Purely Joyful Movie!

Must See Movie...

Excellent adaptation.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

While I have some sympathy for the folks who cite this as a example of a "good bad" movie, to be honest, I don't buy it. So Reeve felt that a good movie was left behind on the cutting room floor? He'd have had more of a leg upon which to stand if he didn't turn in a performance on Prozac. Now granted, no one expected better of Bujold -- one of the most overrated actresses of the century -- but even by Reeve's low key standards, he turned in a sonnambulist's performance. About the only bit of genuine emotion coming from either of them was in the scene where she finds him "praying for a miracle," and her angry hissing "For US?" comes off as uncharacteristically genuine. Thirty seconds, however, a movie does not make.As far as the credibility of the plot, well, the immediate post-War time was a cowboy era, no doubt, and from the Banco Ambrosiano business on forward, we can't quite claim unwavering financial probity for the Church. Possibly in the hands of less sleepwalking actors this might have been a better flick.3/10.

I caught this movie the other night after seeing it many years ago. As a Catholic, movies about the Church don't bother me, they bore me. This film is just a poor film that exploits tired clichés about the Church (the Vatican Bank is run by the Mafia, the Pope, cardinals or anyone who works at the Vatican are corrupt, etc.). It's the equivalent of watching a movie about accountants (of which I am one) and they portray all accountants as boring, unfunny, etc. All this movie does is waste perfectly good film. Compared tothis, Plan 9 From Outer Space should have won an Oscar. Back in the time period of the film, a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church would never have worn the expensive suits/street clothes that Christopher Reeve wore. They would not have been allowed. The whole movie was far-fetched. Hollywood loves to portray the Church in a negative light and they did so with this one.

If you love bad movies this rates a 10. A sad Camp Triumph for the great, for a while, Frank Perry the director. Christopher Reeve stiffly makes no impression, as he did in most of his non superman roles. Some good European actors do what the can, for Genevieve Bujold all this amounts to is stripping naked. John Williams composes perhaps the most over the top piece of music in film history for the scene in the cathedral where sinner and saint meet. Also in the mix are some mob killing scenes leftover from a Godfather movie, actually these are the best done scenes in the film, the only ones that work. The rest is either over or under acted and done in a way that tries to be serious in a way that makes it totally campy. A better approach would have been to just go for the sleaze and make this one of those sort of exploitation sex-in-the-confession-booth films, that's really all this is at heart. In case you are a snob and think that only low budget films can suck, look at this beauty and realize that with money you can suck really really hard, and I mean that in a bad way. Everyone involved in this should or could rate this as a career low. Reeve claimed there was a great film and they lost it in the editing room. Well, no it's still here to be enjoyed. One of the worst Hollywood films ever, but if you take in in the bad film frame of mind there are many highlights.

A really bad movie essentially has to be a broken promise. You go to see a Troma flick or something by Ed Wood, and you pretty much know the expectations are low, and they'll be realized. On the other hand, when you've got a decent budget, a fairly ambitious plot, studio backing, and a cast of well-known actors -- that's what it takes to set up a really bad movie. Monsignor is harder to appreciate for all its awfulness in light of the real life tragedy suffered by Christopher Reeve. But it must be said that Reeve's acting is at the heart of this Really Bad Movie. Reeve plays a priest who essentially breaks every rule and vow -- and is rewarded with rapid and consistent promotion, all the way to the heights of the Vatican. Corrupt, sleeps with nuns -- and he becomes the Vatican's trusted financial manager. There doesn't seem to be much logic behind his brilliant career -- or behind much else that happens in this film. Some bad films are hard to watch, but this one is more in the head-scratcher category... what the hell were they thinking?