for promotion in his company. So he gets demoted to managing an all-night drugstore - a place with a decidedly weird clientele. He buys some trouble for himself when he pursues new acquaintance Cheryl Gibbons (Barbra Streisand), who's already been getting it on with Georges' teenage son Freddie (Dennis Quaid)!

Overall, an interesting venture for the stars that didn't really deserve to bomb so mightily in its time. It's flawed, to be sure (for one thing, it's not completely resolved to any real satisfaction), but it has a certain endearing quality. In that sense, it's much like the unconventional casting of Streisand here, who was a replacement for Lisa Eichhorn. (Supposedly, Gene and Lisa did not get along, which is one reason given why the switch was made.) But Babs is fairly likeable here, and much of the cast does fine work. "All Night Long" is just offbeat and loopy enough to be watchable, although it works better when depicting the strange folk who come out at night, rather than the romance at the centre of the plot. (The screenplay is by W.D. Richter, who more often than not has specialized in offbeat tales, like his directorial debut, "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai in the Eighth Dimension".)

Hackman is the main reason to watch. He's at his most engaging, playing this middle aged man dealing with the various setbacks and nuances at this stage in his life. But there's a steady parade of familiar faces in supporting and bit parts to perk things up: Kevin Dobson, William Daniels, Hamilton Camp, Ann Doran, Raleigh Bond, Tandy Cronyn, Terry Kiser, Vernee Watson, Chris Mulkey, Richard Stahl, Bonnie Bartlett, etc.

In the almost 40 years since this release, Gene and Babs have expressed negativity towards the film if they indeed acknowledged it at all. And many Streisand fans denote it as a low point in her career. But the casual movie watcher might not be so harsh, and see this for what it is: a harmless, amiable trifle.

Six out of 10.

This small comedy with a galaxy of Jupiter sized personalities became the comedy Armageddon of it's day. Actually quite funny and now a curiosity piece - albeit forgotten, it is even a surprise to Streisand fans that it exists. I saw it on a 'rescue mission' double feature with CONTINENTAL DIVIDE where these two brief comedies that had a brief release mopped up whatever box office was possible as a duo. Sreisand and Belushi together! Well the box office in Australia actually played a happy tune and this double feature became a sleeper hit for a month or so early in 1982. Then video struck, cinemas closed and that was the end of that. As a suburban farce with "ordinary people characters" played by Oscar winners, it was slumming it a bit (like Fred and Ginger in FOLLOW THE FLEET) but odd enough and with a sprinkling of good laughs worked well enough. Like FOR PETE'S SAKE in 1974, seeing Streisand coupled with ungainly love interest, all set in low income apartments and with blue collar jobs, seems strange after the DOLLY and Fanny glamour...but.... ALL NIGHT LONG as 'the other Streisand film you've never seen' does deserve a better profile... and compared to Adam Sandler comedies is positively a masterpiece of hilarity. Actually it's a wonder we don't get the ANL remake with him and Drew Barrymore... stranger things have happened (MR DEEDS anyone? no? funny about that...) Apparently Streisand was paid $8million, upping the budget to $12 million......!! work that production cost out!

Hackman is a demoted chain store executive who is banished to the grave yard shift at one of the chain's drug stores. Just when it seems things couldn't get any worse for him he discovers his teenage son (Dennis Quaid) is having an affair with a sexy relative (Streisand). When Streisand starts making the moves on an already depressed Hackman it's only a matter of time before his jealous son let's the cat out of the bag. This is a very dark comedy. There are no real laughs. It is also not one of Barbra's best performances. She even sings a song purposely bad. Not one for the time capsule, though members of the Streisand Fan Club may make excuses for it.