Simply Perfect

hyped garbage

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

So.... two hours before bed, I'm bored.... want to watch something fluffy and pointless, something i won't get too invested in before sleep... something i won't really care if i fall asleep during it... but something i haven't seen in a while.Always been a big fan of Frazer, and decided to watch this for a strange reason -- Frazer is ambidextrous and usually writes with his left hand. But I had this memory of him sitting at a desk writing with his right, and I couldn't remember what the movie is. So I'm trying to figure out what it was.... and then remembered him saying one of the lines of the movie. So I hopped on to IMDb and just as I was typing his name I remembered the movie. Looked for it online for a little while, finally found it via good ol' YouTube.I had expected, going in, a really wretched horrible movie; but had hoped to be at least somewhat entertained by Frazer. The man is really a fantastic actor; He always amuses me. So I thought, what the heck -- I watched The Air I Breathe last night, that was heavy. Let's have a Frazer fluffy movie (that's not Blast from the Past or the Mummy because i've seen them so many times) and had hoped to be, at least, mildly entertained.This is not a brilliant movie. But Frazer and MacLaine are absolutely wonderful and make the movie watchable.I just remember this movie coming out around the same time as While You Were Sleeping. Same basic premise -- following a confusion over identity, a lonely girl lies to family about who she really is because the family takes her in and she feels accepted for the first time in her life....This one has a baby in it.So, not original. Let's make that clear. Not believable. Not even that good a movie. However, Frazer and MacLaine are lovely and the movie has its moments -- like when Rikki Lake comes in the room asking MacLaine (who is smoking) who had been smoking in the room and MacLaine half-swallows the lit cigarette to avoid being caught. Or everyone constantly taking MacClaine's alcohol from her as well as her cigs. Cute little moments make it fun-- the Cuban butler getting drunk and dancing in the empty pool over a broken heart is a fun moment too.So, not original, not believable, not really great. But it's not nearly as bad as I remember. Frazer is fab at playing a snarky business man and there is definite chemistry between MacClaine and Frazer that make the whole thing not only watchable, but enjoyable if nothing else for them.A weaker story and someone like Lake who just doesn't have the magical charisma to stand up to someone like Frazer or MacClaine just reminds you what the movie is missing most of the time. If they'd cast someone with more charisma like Sandra Bullock in While You Were Sleeping, I'd have been very interested to see Sandra and Frazer together.Anyway, it's a good fluff, don't expect much and you might enjoy yourself. It's not brilliant, it's not even great, but you know, if you just want a mindless fluff and watch Frazer being snarky it's good enough.

I got stuck watching this absolute piece of crap and I am now writing about it to cleanse my soul. Once again I see that without good writers, even great actors, (MacLaine) wished they had called in sick or checked into rehab instead of appearing this achingly painful rehash of twenty different crappy movies already made.And, please, giving a makeover to Rikki Lake is like spraying Febreze on dog crap. You just can't fix that kind of ugly with a haircut and a band aid, sorry. I will never forgive the 'writers' or 'actors' of this petrified turd of a movie. So if this does come on make sure that you have caught up to your significant other and the massive amounts of wine they have drunk to find this celluloid enema entertaining!

Because Brendan Fraser and Shirley Maclaine make it surprisingly bearable. Ricki Lake, God bless her, was, in a word, miscast; without the strength of Fraser and Maclaine, this movie is a two, at best a three. She's brings no life to the role, no reality. At best, she was an over-actor. At worst... well, she was a bad over-actor. A really, really bad over-actor. Still, for a movie that had so much potential (if not for the sometimes unbelievable -yet entertaining- storyline, then definitely for the two aforementioned lead actors) that was lost beneath the looming shadow that is Lake, I'd watch it again. If it were on cable TV... and if nothing else is on.

Excruciating, impossible comedy, an adaptation of Cornell Woolrich's story "I Married a Dead Man", concerns homeless, pregnant, incredibly naive young woman (Ricki Lake, three years after debuting as a TV chat-show hostess) coming in contact with a wealthy Bostonian family who believe she's an in-law of theirs. The wonderful cast includes Brendan Fraser, Shirley MacLaine and an unbilled Paula Prentiss, but not even their lively efforts can make this script easy to swallow. Story previously filmed several times over, most notably in 1950 with Barbara Stanwyck as "No Man of Her Own", however this version seems to have a case of "While You Were Sleeping"-itis. Unfortunately, Lake isn't the polished comedic actress that Sandra Bullock is; she certainly tries hard, but doesn't have the soft charm or the innate presence to carry a major role such as this. *1/2 from ****