S.O.B.
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Movie Reviews of S.O.B.
Movie Review: Just plain funny
Summary: 4 Stars
Big name cast. depicts what probably goes on in Hollywood. No redeeming fetures, no hidden messages, but if you just want to laugh, this is greatMovie Review: Interesting concept...definitely a black comedy.
Summary: 3 Stars
In 1981, Blake Edwards teamed up with his wife, Julie Andrews, and a formidable cast of stars (Shelly Winters, William Holden, etc.) to make "S.O.B." The film details the transformation of a big-budget motion picture flop into a huge success. The road to success for the fictional film, "Night Wind" involves many twists and turns which take it to a soft-core porn status(a la "Last Tango In Paris".) The cast performs decently with the material they are given, but ultimately, the film disappoints. Although this may be what Edwards had intended as the ultimate satire of how things go in Hollywood, the film falls flat in several places. The over lengthy musical sequences (other than the saccharine-sweet opening sequence), which illustrate the fictional film's transformation bog the movie down...along with several other nearly incoherent plotlines. Ultimately, Julie Andrews becomes a very unlikable character, and one sympathizes with the Richard Mulligan character. Loretta Swit provides some laughs as a Hollywood reporter, but overall the film is pretty mediocre. I honestly think the idea for this film was hatched in Edwards' mind after the severe failure of one of his wife's earlier films, "Star!" "Star!", which detailed the life of Gertrude Lawrence, was a major motion picture, costing millions of dollars, and happened to include several musical production numbers...and it bombed...royally. Although "Star!" wasn't all that bad, it was released at a time when the nation was changing dramatically (1968) and facing many turmoils. The general public wasn't in the mood for a big musical (directed by the same team that brought us "The Sound Of Music"), and US knowledge of Gertrude Lawrence was minimal at best. In an effort to recoup some of its investment, the movie studio severely cut "Star!", and even went through the trouble of releasing it under a different name "Those Were The Happy Times." The whole debacle of "Star!" is like a blueprint for the script of "S.O.B." Which film do I recommend? "Star!" Julie Andrews has never looked more beautiful, and some of the musical numbers are simply over-the-top. For a better Edwards/Andrews collaboration, check out 1982's "Victor/Victoria", which is fantastic.Movie Review: A good idea, ruined by a bad ending
Summary: 3 Stars
After his family-friendly movie staring his wife, squeaky-clean actress Sally Miles (Julie Andrews), becomes the biggest flop of all time, director Felix Farmer (Richard Mulligan) decides to turn the movie into a porno in an effort to regain the money he has lost.
By now, just about everyone should know the gimmick behind this film: "S.O.B" is that movie in which Julie Andrews swears and does a nude scene in an (unsuccessful) effort to tarnish the squeaky-clean image that she earned from making movies like "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound of Music", and admittedly, that gimmick was what convinced me to see this film. In theory this is a great idea for a film, and for the first 90 minutes, I thought it was working. The first three-quarters of this film are a hilarious take on Hollywood, with some great sight-gags that have no real purpose other than that they are just plain funny (for example, the running joke about the dead guy on the beach). In fact, I would favourably compare the first three-quarters of "S.O.B" with "Network", the classic television industry satire. Unfortunately, "S.O.B" is ruined by writer/director Blake Edwards not knowing when to end the film.
There is a point at about the 90 minute mark which felt to me like it would be a great place to stop this film (I won't mention what it is, in order to avoid spoilers, but you'll know it if you see it). However, Blake Edwards overshoots this point by about half an hour, subjecting his audience to 30 minutes of pointless, unfunny rubbish that contributes nothing to the story and just gives the viewer time to stop and realize that not all of the plot threads were adequately tied off and that Larry Hagman's character vanished somewhere around the middle of the film. Thinking back on some of Blake Edwards' other films, including "Victor/Victoria" and "The Great Race", I realize that this pattern of making films that start off well but are let down by disappointing endings, is not a one-off occurrence for Edwards and it doesn't exactly encourage me to watch any more of his films.
Movie Review: Almost saved by Julie Andrews's secret talents
Summary: 3 Stars
And I don't mean her bared chest. S. O. B. was Blake Edwards's attempt to get his own back after the failure of his film DALING LILI over a decade previously: in this film, a director (Richard Mulligan) has a complete nervous breakdown after his film starrign his famously wholesome movie star wife (Julie Andrews) fails at the box office: he tries to recoup his losses by reshooting the film as a softporn fantasia with his wife baring her breasts.This film was considered wildly funny satire at the time of its release but has aged less well than you might expect. The Lew Wasserman-style Hollywood Edwards mocks was already on its way out when this movie was made in 1981: it reflects the Hollywood of the 1970s much more than the blockbuster-driven Hollywood that was already taking its place. Most of the actors (particularly Robert Preston, Robert Vaughan, and Loretta Swit as a shrieking harpy of a gossip columnist) seem to be having the time of their lives. Julie Andrews isn't very good in her scene throwing an Oscar at Mulligan, and she may wear the most hideous clothes ever in this film, but she redeems not only her performance but almost the entire movie when Preston has to make her high to ensure she can do her breatbearing scene: she's really, really funny whooping it up.
Movie Review: Smutty soft porn
Summary: 3 Stars
I know that Julie Andrews was trying to make a statement as to how versatile she is and after Victor Victoria she showed the world how versatile she was, but did she have to make this film in between?This showed a side to her that people who liked her didn't know about, the "i'm going to be modern and trendy and stay the box office draw, even if i have to bare my breast," attitude. She sings brilliantly in it but her acting is over the top, especially in the confrontation with Felix, when a bloke who's in bed is sick through a whole in the roof on Felixs head. The whole film is boring and over the top sexiness and Richard Mulligan, good actor that he is, does go over the top and starts acting like Jim Carrey on happy tablets.
Generally, i'd say rent it or see it on T.V and if you are a Julie Andrews fan then buy it but other that don't bother.