Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Noelle The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

writers_reign I actually saw a live performance of this in Summer Stock which I found slightly better than the film because ALL the performers were American rather than as here, a hybrid with Caine and Elliott representing the Old Country and Americans sounding mostly unconvincing as Brits. The work itself is solid and constructed to within an inch of its life but it's undeniable that once blue-eyed boy Bogdanovich hit into a triple play after starting off with great promise and this is one of his also-rans - there is not, for example, a bigger Cole Porter fan walking the planet than yours truly but Bogdanovich's 'At Long Last Love' was, if anything, more execrable than 'It's DeLovely'. On the other hand this does preserve a fine sub-Feydeau farce on celluloid.

Neil Welch I first encountered Noises Off... being performed by an amateur dramatic society at my local theatre.It starts off in a way which will be familiar to many theatregoers - a housekeeper is looking after the house of a wealthy couple who are away from England in tax exile. The estate agent who is dealing with letting the house arrives for an assignation with his girlfriend. Then the couple themselves arrive back unannounced and secretly. The estate agent's girlfriend works for the tax authorities.... and her father is a burglar... All the ingredients of a (to be frank) not very good stage farce are introduced. Then it becomes clear that we are not watching a farce, we are watching the final dress rehearsal for the first night of a professional company taking a farce on tour. As well as meeting the first act of the farce - its plot, dialogue and characters - we also meet the actors playing in it, the director, and the stage manager - and their various relationships.The second act of the film meets the company in mid-tour. They now have the farce performance slickly nailed down, but relationships between the company are disintegrating. The genius of act 2 is that it takes place behind stage - much of it is performed mute - we hear the dialogue of act 1 of the farce taking place on the other side of the scenery flats: despite personal problems, the play is still being performed with great professionalism (except by the alcoholic playing the burglar).By act 3, which is act 1 of the farce yet again, seen from the audience once more, the play has reached theatreland (the West End / Broadway), but relationships between the cast have deteriorated to the extent that they are now sabotaging each others' performances.This is a sparkling play - brilliantly clever, and screamingly funny on so many levels. The film, too, captures the best of the play, with a sparkling cast all performing at the top of their game.The play - and the film - are a delight, and are highly recommended.

blanche-2 "Noises Off" is based on a popular play. Directed by Peter Bogdonavich, it tells the story of a bedroom farce, "Nothing On," which is, in fact, a dud of a play - and what goes on backstage and on-stage as the actors rehearse, play out of town, and open on Broadway. Thanks to break-ups, jealousies, and drunkenness, the offstage happenings spill over into the play, as the actors grow to hate one another more and more. Anyone with experience in theater will love it the most, but it's fun for everyone.The cast is top-notch - Michael Caine is the harried director, and the stars of the "play" are Carol Burnett, John Ritter, Christopher Reeve, Marilu Henner, Nicolette Sheridan, Mark-Linn Baker, and Denholm Elliott. Julie Hagerty is the near-hysterical stage manager.There's a lot of slapstick and much "actor talk" with the actors searching for motivations; there's a drunk actor (Elliott) who pops up from time to time asking if it's his cue yet. (Soon, the cast finds his stash of booze and start chugalugging themselves.) Caine is terrific as a Valium-popping director driven to near-madness. The play is much better than the film, even though the film is terribly funny.Unfortunately, for me anyway, it's just terribly sad to see handsome, robust Christopher Reeve walking around and the talented, deceased John Ritter. Boy, life sure has some same twists. So does "Noises Off" - but unlike some of life's twists, these twists are accompanied by plenty of belly laughs.

Mike Conrad (conono) Fortunately, enough of the stage script survives its transfer to film that attentive viewers can tell why "Noises Off" remains one of the funniest farces ever to visit the Theatre.But somewhere along the way from stage to screen, "Noises Off" became calcified and entirely lost its edge. It's played broadly here by an able cast, all of whom clearly loved it on stage as well and now share the blame for this thoroughly noisy, but unfortunately moribund comedy show.Clearly, the film's severest critics in this conference are those (like myself) who enjoyed the show on stage in London or New York. If you didn't have that privilege, it may actually work to your advantage as you can come fresh to the film--and many, clearly, have enjoyed it tremendously. For myself, however, I remember laughing so hard in a Broadway theatre one night that my eyes flooded with tears. Didn't happen here, alas.