Purely Joyful Movie!

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Great documentary on the life of legendary Hollywood producer Robert Evans, who produced such classics as The Godfather (1 and 2), Love Story, Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown, as well as The Cotton Club and Marathon Man. Narrated by Evans himself and based on his autobiography, the movie gives a great insight into what happens behind the scenes in Hollywood, and how careers rise and fall. Some of the anecdotes and incidents are quite amazing.A must-see for anyone who is interested in the history of cinema, especially '70s cinema.

Robert Evans stars in, narrates KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE - a documentary about the career of Mr. Evans.Mr. Evans' career in the entertainment business started with noted actress, Norma Shearer, asking Mr. Evans if he wanted to portray her husband, in an upcoming film.A story like this - a story like that of Mr. Evans' life, can only happen in one place; Hollywood.KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE follows Evans' career, and, just as promoting the products he's made, so does Mr. Evans deliver a documentary that's more public relations, than anything else.To tell one's own story inevitably means you're going to gloss over certain events, while building up others. For example, Mr. Evans' 7 marriages are barely mentioned, save for that to Ali McGraw.But, that glossing over 'details' can't really be held against him. The film business is all about illusions. While Mr. Evans has been involved with 'hits,' not all of them are of the high quality of GODFATHER. He also produced SLIVER. It did make money, but, no one would put these two projects in the same category.But, making a 'successful' picture means it made money - having it ALSO have good response is a bonus, but, not the major point of making a film.Mr. Evans is a beloved character, still, in Hollywood. With his square-framed glasses, his swept hair, Mr. Evans IS a character, both literally, and figuratively. He's a Sammy Glick. As the saying goes, there's no such thing as bad press, so goes this film. It comes off more as a CV - a reumé, than, an honest, fair, no-hole barred telling of Mr. Evans' business life. Even as the end-credits role, we're given an impression of Mr. Evans, by Dustin Hoffman, in which 'Bob' speaks in that oily, faux-charming way, that is such an image of what many believe to be a 'Hollywood insider.'Like any resumé, the film's last shot is of Mr. Evans' most current (at the time this film was made) projects financial standings.As long as you take this story with a bit of disbelief, it's harmless. The memories of a Hollywood player, filtered through ones own recollections.

Robert Evans's book version of this documentary, The Kid Stays in the Picture, is still un-read by me. But I have read much about him from other movie books from the 70's, and so this film does illuminate certain aspects of him that I already knew- his huge ego, his drug addiction, his proclivity to lots and lots of women, and having some part in the more outstanding films of the 1970's. Sometimes with Evans himself narrating throughout two things become apparent as peculiarities that keep it from being great- 1) the filmmaker's style is rather repetitive and, aside from some flourishes of talent, isn't anything too grand for the material, and 2) the three sides to the story that Evans is quoted with at the beginning become rather blurred as one full-on nostalgia (for bad and good) comes out. What makes it captivating, however, is that Evans is the kind of guy who will be honest about being full of crap and will even call on himself for his past troubles. Rarely has one man's achievements gone neck and neck with his flaws, and let out in a filmic, grandiose style such as this.Evans is shown to have, basically, a lot of luck as someone getting into Hollywood (as many of these stories go). He starts out as a so-so actor and tries desperately to establish himself as a producer. He becomes more apart of the development side of the pictures, and ushers through Rosemary's Baby, Love Story, and even the Godfather to an extent. As his story includes the personal side (his rise and fall in the relationship to Ali McGraw, the cocaine, the other tabloid stuff), the other side of his professional accomplishments still gears in for room. By the end, one can see that the man has gone through enough to have his rightful reputation as Paramount's longest remaining producer, and will likely hold onto his ego of being the head-cheese kind of 'creative producer' so many directors like or dread till the grave. If anything, the film is actually too short, as at 93 minutes (a brilliant Dustin Hoffman imitation over the credits included) we only get glimpses that are further expounded in the book. Therefore its already subjective viewpoint becomes even more crunched into one all-too-simple story on such an interesting case study.The Kid Stays in the Picture, despite not being as terrific as the filmmakers might think it is by their sleek camera angles and typical interludes of montage, is as close to being as honest as it could be. Honest, in the sense that Evans doesn't hide much in his story and how his own way of speaking about it, in its deep-sounding and straight-forward Hollywood way, is what film buffs look for. He may have been and done a lot of things, but as he says at the end, "I enjoy what I do, which most people can't say that they do."

....is Robert Evans' balls clanking together. The man is simply a force of nature, and the film does a good job of telling his story. I'd recommend you also pick up the book--even better the audio version read by Evans himself--which covers a number of subjects that the book leaves out. The book gives more details about his relationship with Henry Kissenger, his marriage to Phylis George and the financial bath he took on the movie "Black Sunday". The book also goes into more detail on his friendship with Jack Nicholson. Evans is an American original. He's just a one-of-a-kind character, and the sort of maverick that today's business and formula driven Hollywood could use more of. Obviously the film (and the book) gives his life the spin he wants to put on it--like him taking credit for editing "The Godfather". To hear him tell the story, Coppola's original cut was unwatchable and it took his touch to make it into the classic it became. That's the nature of all autobiographies, though, and can't really be considered a flaw in the film (or the book). Anyway, I'm a sucker for films about the movie industry which made me like this even more. Just a very entertaining and well made movie about a fascinating individual.