Clue (B- or 2.5/4 stars)
Based on the Hasbro board game, 'Clue' (directed by Jonathan Lynn) follows 6 unrelated, eccentric individuals who, over the course of one evening, become murder suspects while staying at a sprawling gothic mansion; chock full of secret passages, no less. Aside from the uppity British Butler Wadsworth (Tim Curry), the guests at said mansion include: voluptuous, seductive Miss Scarlet (Lesley Ann Warren), seemingly righteous Col. Mustard (Martin Mull), harebrained wife of a Senator, Mrs. Peacock (Eileen Brennan), lecherous Prof. Plum (Christopher Lloyd, having a great year, what with this & Back to the Future), scandalous widow Mrs. White (Madeline Kahn), & priggish civil servant, Mr. Green (Michael McKean).
Also present are the buxom French maid, Yvette (Colleen Camp) & the cook (Kellye Nakahara). Later in the plot, we are joined by a cop (Bill Henderson), a Chief (Howard Hesseman) & a Singing Telegram Girl (Jane Wiedlin ... what happens to her is hysterical). Back to the main guests: once convened early in the evening, they soon find out that they've all been blackmailed by the same man, mysterious mansion-owner Mr. Boddy (Lee Ving), who joins the party midway through dinner. After Mr. Boddy's inevitable death, the murders grow in number as the confounded, rag tag group stumbles upon body after body. So, whodun 'em all?
Back in 1985, critics panned this comedy & general audiences weren't interested. But over time, 'Clue' has acquired a cult following due to the very funny actors, fun sight gags, sexual innuendos, zany one-liners, heightened neuroses, & the board game/whodunit gimmick; the fact that 3 different endings were filmed added to the gimmick. Now, the movie starts strong. I enjoyed it in fits & starts. But at some point, I started realizing that there's really not much to the plot and, there is A LOT of re-capping which makes the story line become a touch tedious.
Tim Curry is his usual manic, energetic self. He's very funny near the end ... I just wish the material he was given was as remotely funny as he was. He can't distract from the increasingly, exponentially convoluted expositions & explanations of who might've been the killer(s). It just all comes across as juvenile nonsense; kinda makes sense given that this whole thing is based on a child's board game. Lesley Ann Warren smolders. Eileen Brennan is an absolute hoot. And Madeline Kahn is a riot; when she improvises just how much she HATES the French maid ("Flames on the side of my head") and Tim Curry cuts her off in the midst of her tirade to continue exposition about who the killer might be -- it's just a wonderfully funny shift.
So, yeah. There ARE great bursts of good comedic timing {when the sight gags, pratfalls & wisecracks don't fall flat}. But we don't care about these cardboard cut-out {literally} characters. Nothing about this film is particularly clever or suspenseful. It's a truly frenetic, madcap movie that, for 85 minutes, has its characters repeating lines, repeating scenes & sprinting around the mansion on a treadmill to nowhere. The more you struggle to keep track of the incessantly multiplying plot developments - especially at the end - the harder it became to care who did it, at all. Listen, there's always going to be an appeal in watching a whodunit-in-a-mansion-with-a-great-cast. This IS a camp classic. But this brilliant cast needed stronger material.
Also present are the buxom French maid, Yvette (Colleen Camp) & the cook (Kellye Nakahara). Later in the plot, we are joined by a cop (Bill Henderson), a Chief (Howard Hesseman) & a Singing Telegram Girl (Jane Wiedlin ... what happens to her is hysterical). Back to the main guests: once convened early in the evening, they soon find out that they've all been blackmailed by the same man, mysterious mansion-owner Mr. Boddy (Lee Ving), who joins the party midway through dinner. After Mr. Boddy's inevitable death, the murders grow in number as the confounded, rag tag group stumbles upon body after body. So, whodun 'em all?
Back in 1985, critics panned this comedy & general audiences weren't interested. But over time, 'Clue' has acquired a cult following due to the very funny actors, fun sight gags, sexual innuendos, zany one-liners, heightened neuroses, & the board game/whodunit gimmick; the fact that 3 different endings were filmed added to the gimmick. Now, the movie starts strong. I enjoyed it in fits & starts. But at some point, I started realizing that there's really not much to the plot and, there is A LOT of re-capping which makes the story line become a touch tedious.
Tim Curry is his usual manic, energetic self. He's very funny near the end ... I just wish the material he was given was as remotely funny as he was. He can't distract from the increasingly, exponentially convoluted expositions & explanations of who might've been the killer(s). It just all comes across as juvenile nonsense; kinda makes sense given that this whole thing is based on a child's board game. Lesley Ann Warren smolders. Eileen Brennan is an absolute hoot. And Madeline Kahn is a riot; when she improvises just how much she HATES the French maid ("Flames on the side of my head") and Tim Curry cuts her off in the midst of her tirade to continue exposition about who the killer might be -- it's just a wonderfully funny shift.
So, yeah. There ARE great bursts of good comedic timing {when the sight gags, pratfalls & wisecracks don't fall flat}. But we don't care about these cardboard cut-out {literally} characters. Nothing about this film is particularly clever or suspenseful. It's a truly frenetic, madcap movie that, for 85 minutes, has its characters repeating lines, repeating scenes & sprinting around the mansion on a treadmill to nowhere. The more you struggle to keep track of the incessantly multiplying plot developments - especially at the end - the harder it became to care who did it, at all. Listen, there's always going to be an appeal in watching a whodunit-in-a-mansion-with-a-great-cast. This IS a camp classic. But this brilliant cast needed stronger material.