The Secret of My Success
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Movie Reviews of The Secret of My Success
Movie Review: One of my favorities Old Movies
Summary: 5 Stars
A story to learn that All can prevail and jump our obstacles if we like it!Movie Review: Happy movie with Michael J. Fox
Summary: 5 Stars
A great fun loving movie and Michael J. Fox is great in this old movieMovie Review: It's Michael!
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Secret of My Success" owes all its minimal success to the casting of Michael J. Fox, one of the most likable screen presences in all of film history. In "Back to the Future," he was the overwhelmed high schooler who accidentally traveled back in time to 1955 and had to find a way back. In "Teen Wolf," he was the highschooler turned into a werewolf. In "The Hard Way," one of the best cop-buddy films of all time, he was the eager-to-please Hollywood actor trying to do some good-natured research.All his roles fall back on the Sweet Guy persona. In "The Secret of My Success," he plays Brantley, a Kansas boy who makes the big move to the Big Apple, where he lands a job at his uncle Howard's (Richard Jordan) firm. He gradually makes his way up the ladder as a mail boy, but his real break comes when he is mistaken for a higher-up and tries to woo hard-to-get girl Christy (Helen Slater), a beautiful co-worker of the company who buys Brantley's job position.
Simple premise, but it becomes all the more entangled when Brantley has to run back and forth between different job positions, changing clothes in the elevator and getting in a heated affair with his uncle's wife (played by Margaret Whitton), the kind of lady who doesn't take no for an answer.
The film's amorality is what struck me on multiple viewings. It sort of seems dirty and unclean -- Brantley's a farm boy but he's eager to get in a romance with his aunt. The casual sexuality of the film is what, ultimately, makes it sort of disturbing, and also sort of memorable, as odd as that may sound.
Fox shines in the lead role, and with any other actor the film would simply fall flat on its face. And, to be honest, a film like this could never be made nowadays -- I can imagine Jim Carrey in such a role, but the outcome would be wholly different. The eighties were an entire generation of comedy unto themselves. A lot of people love the comedies from the eighties because so many were made with so little thought and yet a lot of heart, kind of like "The Secret of My Success." Its mediocrity is what drives it, amazingly, but also its heart, and so many comedies nowadays lack the heart of the comedies from the eighties.
I come back to "The Secret of My Success" a lot, probably because I saw it on TV when I was younger and it's been in my head ever since. It's a routine film that's hardly recommendable, but I actually enjoy it a lot the more I watch it, and it has a kind of frenetic comedic energy that most of the films of the genre are lacking nowadays.
The script, by Jim Cash nd Jack Epps Jr., seems as though it were one from an earlier decade. It has a delightful sweetness to it that's simply not unnoticeable.
I understand how many would dislike this film. The critic Roger Ebert gave "The Secret of My Success" 1.5/4 stars upon its inital release in 1987. I can't say I wouldn't have, either, if I were in his shoes. But comedies, over time, sort of grow on you, and this is one of those cases.
It's not as good as "Back to the Future," or "The Hard Way," but it's a lot like Fox's "Teen Wolf" (1985): fast-paced, extremely routine, cliched, flawed, and lots of fun. Don't miss this one, even if it isn't exactly the pinnacle of comedy.
Movie Review: Michael J. Fox's performance makes up for some big holes
Summary: 4 Stars
It has dawned on me that I have probably used "The Secret of My Succe$s" as an example in class more than just about any other film ever made. Part of the reason is that most students have seen this film, so I am likely to get nods of recognition more than if I mention "Battleship Potemkin" or "Citizen Kane." This 1987 comedy tells the story of Brantley Foster (Michael J. Fox), who heads from his family's farm in Kansas to the Big Apple to put his business degree to use, but all he can get is a job in the mail room of a firm owned by a distant uncle (Richard Jordan). Brantley comes up with a short cut but there comes a moment when he has to step up to the plate and impress a group of potential investors with a brilliant idea. We see Brantley explain but his idea to an enthralled group of rich businessmen, but...WE HEAR NOTHING. The script by Jim Cash & Jack Epps, Jr. and AJ Carothers ("and" does not mean the same thing as "&" in Hollywood) could not come up with anything good enough to carry the scene so they just turned up the music and figured if we had enjoyed the movie to that point and if we liked Michael J. Fox then we would just buy this and proceed to the happy ending.Contrast this with the movie that might be the one I mention second most in class, "The Karate Kid," and the great scene where Mr. Miyagi explains to Daniel-san that "sand the floor" means a whole lot than he ever imagined. That is the sort of scene that makes an entire movie, and "The Secret of My Success" has a big hole where that scene should be. There are more holes in this film, which allow Brantley to create the persona of Carlton Whitfield, a young executive in a previous empty office (being in the mailroom has its advantages in such a scheme) and provide a fairy godmother in the person of his Aunt Vera (Margaret Whitton). Meanwhile, Brantley (or Whitfield, depending on your perspective), is interested in Christy Wills (Helen Slater), who is introduced in the most erotic display of drinking from a water fountain in the history of American cinema.
This is Michael J. Fox's movie and his engaging performance forgives most of the film's faults in this mindless comedy (mindless in that you will like the film if you mind the holes in it less). Actually, I was amazed to really see how many stupid things happen in "The Secret of My Succe$s," but I still like Fox's performance. If nothing else, this film is a reminder that Fox was a gifted physical comedien. The world of business does not come out looking well, but then it is hard to find too many movies in the past twenty years that make you think kindly towards big business.
Movie Review: Funny and Entertaining
Summary: 4 Stars
I found it interesting that Roger Ebert disliked this movie. This movie is not artistic or well-acted. The situations are ludicrous and unlikely. However, this movie offers well-executed comedy that is highly entertaining.
Michael J. Fox is Brantly Foster, a recent college graduate and the nephew of a business executive and his wife. Foster is intelligent and considers that perhaps Uncle Howard (Richard Jordan) might give him an opportunity in his company. A job in the mail room was not exactly the start that Foster had in mind.
Foster realizes that in a corporation the size of his uncle's that it is easy to do things without anyone realizing what is happening. So Foster sets himself up as newly hired executive Carlton Whitfield. Most of the executives accept Whitfield for what he seems to be. Foster's only significant problems are keeping Uncle Howard from finding out that he is also Carlton Whitfield and keeping his mail room boss from learning that he is not always delivering mail when he should be.
Foster/Whitfield soon encounters beautiful Christy Wills (Helen Slater), a young and highly intelligent executive, with whom he soon falls in love. Just as quickly he also encounters Aunt Vera (Margaret Whitton) and has more than one amorous encounter, before and after finding out she is his aunt by marriage.
With Foster impersonating an executive while working in the mail room, courting Christy, who, unbeknownst to him, is also involved with Uncle Howard, and avoiding Aunt Vera as much as possible, the comedic potential is high, and the movie delivers. Much of the comedy is borderline slapstick, but much of it is also situational.
The highlight of this movie, as with many light comedies of the 80s, is the somewhat cliché happy ending in the face of apparent doom. While you know there has to be a happy ending somewhere, unless you were very attentive it was easy to miss the clues given that suggest what the ending might be.
This movie is one of my favorite 80s comedies. While some critics have treated it harshly, the movie is fun to watch over and over because the situations, while predictable, are well done. Michael J. Fox at the peak of his career always brought a likable presence to the screen and his execution usually brings at least smiles and more often laughs.