Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Excellent but underrated film

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Since the first time when l watched this picture l really find it odd and outrageously funny,the trio Martin,Tomlin and the great director Carl Reiner already implied a success,Martin make a physical comedy,clumsy sometimes in most of time and the originality of the plot reach the target,Victoria Tennant is also another high point together Dana Elcar,Madolyn Smith just Adorn the picture,seems foolish but pure entertainment comedy of 80' style!!Resume: First watch: 1988 / How many: 4 / Source: TV-Cable TV-DVD / Rating: 7.25

Steve Martin's best movie, in my opinion. I would describe this as a supernatural screwball comedy. Some people pointed out the plot is ridiculous, and well, it's supposed to be. If you need something realistic, then this movie is not for you (neither is the entire sub genres this belongs in). The plot is the following: A frustrated lawyer named Roger (Steve Martin) has an eccentric not-likable rich woman for a client named Edwina (Lily Tomlin) that has always been sick, and is now dying. Her plan is to make a healthy beautiful woman her heiress, and trans-mutate her soul to her body to finally have a life and be able to do the things she always wanted but couldn't do. Things don't work out as planned and she ends up sharing his body. Initially they hate each other but, forced to be in close proximity, they get to know the other better and star caring for one-another. Steve Martin does not play Ewdina very convincingly in my opinion, he's very exaggerated and a bit extra flamboyant, but it's still very funny.

So Steve Martin is funny? Not in this film he isn't. Nobody is funny in this except the dog (the sole reason I gave this 5 stars instead of 3). It just lacks any kind of entertaining value, it is an utter cliché from the first opening sequence (great guitar solo Steve! I'm kidding...). It doesn't even seem to be making a joke about being a cliché, it is just awful. I fell asleep 3 (three) times trying to watch this film and in the end I just gave up because it was going nowhere fast. Avoid this hiccup in Steve Martin's career like the plague that it is. You get the impression that nobody knew what they were doing while making this as the direction doesn't seem to have any idea of where it is going or any sense of the viewer at all. It just bumbles along, minding its own business until it happens to stumble (umble umble) into a plot point. And WHAT A PLOT! This film should never have been made, it adds nothing to cinema history apart from a stain on the carpet.

As his recently published memoir, "Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life", reminds me, Steve Martin catapulted to mainstream mega-success by bringing zeitgeist freshness onto the comedy scene. When he first transitioned to the big screen, he had quite a productive partnership going with director and fellow comic actor Carl Reiner beginning with his yuk-fest film debut, "The Jerk" (1979), continuing with the noir film-clip-oriented "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" (1982) and the sci-fi farce "The Man with Two Brains" (1983), and then peaking with this 1984 farce, sadly their last collaboration. Captured in a surprisingly clean version on this 1999 DVD, this is still one of the funniest movies of the 1980's simply because its innately silly concept is executed with side-splitting freshness and a great amount of heart.Written by Phil Alden Robinson (who went on to write and direct the definitive fantasy-laden paean to lost fathers, "Field of Dreams"), the plot concerns Roger Cobb, an idealistic but unfulfilled lawyer who moonlights as a jazz guitarist. His sympathetic boss assigns him a case to handle the estate of sickly Edwina Cutwater, a wealthy eccentric who has decided to have Prahka Lasa, a daffy Tibetan meditation master, transfer her soul into the body of Terry Hoskins, the stableman's comely daughter. That way, Edwina can enjoy life anew in Terry's youthful body while Terry's soul becomes part of the universe. Roger understandably doesn't buy this, but before he can quit the case, he accidentally becomes the recipient of Edwina's soul upon her sudden death in his firm's office. The fun begins in earnest when Roger and Edwina both inhabit the two halves of Roger's body, a comically disastrous situation with their respective sensibilities at war. Needless to say, further complications ensue.As Roger, Martin shows that he was one of the most adroit physical actors around with his masterfully antic performance, especially when Edwina first enters Roger's body on the sidewalk and then in inevitably complex scenes involving the men's room and later a lovemaking session. As snooty but vulnerable Edwina, Lily Tomlin has less to do since her voice-over primarily dictates the scenes after the soul transference, but she is still a hilarious match for Martin when they battle for domination over Roger's bodily movements. In probably the most politically incorrect role since Mickey Rooney's Japanese neighbor in "Breakfast at Tiffany's", Richard Libertini is downright hilarious as the swami as he seems to make up his own catchphrases on the spot ("Bakinbowl! Bakinbowl!"). Madolyn Smith has one funny scene as Roger's venal fiancée Peggy, and I only wish she could have switched roles with Victoria Tennant, who as Terry, is the film's only marginal disappointment with her stiff manner too much at odds with the rest of the comically dexterous cast. The liberating dance under the closing credits is one of the best endings to any movie comedy. Unfortunately, other than the original theatrical trailer, there are no extras with the current DVD on the market.