hyped garbage

Expected more

An Exercise In Nonsense

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.

"Simon" is one of the strangest movies I have seen in quite some time. It's not the premise that is so strange - the bare bones of the plot read like they could be made into a typical comedy - but rather the execution. Although there are a number of attempts at humor throughout the movie (and I admit that I did find some of these attempts amusing), there is a strong serious undercurrent. It seems that the movie is trying to say something, though what that is I cannot say for sure. But there are deeper problem with the movie. It takes quite a while for it to get going, for one thing. And once it gets going, it seems to have a number of moments where key footage seems missing or wasn't filmed at all in the first place. But all the same, I am kind of glad that I saw the movie, because it's the rare major studio production to really be strange and offbeat - which is refreshing in an age of cookie cutter plots and lack of imagination. I would recommend this movie to viewers who want something different and are ready to accept something that is an interesting failure of sorts.

One of those comedies which are interesting rather than funny. Not that "Simon" is particularly interesting either, but it does have the benefit of being somewhat unusual, straying from the norm until the last third when it gets more formulaic: the wicked, wicked military chasing "the alien" (don't they always chase to kill?), media attention surrounding the title character (a mega-cliché in comedies), and a love interest that brings Simon back to Earth (I'm allowed a bad pun now and again, I believe).Lurking behind all the silliness is quite possibly the writer's social/political agenda, but it is so clumsily presented that it remains unclear where this guy stands politically. (And you can bet your pants that a Hollywood writer will NOT be wise enough to send a politically neutral message, i.e. mocking both sides of the fence for greater impact.) On one hand Simon quotes the Bible, but on the other he cites Sergey Eisenstein as the epitome of a great film-maker; those are contradictory signals, making it difficult to pin down the writer's political orientation. However, considering that he got a chance to write for Hollywood movies, and taking into account the extremely high percentage of left-wingers in U.S. cinema, I'd put my money on him being yet another liberal whining about "modern consumer-obsessed society" or some such childish nonsense. It's just that this one is probably a little confused, hence the way he went about it while writing the script.On the other hand, who could argue with the proposal to send all lawyers who lose a case to prison along with their defendant? Some of Simon's propositions are obviously goofy, included just for laughs, but some clearly reflect the writer's own frustrations with 70s America, so it's hard to figure him out. It's almost as if he used Simon both to mock him and as a jumping board for his own views - which is like wanting to have your cake and eat it too. Whatever the case, it's safe to say the writer is a bit of a malcontent who'd never personally experienced the Third World (or for that matter, the "Second World") in his whole life.I like Arkin, and he's generally well-suited to playing oddballs, but I had a feeling that perhaps someone like Steve Martin or even Bill Murray would have been funnier. Martin is funnier than Arkin when he shouts, and there is plenty of shouting, whereas Murray could have made the character more of a wise-ass hence funnier; Murray is better at playing those, and less suited to playing idealistic victims of circumstance so I guess Simon would have had to be toned down somewhat for Bill. This is not to say Arkin isn't interesting.

I love this film. A wonderful, madcap vehicle for Alan Arkin (who is brilliant), with exquisite cameos by Pendleton, Shawn, Gwynne and Kahn. Zany, but not slapstick. More than enough wit. If you're a fan of Arkin or any of the supporting cast, you'll enjoy it.It's not on par with Woody Allen or Mel Brooks' best, but certainly better than their passable mediocre efforts. Also some fun social commentary.I was working as a theater usher when this movie was released. Curiously (to me, anyway), I watch more than a few folks leave the theater before the film's end, saying the movie was awful.So, obviously not everyone's cup of tea. But I remain a fan.

A conglomeration of ideas from older sci-fi films, especially Woody Allen's "Sleeper", are given a new spin in "Simon". A "think tank" that has been living off unlimited government grants, while coming up with nothing but nonsense, devises a plan to startle the planet. They will present the world with a "space visitor" of their making, and record humankind's reaction to the momentous event. These beginning moments of "Simon" are pure gold, clever, hilarious, and entertaining. With the "birth" of their creation a number of truly comic situations are presented. This does not last however, and the film gradually degenerates into silliness. "Simon" has a lot of great ideas that are simply not fully developed, or allowed to merely drift into "slapstick" - MERK