Last year, between the two of us, we watched an average of 317 movies.
This year our goal is to top that by watching at least one a day.
And as an extra special torture, we've decided to write about all of them.

04 June 2008

The Lonely Guy, dir. Arthur Hiller (1984)

NIKKI says:
"I remember after I saw Rocky, I ran out in the park jogging, shadow boxing. Some guy came up to me and punched me right in the face."

I think that's all I need to say.

... but I'll go on. I watched this movie because a friend of mine loves it. It's as ridiculous now as it was when I first watched it over 10 years ago. Still absurd, still weird, still hilarious. I love Steve Martin.

"Hey Warren! Does The Lonely Guy's store have Gene Hackman? "

3/5

STEVE says:
I remembered this movie being pretty fairly savaged by the critics when it came out, which is one of the reasons I stayed away from it for so long. Turns out - as it usually does in cases like this - that it was no where near as bad as the reviews had me believe, but it wasn't one of those great, misunderstood comedies that gets recognized years later for its brilliance, either.

Steve Martin was very funny, as was Charles Grodin as his Lonely Guy mentor, and their scenes together, quite possibly ad-libbed, were some of the funniest in the movie. But it felt to me that maybe Arthur Hiller wasn't the guy to be directing this. Martin's character reminded me of his Navin Johnson from The Jerk - just as naive, but nowhere near as stupid - and I think the movie might have done better under the hand of Carl Reiner. It was a lot of the same brand of comedy, but guided by someone not as familiar with the rhythm.

2.5/5