Why so much hype?

Pretty Good

Fresh and Exciting

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

This is not, a film, it might be feature length, but it i not a film. What it is, is an episode of a goofy cop show on TV. The kind that you would watch when there is nothing else on at three o'clock in the morning. I sat through the whole thing waiting for the canned laughter and fake audience reactions (*couple on screen kiss* Audiaence: "Wooooooooo"). Everything is done to that low budget TV show standard with fake looking sets, over the top acting an a weird style that mixes New York of the 60's with 90's technology and jokes. The story feels taken from a TV show too; you have the uptight, by the book cop partnering up with the lazy bum cop and this odd couple has to take down the mafia boss - hilarity ensues. Or at least that must have been the idea behind this crap. However, the story and characters feel outdated an all the jokes are far less funny than envisioned. The original was a cop show from the 60's and as far as I am concerned it should have ended with that.

That's right, a Comic Genius created "Car 54, Where Are You?" His name was Nat Hiken and he created the BRILLIANTLY FUNNY TV series. It deeply saddens me that this film was ever made as it serves only to detract from how incredibly wonderful the original TV show was. That said, PLEASE don't judge the TV show by this moronic movie. If you have a chance to see the show, do so! DON'T think to yourself "Well if the film was that bad, then the TV series must be even worse!" Quite the contrary. The TV version is one of the funniest half hours of entertainment ever created. Every episode is a comic gem. Every character is terrifically hilarious and memorable. So in closing, I'll simply urge you yo go out and hunt down VHS copies and hold a marathon with all of your closest friends. The original "Car 54, Where Are You?" deserves to be discovered by a new generation of fans. Enjoy! You won't be disappointed.

One of the worst, if not THE worst, big screen incarnations of a classic 60s TV show ever! This neutron bomb of a movie should have been a direct-to-video release, like the third and mercifully last "Honey, I Shrunk The Kids" fiasco, but no: the producers gamely went ahead and released - the cynic would say that films like this aren't released, they escape - this horror theatrically, apparently hoping that moviegoers would ignore the pre-release buzz and flock to the theater. They didn't. In fact, the only thing that moviegoers did do was to avoid this film as if not only their lives but the lives of their children as well hung in the balance. This misbegotten twelve ton turkey has none of the originality or comic timing that highlighted the TV series. What it does have, besides Nipsy Russell, who spends most of the film looking like he's ready to ask the producers if he can buy his way out of the script, and formaldehyde-soaked Al Lewis, are lame jokes, forced accents, crummy acting, and Rosie O'Donnell, who's even more irritating and grating here than she was on television. Guess she didn't learn from that other brilliant career move "The Flintstones". It's almost as if the producers set out to make a lousy movie; in this they entirely succeeded. The film is virtually unwatchable, and to those of us who fondly remember the TV show, a crushing disappointment. Avoid this loser at all costs.

Two inept cop partners (David Johansen, John C. McGinley) are assigned to protect a mob hood (Jeremy Piven) who's being pursued by his employers. Some of the worst excuses for slapstick comedy occur along the way. I certainly wouldn't depend on these cops for protection.