Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

diamandis80 The first time I watched this I must have been 8 or 9, and I particularly remember enjoying Carmen's scenes... I might not have understood much of the rest of the plot back then... Watching it again after 30+ years, I love its 80s-ness. The plot may not be super-complicated, but I think it criticizes very nicely, in a lighthearted way, a dysfunctional family model that is still around today and has probably always been. I enjoy watching these movies in a historic sense too. My first thought of the Union Mission scene was how everyone was just sitting waiting there without having a cell phone to play with. Or the existence of electric can openers (I have honestly never seen one of these anywhere else in my life). Or the multiple pay phones. And Richard Dreyfuss was 39 in this movie? Wow. He looks closer to 50 (it's the white hair and moustache). Lastly, sorry to read about Elizabeth Peña. 55 is definitely too young.

moonspinner55 Americanization of the 1932 French comedy "Boudu sauvé des eaux", based on the play by René Fauchois, is one of Paul Mazursky's most misguided ventures (although it was a big hit in 1986, a time when the words 'Beverly Hills' were a current catchphrase at the cinema). Wealthy, pampered, but highly dysfunctional denizens of Southern California take in a hobo who has tried to drown himself in their swimming pool. Upon moving in, the now-cleaned up bum/con-artist discovers he's more normal than his filthy-rich patrons. Paint-by-numbers filmmaking, done up in loud colors. Richard Dreyfuss, Nick Nolte and, particularly, Bette Midler do everything they can with meager material. *1/2 from ****

ShootingShark Dave Whiteman is a successful businessman whose family are more than a little neurotic. One day, Jerry, a homeless man, tries to drown himself in Dave's swimming pool. Dave rescues him and takes him under his wing, and Jerry's different take on life and the world has a strangely beneficial effect on the whole family.This is a great culture clash comedy drama with lots of funny scenes, super performances and many intriguing little comments on family values. Dave is the perfect father-provider but nobody appreciates him, he's unable to communicate with his children and his wife's materialism and phony-baloney mysticism is ridiculous. When Jerry enters the scene, he becomes a buddy, a lover, an entertainer, a consultant, a father figure, even a dog trainer. Wisely however, the film avoids becoming too sentimental - whilst he may be interesting and well-travelled, Jerry is also an inveterate liar who is happy to exploit his position and his charm for all it's worth. In their opulence, the Whitemans have forgotten how to talk to each other and how to have fun, whereas while Jerry prizes his vagabond freedom he also conspicuously enjoys the good life. Dreyfuss and Nolte are both terrific in the leads, the former's nervous energy nicely balanced by the latter's irascible pragmatism. Midler is hilarious in support, as is fifties pop star icon Little Richard as the next door neighbour. The movie has a cool glossy sheen thanks to Donald McAlpine's ultra-sharp photography of the brilliant blue California sunshine. There is a nice little score by Andy Summers (of The Police) and a great opening title sequence featuring Talking Heads' memorable song Once In A Lifetime. Mazursky and Dreyfuss followed this with another great (but lesser-known) comedy, Moon Over Parador, which is well worth catching if you can. A funny movie, this is a remake of the 1932 Jean Renoir film Boudu Sauvé Des Eaux.

Bill Slocum Funny to see how little attention "Down And Out" gets today - bare-bones DVD release, a paucity of IMDb reviews, a modest Wikipedia entry - given that less than 25 years ago this was one of the highest-grossing comedies of its day. What happened?The stamp of the 1980s may be part of the problem. A very '80s look and vibe surround this social satire, where a bum named Jerry (Nick Nolte) is rescued by hanger tycoon Dave Whiteman (Richard Dreyfuss) and put up in his fancy Beverly Hills estate. Jerry finds ways to ingratiate himself with everyone in the household, even the normally hostile Whiteman dog Matisse. Dave soon finds reason to curse his generosity.I'm in agreement with ratnazafu's earlier comment that this film's connection to its time is part of its charm, though its pastels-and-neon visual signature is not for everyone. The script by director Paul Mazursky and Leon Capetanos is fun and arrestingly non-formulaic, but rather underbaked in such matters as who Jerry really is and what the issues are with the Whitemans' distrait offspring. Most critically, there's a tonal problem at the center - Nolte's direly realistic acting manner clashes with the film's overall cheerful and lightweight spirit."There's something very threatening about you," Jerry is told early on by Dave's wife, Barbara (Bette Midler).Nolte famously prepared for the role by living for days as a vagrant (insert obvious Nolte joke here), and I think the experience made it hard for him to settle into a comedy about being homeless. His gruff, bleary manner is established early and never quite goes away, even as the script paints him in the role of a smooth-talking rascal.In one scene, we see Dave and some new homeless friends parody the famous "We Are The World" song in a drunkenly over-the-top, amusing manner. Nolte is in the center of the frame, but tries to get out of the shot by hiding his face behind a pole. I don't think he saw himself acting in a comedy, and for the most part, he isn't.Dreyfuss and Midler, on the other hand, have a lot of palpable fun, and their careers deservedly got huge boosts from their performances here. At times Dreyfuss seems to be channeling Jackie Gleason, but it works, especially as he develops Dave as a genuinely likable character frustrated by his new friend Jerry's refusal to join the rat race. Midler does well with a tougher part, a shopaholic narcissist. "That was the cherry on the cake of my day" she groans when Dave tells her he saw their son in a tutu.Jerry finally achieves his breakthrough with Barbara through sex, a device the film not only plays up with a silly orgasm scene but repeats with the Whitemans' maid and daughter. The latter ravishment proves a breaking point for Dave, who loses it in a big finale which throws up as much fireworks as it can in a way that points up the story's overall lack of nourishment.Mazursky movies have a unique quality, full of ideas and visual invention, diverting enough so that you don't particularly mind even when they don't go anywhere special. There's nothing dislikable about "Down And Out", unless maybe you are Nick Nolte, but nothing memorable, either.