ThiefHott
Too much of everything
FeistyUpper
If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
Afouotos
Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
karmacoupe
I saw this in the theater in winter/spring on 1980 -- haven't seen it since (geez, 25 years!) until these showings on the Canadian movie station. a lot more risqué than i remembered it! it's sure captivating,engrossing, hypnotic, alluring, inviting. jodie's in her young hottie period, and robbie's the eye candy for the girls. he's sort of playing a sequel to The Last Waltz's "it's a god-damn impossible way of life." busey's fabulously enraged and possessed -- pre-wacko period. the music and soundtrack is superb. and GREAT casting. Fred Ward's a great surprise! never seen him give a bad performance.seems like the most real circus movie i've even. i remember these traveling ferris-wheel freak-show ball-toss circus from my childhood, and it looks exactly as i remember it. (also, Movie Connection! this real traveling midwestern circus is captured briefly in Festival Express, a documentary about a 1970 train trip across Canada with Janis Joplin as Jodie Foster, Rick Danko as Gary Busey, and Robbie Robertson in his other role as a band-leader! :-) i'm certainly not bothered by the "lack of a plot" or whatever people seem to complain about -- a lot of my favorite art is not plot driven. say, Catcher in The Rye, for another young runaway story.Pull a string! Enjoy the ride!
vjfydsfan
"Carny" is wonderful...The story, the acting, the score. Jodie Foster plays a striptease dancer. The 2 guys are fighting for her love. A great movie for fans of Jodie Foster 70's films.
Infofreak
I have been trying to see 'Carny' for quite some time, and I finally stumbled across an old video tape of it. I don't know if it is now available on DVD, but if not, it should be. It was released at the beginning of the 1980s but is very much a 1970s movie, and fans of that decade will appreciate it. It's very low key and character driven, and nothing all that much happens, but the acting is strong from the three leads - Gary Busey, who has been wasted in bad movies for many years, Jodie Foster in the transitional period from child to adult star, and the biggest surprise of all Robbie Robertson, guitarist and main songwriter with legendary rock'n'rollers The Band. On top of that the supporting cast features an incredible array of character actors that's hard to beat - Elisha Cook Jr, Tim Thomerson, Kenneth McMillan, Meg Foster, Tim Thomerson, Bill McKinney, Bert Remsen, Fred Ward, Woodrow Parfrey and Craig Wasson, the star of Brian De Palma's 'Body Double', just to name the most obvious ones. 'Carny' is an overlooked gem, and deserves some more attention. I really enjoyed it.
Jugu Abraham
This is not a great movie but it could have been one.The casting is top notch (I am impressed by Meg Foster with her unforgettable eyes even though her screen time in the movie was insignificant). Jodie Foster is young, attractive and impulsive; so different from the later day mature Jodie Foster, who exudes confidence and intelligence.Yet the film that starts off like a European film with the lead actor painting his face to play a clown. The sequence readies you for great moments of clowning/tragedy. This never happens. If it does it happens in isolated moments of the film.The problem lies with the screenplay and direction. You expect cinema of a Istvan Szabo or a Marcel Carne, instead you are dished out disconnected sequences that appeal to you merely due to the rich potential of the performers. Gary Busey's and Robbie Richardson's characters strike you, not Jodie Foster's. They strike you because they added some depth and feeling to their roles. Jodie Foster does not do so in comparison. I liked her in the movie because she looked good, not because of the quality of her performance.Just imagine if this cast and story were in the hands of Robert Altman or Marcel Carne or Istvan Szabo. We would have had a great film!
