Good Times
Sonny and Cher spoof many Hollywood classic movie scenes.
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- Cast:
- Sonny Bono , Cher , George Sanders , Norman Alden , Larry Duran , Kelly Thordsen , Lennie Weinrib
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Reviews
I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.
I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
I don't own a single Sonny & Cher album, but I thought this film was fantastic. What's not to love about this movie? It's a time capsule to the outrageous 60s where comedy didn't have to make sense to be funny, singers didn't have to be on pitch to sound great, and plots didn't have to be fairytale-simple in order to entertain.Indeed, the plot of this movie revolves around Sonny & Cher's contract to make a movie and their apprehension to the screenwriter's sappy story. Rather than go along with a lame Hollywood regurgitation of a "sure thing", they take us on a series of trippy brainstorms, showing us how *they* would make a movie. It's weird, it's wacky, at times it's incomprehensible, but it is undoubtedly unique.This film is basically 3 stories within a story. The first is a western, the second is a jungle flick, and the third is a film noir detective story (in brilliant colour, no less). The comedy is hilarious if it's your style. It's sort of a madcap, deadpan, surrealistic sense of humour a lot like The Monkees TV show (or the Monkees film "Head"), a bit of Gilligan's Island with its intelligent slapstick, and toward the end it's a lot like "Airplane" with its utterly bizarre, over-the-top satire. Definitely stick around for the detective story which is my favourite of the lot. Anyone who's a fan of the Zucker-Abraham-Zucker films ("Airplane", "Naked Gun", "Top Secret", "Hot Shots") should get a kick out of that sequence.The tunes (again, I know nothing about Sonny & Cher except for "Babe I Got You Babe" from the movie Groundhog Day) are thoroughly entertaining even when they're rough around the edges. Apparently Sonny Bono was sort of a Bob Dylan kinda guy who didn't have the most impeccable voice but knew how to deliver a lyric. Cher belts out those notes like she's a cannon, and that might shock those of you who are used to today's more demure, sultry vocal style. But as we see toward the end, Cher has tremendous versatility in her voice, and she is just as capable of a soft ballad as she is a throat wrencher. To me, the payoff is "I Got You Babe" acoustic version which is delivered at the end in a very subdued & classy way (not the version from Groundhog Day) which immediately clinched it: I'm a Sonny & Cher fan.Oh, a quick word about the film quality & directing style: magnificent. The DVD I got is the MGM version released in 2004, and although there are no bonus features, the picture is as crisp and vivid as anything done today (perhaps it's been digitally remastered). The director William Freidkin who did, of all things "The Exorcist", throws in some nice artistic touches and creative shots that should be of interest to any cinema geeks in the audience; if nothing else, it's weird to think the same director would, 5 years later, be filming demon girls vomiting pea soup and telling priests nasty things about their mothers. All around, this is a great film which truly deserves a cult following, if only more people knew it existed. Snatch it up if you get a chance.
I agreed to see this because it was the first film by William Friedkin (French Connection, Excorsist). And the big surprise is that it is not a bad film. (And kudos to Mr Friedkin to show such savvy in his parody of "High Noon" and other films.) Of course it's not a great film, either. Stylistically, it is rather of a kind with television movies of the same era, or a decade later. For better or worse, Friedkin decided not to go the route of "psychedlic trippy hippy film," but delivers a fairly staid, episodic musical comedy. That actually saves the film, in my opinion; I never felt, watching this, that it might have seemed better in its time and place with a hit of acid under the belt. It's a simple, middle-brow romantic comedy about a pair of singers wrestling with the very idea of making a movie for their fans.For me, the saving grace of the film is Cher; here she is all exuberance, innocent sexuality (a quality difficult to project), love-of-life - oh, she's just great.And through her, the film captures the romanticism of the 1960s that is largely forgotten today.Finally, a word on the music: Sonny Bono's songs are wretched just as songs, but he had a real ear for melody and the arrangements here make that very clear - he missed his calling, he should have been composing soundtracks all along.A bit of an oddity, but kind of fun.
I'm a 60's fan and a Cher fan and I still had trouble getting through this movie. It's a touch of The Sonny & Cher Show, a touch of Laugh-In, a touch of early MTV and a touch of early reality show. This description sounds better than it actually is. It is still fun to watch a young & beautiful Cher in some fab clothes and singing great. She is surprisingly natural in her straight scenes. Sonny plays his scenes like a skit from The Sonny & Cher show or a Carol Burnett sketch. George Saunders looks like he was aging well playing his Allison Dewitt character from All Abot Eve. He committed suicide not long after this movie with one of the most upsetting suicide notes ever written. Sad. I believe the house that they filmed this movie is Sonny & Cher's actual home that they bought from Tony Curtis and had to mortgage to finish this film. I'm still glad I watched the whole film but doubt if I ever will need to see it again.
Pop-singing duo (and mod-dressed lovebirds) Sonny & Cher are tapped to star in their own movie, but the couple are distressed over the corny script. Sonny Bono's soundtrack to "Good Times", which he produced and arranged (impeccably so), sounds like the very best of Phil Spector; the songs may give non-fans a glimpse at true musical genius. Unfortunately, all this aural greatness comes at the expense of a wayward, throw-away feature. Sonny & Cher spend most of their time on-screen bickering in a too-real example of marital discord. Debuting director William Friedkin stuffs the proceedings with eye-candy, but he can't get any momentum going in the fantasy scenes and they just peter out. It's a strenuous comedy, the biggest mistake of which was to plunk the leads down in the middle of so much unhappiness. They don't want to make the movie, they're being forced to make the movie, they fight about compromising their ideals about making the damn movie. Only the opening and closing montages are sunny, the rest is much too heavy--even with all that groovy music in the background. ** from ****