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

Ehirerapp Waste of time

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

blanche-2 Neil Simon's 1978 film, California Suite, is four vignettes of couples descending upon Los Angeles at Oscar time: one couple (Maggie Smith and Michael Caine) for the Oscar ceremonies, two couples for vacation (Richard Pryor, Gloria Gifford, Bill Cosby, Sheila Frazer) one couple for a bar mitzvah (Walter Matthau and Elaine May), and one divorced couple (Alan Alda and Jane Fonda) to discuss their daughter.The film is a mix of comedy, slapstick, and drama, with the Fonda-Alda segment witty but serious, the Matthau-May segment hilarious, the Cosby-Pryor segment slapstick, and the Smith-Caine segment a classic. Their conversation in the hotel suite before the Oscar ceremony is one of the best acted, best written scenes ever written. "I'm a dark horse," Smith says of her Oscar nomination, entering the room in a gown. "They must have seen the dress," Caine concludes. This is probably the most fully fleshed-out story, with the truth behind their marriage emerging as Smith descends into drunkenness later on. That and the Matthau-May vignettes are the best, with the Alda-Fonda scene coming off as somewhat dated today. The weakest is the Pryor-Crosby.Entertaining - if you don't feel like watching the whole thing, just watch the Caine-Smith and Matthau-May.Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor try their best as doctor friends who are having an awful time on their vacation with their wives. It's just not that funny, despite them both being extremely likable.Alan Alda and Jane Fonda do well in their dramatic story of separated couple meeting after nine years to discuss their child. Their segment is too short to really have an impact, might have worked well as a feature film. It's not all that involving.Michael Caine and Maggie Smith are both excellent in their little segment, with Smith portraying an actress who's up for the academy award. Caine plays her show off gay husband. The two stars really shine in an otherwise average story, not all that interesting.

JLRMovieReviews Don't get confused! Maggie Smith, an actress Oscar-nominated for a stupid little comedy, and husband Michael Caine travel from England to California for the Oscar ceremony. Walter Matthau (married to Elaine May) arrives in California for a wedding and gets in a compromising situation with another woman.Alan Alda and Jane Fonda are exes and discuss sharing custody of 17-year-old daughter and how Jane is afraid of losing her once she leaves home.Richard Pryor and wife and Bill Cosby and wife go to California for a relaxing vacation.All this in one movie. You think it sounds interesting, or you think it's a riot. To say this is a complete success in entertainment would be stretching a bit...almost a lot. Right off the bat, Alda and Fonda start in going back and forth on the past and Fonda is so antagonistic, it's almost unbearable to even get through their skit. It lasts over 10 minutes. Walter Matthau's skit gets a little old as he tries to hide the body of a passed out hooker from his wife, who's he's expecting any minute. (He overslept, of course.) But, Elaine May is good in a memorable role.Cosby and Pryor's story actually starts with interest but tires with their constant griping and by the end of the movie, all of their fun ideas have turned into broken bones, bruises and casts. You get the feeling that black viewers would be offended by the way these characters are portrayed.The only saving grace is Caine and Smith, who ironically was so good in this otherwise blah movie, she not only received an Oscar nomination, but she won. But, she is great in everything; so is Caine. They should have scrapped the rest of the footage and made a short film of just these great actors. Those who watch this for them, especially Maggie, will enjoy their performances. But, will otherwise be bored stiff.Those who watch this for Matthau will be minimally pleased. Those who watch this for Cosby and Pryor will be insulted or just plain disappointed of the waste of their talents or BOTH. Those who watch this Fonda or Alda will be talked to death.Nevertheless, I have to give Caine and Smith two thumbs up or two stars each. Therefore, it gets a 4 out of 10 from me.But, if you're in a town where there's a California Suite, run don't walk to an Economy Lodge.

brefane A bland quartet of tales via Neil Simon all set at the Beverly Hills Hotel is a West coast version of Simon's Plaza Suite. The film directed by Herbert Ross entwines the four stories that were presented separately on stage thus the film has no real climax, conclusion or resolution:it just ends. This film like so many others wastes Richard Pryor's genius, and the segment Pryor shares with Bill Cosby is an embarrassment. The scenes between Jane Fonda and Alan Alda couldn't be less interesting, in fact, the only interesting thing is that the late Dana Plato plays their daughter. Michael Caine and Maggie Smith are watchable as a couple in a third skit, though hardly worthy of the Oscar Smith received. For me, the film belongs to Walter Mathhau and Elaine May. Particularly funny is a scene of Matthau trying to put stockings on a passed out hooker. And this is one of the rare instances where Elaine May's distinctive comedic style has been put to good use on film, but 1 out of 4 does not make a worthwhile movie. Fonda fared better in Simon's Barefoot in the Park(67) as did director Ross with Simon's The Goodbye Girl(77). Say goodbye to this one.

dglink Despite a talented all-star cast, "California Suite," which was based on a hit Neil Simon play, is a wildly uneven film. The episodic story traces several unrelated couples from across the U.S. that check into a Beverly Hills hotel. Like a comedic "Grand Hotel," the film cuts between the stories, although the editing makes no comments, ironic or otherwise, between the episodes. Actually, the often foolish, self-centered characters make "California Suite" more a "Ship of Fools" in the sunshine than a "Grand Hotel" under the palms. The original play was a follow-up to the more successful "Plaza Suite" and demonstrated Simon's shakier take on the West Coast than on the East. For the most part, the hotel guests speak and behave like the transplanted or visiting New Yorkers that they are.Jane Fonda portrays the ultimate New York snob, and her bitchy banter with ex-husband Alan Alda only underscores her arrogance and intolerance of anything that exists west of the Hudson. Alda is a New Yorker's stereotype of a Californian with pastel sweaters and perpetual tan. While a few amusing lines pass between the terminally mismatched couple, Fonda and Alda's episode is more grating than funny. However, the New York couple display Noel-Coward wit in comparison to the wasted talents and misfires in the scenes that involve Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby as vacationing doctors. The premise of two couples that arrive to find a reservation for only one has promise. However, director Herbert Ross should have studied Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd before he devised the broad, unfunny physical stunts that will leave viewers grateful that both Pryor and Cosby survived the mess and moved on to better material.However, the film does have some fine moments between comedic experts Walter Matthau and Elaine May. When Matthau arrives in LA a day early, his brother surprises him with a prostitute, who passes out from too much tequila and cannot be awakened in the morning. Of course, Matthau's wife, the always-delicious Elaine May, arrives, and the comedy moves into high gear. The best episode in the film, however, involves an English actress, Maggie Smith, and her bisexual husband, Michael Caine. The couple arrives to attend the Academy Awards, because Smith is a Best Actress nominee. While Smith has some of the best-written lines in the film, her role also has a depth and poignancy that goes far beyond the cardboard characters in the other episodes. Although Caine is equally fine, Smith's role is showier, and she won a deserved Academy Award for the part. The film's special irony is that the part of an Oscar-losing-actress won an Oscar for the actress who played her."California Suite" is one of those films in which a few superior scenes make it worthy entertainment, and the Smith-Caine episode pulls the film several notches higher than it otherwise deserves. Add the sparkling Matthau-May scenes, and there is at least one-half of a good movie. Although the Fonda-Alda episode is bearable and occasionally amusing, the Pryor-Cosby scenes are often labored and unfunny. However, with a strong finger on the fast-forward button, there is a good hour of comedy and fine performances to be had in this inconsistent film.