Lee Eisenberg
The 21st century has seen a number of reality shows, but none like this! John Ritter and Pam Dawber play a couple who get sucked into a satellite dish and sent through a world of twisted shows whose titles reminded me of some of the scenes in "UHF". One scene even lets John Ritter spoof his most famous role.As it turns out, the movie may have been intended as something silly, but it now looks more serious. So many reality shows force people to perform self-degrading acts for money - like what Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr do in "The Magic Christian" - while the audience cheers the whole thing on. Viewers end up desensitized to things previously considered appalling, sometimes thinking that a real-life tragedy is part of the show (like what happens at the end of "Phantom of the Paradise").But like I said, the movie was almost certainly intended as totally silly, and it comes out really funny. Mind you, you'll only get the jokes if you know a lot of TV shows. I figure that if the movie got made now, other spoofed titles could be "666 Feet Under" and "No Country for Mad Men".
elshikh4
Before writing this, I knew that at its release (Stay Tuned) was accused of being "a pointless satire". Now I have to say that anyone says anything like that, is pointless himself !It's a refreshing fantasy, while being a wicked, sort of dark, parody also. The thing about it is that it has 2 ironies. They both had been summarized well in the tagline "Everybody wants to be on television. Just not this kind of television.". Hence it's about living the TV, and an evilly twisted version of it too. It kills me already when I know, in 2010, that a movie with this story was made 18 years ago, while I wrote a TV show based on more or less the same idea couple of years ago !! It's not "how someone else me thought about it?", No, it's "How they made it, while my TV show isn't made till NOW ?!!!!!!"Away from my personal sorrows, I think that the movie's vision can't be more obvious : Today's TV is devilish, by watching – rather surrendering to – it we sell our souls to hell, setting in front of it for more than it deserves means turning into a viewer more than doer, losing reality, dreams, and most of all : love.Its fun is close to impeccable. I loved the wicked finale where the cinema studier becomes the new devil, as if the ones who knows the rules of art will be better Satans ! I believe that writers (Jim Jennewein) and (Tom S. Parker) didn't do anything this entertaining again. While their career includes movies like (Major League II, Ri¢hie Ri¢h), still (Stay Tuned), the first one they wrote, is their most original and wild work yet. Director (Peter Hyams) can make a keen steamy action just about every time, in spite of how the scripts he deals with are sometimes weaker.Speaking of which, this movie has a similar problem. A serious one too. While the action and comedy are on, the drama isn't. From the wonderful, so smart, parody of the game show, then the wrestling match, to the end of the movie where the lead has no solution to save his love, and his marriage, but to turn off the TV, no actual drama, concerning the development of the 2 lead's relationship, was done. It's a series of non-stop chases through bizarre channels (with the bizarre commercials as well), yet with no substance to follow. I thought that with more care and seriousness about such a basic storyline the drama would have been more attractive and effective, and the interplay between the movie and the viewer more emotional and powerful. So the movie's satire wasn't bad, it's the dealing with it that tarnished it a bit, maybe causing the accusation of "pointless" for some.Minor problems : for sure the video clip at the end. It's bad on so many levels. I mean it was long. It was noisy. It was cold. And it was while the movie's most critical phase for god's sake, so how about putting it to slacken the tight pace ! Actually, seeing (John Ritter) in that yellow girlie outfit was awful enough ! I didn't like the matter of parodied TV shows, only by punned titles, at the closing credits; that was lame and blank. And for a final problem : while (John Ritter), (Pam Dawber), (Jeffrey Jones) did their absolute best, I thought they all missed the glamour of stardom. The charisma of them wasn't as dazzling as the movie itself. Well, maybe I'm wrong, and it's measured by the amount of fun this cast gave, because accordingly; they scored high.Some lines were great : "I prefer a man who touches me, not the controller", "All I wanted was to be the big shot for once. Take my remote.", "You wanted to live in a TV fantasy? Well, you got your wish." And finally the immortal Roy Knable's one : "Take my advice, kiddo. Don't watch too much TV. It can get you into trouble."It's about the journey from viewer into doer. I bet the writers loved the idea of living defeated by a TV fantasy (or did experience it already), then having the victory *through* the very TV fantasy. But while the "viewer" part was done fine, the "doer" part wasn't as fine. When it comes to this point in specific the writers were viewers more than doers themselves !
ReelCheese
STAY TUNED offers a great comedic premise. John Ritter is a couch potato extraordinaire who gets what he may have long wished for when he is literally sucked into the 500-channel universe. Trouble is, this cable package is straight from h-e-double-hockey-sticks, with shows like "Duane's Underworld" and "Meet the Mansons." Along with wife Pam Dawber, he must survive 24 hours or be, to borrow a TV term, canceled.The problem is, STAY TUNED never really capitalizes on this joke-rich notion. It starts out strong, but the continual TV parodies are often lame and gradually grow tiresome. The likable Ritter tries hard, he really does, but this material is far beneath him. Some of it is lightly funny, in a "Cracked" magazine kind of way, but most of it is not. And because it's basically a family film, things stay too tame to really please grown-ups.Die-hard Ritter fans, 12-year-olds and staunch couch potatoes will get the most out of STAY TUNED. And although there's been much worse emitted from Hollywood, the rest of us are generally disappointed.
jglezen1
the movie is supposed to be set in the US, BUT in the scene where John Ritter is on the highway and he drops a suitcase, in the background you can see HarborPlace in Vancouver BC. PLUS the fencing studio at the end of the movie is GasTown in Vancouver. The part where the train is going to hit Pam Dawber (Helen Knable) was filmed at Old Tucson Movie Studios (before it burned down) Some US movies say that they are in Portland, Seattle, NYC but it is really Vancouver. Check out Rumble in the Bronx with Jackie Chan. The mountains in the background are Whistler,BC and the 3 Lions (site for the 2010 Winter Olympics) The first couple of years of XFiles were filmed in Vancouver, as was 21 JumpStreet.
