The Secret of My Success
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Movie Reviews of The Secret of My Success
Movie Review: Die Yuppie Scum was never so appealing
Summary: 4 Stars
Fresh from his success in the first Back To The Future movie, Michael J Fox had a slot in film history starring in movies about yuppies. It was a natural transition from his role as the stiff necked Alex Keaton on Family Ties that he would grow up and become a yuppie. It was the roaring 80s, and New York had become a yuppie metropolis.
Michael J Fox plays Brantley, a fresh faced Kansas farmboy who has come to the big city to seek his fortune. Getting a tip from his parents that his uncle in a bigwig at a corporation in New York, he hopes to get a job there. His uncle barely acknowledges him and gives him a job in the mailroom. His dreams are squelched of having a suit, a fancy car, and a yuppie lifestyle. While working in the mailroom, Brantley starts to fish through the company mail and reads their memos. Deciding that he has something to say and can make a difference, he adopts a new persona of Carter, simply dresses like "A Suit", and gives himself a job there to change things. Couple that with some smutty humor, trying to lead a double life without certain people finding out, and toppling corporate greeds and it was quite appealing.
His Aunt Vera's lust for him wasn't very hot. She was more like a shark in how she pounced on him at every opportunity. Helen Slater, post Supergirl, plays a stiff Suit who is also trying to claw her way to the top. While she is fridged and formidable towards Brantley's advances, she is having an affair with the boss / Brantley's uncle. It makes for a bunch of near misses and smutty humor.
This was probably the funniest yuppie movie I'd ever seen. The main characters while trying to present a professional appearence and be good at their jobs, are actually sneaky, void of morals to be having affairs with other people's spouses, and ousting the capitalist pigs of the upper tiers of the company. But they don't replace them with people who are more concerned about corporate ethics and doing good things for the people, they replace them with themselves. They stop having their affairs, divorce their spouses and run off with the people they're having their affairs with. When Brantley is found out he doesn't apologize for leading a double life, he only afirms how much smarter and more crafty he was than everyone else to have pulled this stunt. He was a lovable yuppie scum.
Movie Review: Fluffy Yet Fun
Summary: 4 Stars
THE SECRET OF MY SUCCESS literally reeks of the Eighties, from the fashions to the hair to the syrupy soundtrack. Yet this light-as-a-feather Michael J. Fox comedy is still worth a gander, if only for the ribald humor dripping with double entendres--and some slapstick thrown in for good measure. Fox pulls all of it off without breaking a sweat, and he's the motor that makes this comedy go.
Playing a Kansas hayseed wanting to make a name for himself in the Big Apple, Fox's character gets hired by his egomaniacal uncle (Richard Jordan) to work in the mailroom of uncle's Fortune 500 corporation--a corporation fighting off a hostile takeover. Dissatisfied with his lowly mailroom status, Fox takes up residence in a deserted office and pretends to be an executive (a "suit"), causing a sensation in the upper echelons of the corporate hierarchy, and garnering the affections of a certain young female executive (Helen Slater)--who also happens to be having an affair with the uncle. There are several other layers to the plot, but suffice it to say there is a bedroom-swapping "Gotcha!" moment, followed by an over-the-top feel good ending. And the limo rides off into the sunset.
Again, Fox is at his forte here, but this movie really gels because of its supporting cast, including a hysterical Margaret Whitton playing Fox's man-hungry aunt, Jordan himself, and Gerry Bamman as a brown-nosing "yes" man. Unfortunately, Slater is the weak link, but Fred Gwynne makes a strong cameo as a ruthless corporate raider. It may be lame Eighties through and through, yet THE SECRET OF MY SUCCESS is still comedy gold.
--D. Mikels, Author, The Reckoning
Movie Review: Fluffy, delightful, fun.
Summary: 4 Stars
I think a good test of how good or bad a movie is, is by how long it feels. Some 90 m. movies feel like three hours and vice versa. Secret of My Success feels like a half an hour. That's pretty good.Brantley moves from Kansas to NYC in order to make it in the corporate world. Problem: he gets laid off even before he starts. He's a trooper, though, and doesn't want to run home with his tail between his legs so he goes to his Uncle Howard for a job. It's not exactly what Brantley envisioned as he is stuck in the mailroom. Using corporate bureaucracy against itself, he manages to swing a job as a vice-president. It gets pretty funny from there as Brantley tries to maintain two identities without being found out. The elevator scenes are priceless!
This movie is the definitive eighties comedy. Michael J. Fox gets to showcase his screwball comedy antics and the rest of the cast is equally fine. Helen Slater stands out as a female executive that manages to break through the glass ceiling only to be pressed up against it and fondled by the smarmy CEO. "Auntie Vera" is also a hoot as the sex-starved wife of Uncle Howard.
The DVD doesn't offer too much in the way of extras, but that's okay because the movie alone is worth having on disc. Get this one right away.
Movie Review: Fun, fun, and more fun
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a classic 80's film. It's charming and fun for the whole family. Michael J. Fox does a great job as does his supporting cast. This is no epic movie, no special effects wizard, just a good old fashioned comedy about a man and the search for his dreams. Everyone should see it once. I'd reccommend it to anyone. It's clean and fun. THE PLOTLINE: Brantley Foster from Kansas travels off to the big city of New York after college graduation. He seeks a career in big business. After finally landing a job in the mail room of his uncle's billion dollar corporation, he decides to assume the identity of a big whig in the office to prove his worth and show his uncle he's capable of making great decisions and being an asset to the company. Brantley soon discovers that working two jobs at the same time takes it's toll. It's a classic Clark Kent/Superman situation. After a few key twists and turns, Brantley finds the 'secret' to his success in life. COMEDY.Movie Review: A humourous satire of Corporate America
Summary: 4 Stars
The Secret of My Success came out around the same time that some serious movies about Coporate America were being produced (i.e., Wall Street, Other People's Money). This movie is a nice, light-hearted contrast to those movies. It centers around a young college graduate (played by the ever-talented Michael J. Fox) who realizes that he can't break into the corporate world by starting at the bottom, and so masquerades as a high-level executive in order to get his foot in the door. He comes very close to pulling this off, owing in no small part to the incompetence of many of his fellow executives (especially the CEO and his "enforcer"). Of course, he falls in love with a female executive, and this causes another set of challenges. This is definitely an entertaining movie (that offers a nice reflection on '80s culture as well).