Multiplicity
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Movie Reviews of Multiplicity
Movie Review: Nice Comedy
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a movie I used to show some of my colleagues at work that even replicas will have their own way of doing thing. This movie is a very nice comedy, light hearted and enjoyed very much.Movie Review: Multiplicity
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie has always been one of my favorite comedies of all time. It's all comedy!!! If you like Michael Keaton then you will enjoy 4 of him.Movie Review: Multiplicity
Summary: 4 Stars
It's an old movie, but it is totally hilarious. Michael Keaton plays five parts and is funnier than ever.Movie Review: You know how when you make a copy of a copy, it's not as sharp as... well... the original
Summary: 3 Stars
Contractor Doug Kinney (Michael Keaton) is under a lot of pressure at work. There just aren't enough hours in the day.
Ted: We'll have to put in more hours. This isn't just a nine-to-five job. There is a saying where I worked last. "If you don't come in on Saturday, don't bother coming in on Sunday."
One (or two, as it turns out) of his clients offers a solution. Cloning. Did you ever wish you could be in two places at once, like, have your clone go to work while you sat around eating pizza and watching TV? He goes for it, and his clone, a gung ho workaholic, starts going to his job early and staying late. He fires Vic (Eugene Levy), the undependable sub contractor from Dependeble (sic) Concrete (how dependable can you be when you misspell dependable in your own company name?); and without the distractions of a home life, whips his job into shape.
Meanwhile, Doug tries becoming a stay-at-home husband, while his wife Laura (Andie MacDowell) returns to her career in Real Estate. Taking care of the house and kids is not as easy as he thought it would be, so he gets another clone. While Doug #2 was a leaner, meaner version of himself, #3 expresses his feminine, nurturing side. But even with 2 clones, they still need more help.
Doug Kinney #2: My life's a shambles. I need pie.
They decide to make another clone, only this one, a clone of a clone, doesn't turn out so well.
Doug Kinney #3: You know how when you make a copy of a copy, it's not as sharp as... well... the original.
If this was a remake of another film, this would be a great opportunity for a clever put down--but it's an original idea based on a short story by Chris Miller, who also wrote the screenplay. In fact, my criticism of this movie is not that it's derivative, but rather, it takes a great idea with the perfect cast, and doesn't quite live up to its potential. Michael Keaton, playing 4 distinct versions of Doug Kinney could have really cleaned up with this role, but he failed to rise above the benchmark set by Jim Varney in Ernest Goes to Jail (1990). In this classic Varney plays not only Ernest P. Worrell but also hardened criminal Mr. Felix Nash, as well as Auntie Nelda. Talk about your importance of being Ernest.
As anyone who has seen Michael Keaton's work in Night Shift (1982), Beetle Juice (1988), or Speechless (1994) can tell you, there is no one quite like him. That's why the notion of cloning him is so intriguing, yet so disappointing. Somehow it is just not as funny as you thought it would be. The other aspect of the story, a philosophical rumination on time, life, and what really matters, also fizzles out. Multiplicity did leave me pondering such matters, but mostly I wondered whether Keaton received a quadruple salary for his quadruple role.
SELECTED FILM ROLES OF MICHAEL KEATON
Speechless (1994) .... Kevin Vallick
Batman (Two-Disc Special Edition) (1989) .... Batman / Bruce Wayne
Clean and Sober (1988) .... Daryl Poynter
Beetlejuice (1988) .... Beetlejuice
Night Shift (1982) .... Bill Blazejowski
SELECTED FILM ROLES OF ANDIE MACDOWELL
The Muse (1999) .... Laura Phillips
Bad Girls (Extended Cut) (1994) .... Eileen Spenser
Hudson Hawk (1991) .... Anna Baragli
sex, lies, and videotape (1989) .... Ann Bishop Mullany
St. Elmo's Fire (1985) .... Dale Biberman
Doug Kinney #1: [to#4] I'm gonna buy you something...
Doug Kinney #4: [to#1] A chainsaw?
Doug Kinney #1: [to#4] ... Or a book...
Movie Review: A rather insipid take on a somewhat engaging subject...
Summary: 3 Stars
Michael Keaton is somewhat of an acquired taste. He is funny sometimes, even outright hysterical (take `Beetlejuice' for instance) but other times he just wares on my patience. `Multiplicity' is one of those films that works in parts, but not entirely, and that is mostly due to Keaton's uneven performance. Well, and the fact that Andie MacDowell didn't have any strong direction to squeeze goodness out of her.
The script is also rather ridiculous, but I think we expect that from a film like this.
Keaton plays Doug Kinney, a construction worker who has a wife and two kids and absolutely no time to spend with them. His wife wants to go back to work but there is just no way that Doug can fit it into his schedule to help out around the house. That is until this Dr. confronts him about cloning. Doug is apposed and then all for it and before you know it there is another Doug (called #2) who is living above the garage. Now Doug can spend time with his kids while #2 goes to work. Then Doug realizes that he is so busy at home he has no time for himself and so we get #3, the sensitive stay at home Doug who takes care of the house and the children while Doug is playing golf. But when things get too much for #2 and #3 to handle they take it upon themselves to bring home #4 and it's about then that everything starts to fall apart.
The film could have had a better outcome had the premise been treated with a little more respect. Instead, director Harold Ramis and writer Chris Miller went for the slapstick, easy gags. The film is rather brainless.
Michael Keaton is pretty good as Doug, and I liked the way he played off the sensitive side of #3, but his take on #2 was kind of obnoxious and his mimicry of Steve Martin's hilarious turn in `Dirty Rotten Scoundrels' was rather unnecessary and ridiculous (notice how #4 refers to everyone as Steve...not a coincidence I guaranty you). Andie MacDowell, as I have mentioned before, is usually boring and dull. In fact, it takes a really strong and influential director to bring out the good in her (great in her is you take into account her work with Altman and Soderbergh) and Ramis is not a strong director.
In other words; she's dreadful here.
The film has its funny moments but the lack of natural charm and any real comedic weight make this film more of a dud than a hit. I wish that I could say something better for the film. My wife loves it. I on the other hand do not. I give it a low C.