A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Albert Brooks' REAL LIFE maintains an eerie prescience, but the man simply took a PBS experiment from the '70s and smashed it into Hollywood artifice to profound comedic effect. His character's film experiment (you guessed it, to document real life as movie) seems novel, but the family's miserable and it only goes downhill from there. It's a well-chosen cast, full of funny personalities - Grodin is a highlight here and can't stop making contact with the camera - and then there's Brooks' used car salesman filmmaker, virtually devolving matters into absurdity by his own hand. And he's on fire here, playing a fictionalized dickish version of himself (and pulling no punches doing it).The man's a genius, if for no other reason than for introducing one of the funniest props in movie history: the Ettinauer 226XL! Very good stuff.8/10

As a Phoenix resident, it was interesting to see the old Phoenix. Boy has it changed since the old days. Well, I was from ABQ before, I moved here in 1998. This movie was good and there was a lot of DARK humor, such as the horse scene, where another 2.5 percent of halophane was injected into that HORSE.The martian photographers were interesting. Hammon Buck is on his way to my house now via plane. I wish he was here to see this reality TV movie. This movie is really cool. I was shocked. It's a mockumentary of sorts.Albert Brooks is the best.

#9 on my all-time list. Another one of those truly (and tragically) hidden gems -- full of great lines that you can spout ad nauseum to your friends and family until they finally see it (and, trust me, they'll thank you for it). Without question, this is Brooks' best. And true to his genius, arguably the funniest character in the film is one you never see -- just a voice on a speaker phone. If you don't become a Brooks fan after seeing this film, you'll never be one.

"Only six of these were ever made. Only five ever worked. We have four of those." IMHO this is the best movie Brooks ever made. He plays an egocentric, inept film director who turns a simple movie into a botched science experiment. The high-tech gadgetry is ultra low-tech these days. It's a gem of a movie. If you haven't seen it, it is well-worth renting -- or buying.