Noises Off...
Director: Peter BogdanovichStudio: Walt Disney Video
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Format: Color, NTSC
DVD Release: May 4th 2004
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DVD Review
This hilariously sexy, all-star comedy promises to be an entertaining treat you're sure to love! Featuring some of today's biggest comedy favorites, including Carol Burnett (TV's THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW), John Ritter (BAD SANTA), Michael Caine (THE CIDER HOUSE RULES), and Christopher Reeve (SUPERMAN) -- NOISES OFF! is an outrageously funny look at the love, lies, and deceit that take place behind the scenes as a group of ridiculously inept stage actors rehearse a Broadway-bound play! Just when members of this chaotic cast finally get their performances right, everything starts going wrong!
User Reviews
Noises Off! An exceptional play... a pleasant film. - Rating: 4/5
The stage play of Noises Off is a brilliant work. Within its three act structure, we take quite a journey. In Act One, we view a troubled "Dress Rehearsal" for a hapless British farce called "Nothing On!"
Watching that plays first act, we quickly see actors' egos, relationships and stupidities hindering the production. Act Two revisits the first act of "Nothing On", this time well into the shows run and the entire act is viewed... from Backstage! In a nice challenge for any set designer, the set can rotate around for this intimate backstage view. And then after the second Intermission, we once again see Act One of "Nothing On", this time from the audience again, and this time all of the conflicts have built to a head. The performers are sabotaging each other and all the story concerns have grown into a story crisis!
The stage play is such a hilarious evening that a film version couldn't be far off. But how do we accomplish that?
Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show) took over the directing reins on this story's journey from stage to screen. Along with him, an all-star cast brings the story to life. Carol Burnett, Nicolette Sheridan, Michael Caine, Julie Haggerty, the late John Ritter, the late Denholm Elliot and the late Christopher Reeve give it their all on the stage... er screen. The screenplay is mostly honorable to the stage play, but it does contain a few `Hollywood" type elements: one of these, an unnecessary HAPPY ENDING that smells of Studio Head logic. (The play itself ends pretty nebulously.)
The film remains funny and is explored nicely. But, it doesn't make as big a mark as its stage-bound predecessor. NOISES OFF is meant to be enjoyed in a large theatre audience, where the viewer plays a part in the proceedings. The live theatre audience laughter is infectious, and in a show like this, the performers need to play off of those reactions, an impossibility in film.
But this is the real world. Finding a stage version of NOISES OFF near you is nowhere near as convenient as checking out the show on DVD or VHS. For that reason, I do recommend the film with the caveat that you are watching a stage show. If you are expecting a film comedy, you will be disappointed, even bored.
The DVD is a bare bones effort, 1.85:1 screen ratio (that gives you slight black bars on the top and bottom of a standard television.)
Lloyd Fellowes: "None of us will get out of here alive; they've got big pictures of us in the lobby! I'm not running away. I'm just not the kind of person who gets a kick out of watching an automobile crash, especially when it's my automobile!"
The truth of every drama production - Rating: 5/5
Curtain's up, light goes down, everyone goes quiet, and... The director leaves the building. This is pretty much the happinings at any drama production. Rehearsals, dress rehearsals, tech rehearsals everytime it goes terribly down hill. Actors get on each other's nerves, and the little vains in the forehead of the director begin to show. This is such a comical screenplay greet on film or on the stage I captures everything. And any performer knows that a terrible upcoming of a play 99.9% of the time results with a perfect opening big opening production. This shows the down fall of every show and it gets worst each time.
A must see for everyone. A plus is that Christopher Revees and John Ritter are in this one too.
Enjoy!
If There's "Nothing On" . . . - Rating: 4/5
An entertaining tall tale from America's heartland, with a British twist. As one who had read the play, I wasn't expecting anything much when has-been Peter Bogdanovich was assigned the job of directing a screen adaptation of Michael Frayn's theater chestnut, NOISES OFF.
And with this attitude in mind, I didn't enjoy the movie overmuch when I first saw it in a neighboring theater in 1992. Now, however, it seems to be funnier every time I see it. The more you watch this film the more you appreciate how even some actors who aren't particularly skilled have brought their best foot forward for this project. And look at Nicolette Sheridan, she's so pretty and she doesn't look like she's been disfigured by plastic surgery! Michael Caine, who makes an average of 6.5 films a year, is hilarious in the part of Lloyd and couldn't be any funnier, whether he's getting a sizable cactus jammed up his ass or fathering a baby with poor old Julie Hagerty. I don't think Carol Burnett has gotten her due for trying the part of Dotty Otley either. She isn't at her best, but you can't imagine the movie without her. Maybe she's a little old to play the part, especially seeing that she is at the apex of a triangle with two much, much younger men. She must have been so sick of sardines after wrapping this feature! This was just about Carol's last part of any substance. Let's bring her back and give her something meaty to chew on. I have always wondered, for example, what happened to Dotty Otley after the events of NOISES OFF and NOTHING ON. Surely she could come back and star in a sequel!
How odd is it that both Christopher Reeve and John Ritter have both left us? If I were a betting man, and was told that three people in the principal cast would be gone in a few year's time, I might have hazarded Denholm Elliott, who does look pretty sick in this film, and who didn't survive its release. (Actually anybody else might have been better; he's okay but nothing special.) But no way would I have guessed Reeve or Ritter!
Both of them are thoroughly entertaining and fulfill, to the highest degree, the hopes Bogdanovich apparently pinned on them. Why wasn't the chatty Bogdanovich given the opportunity to record a commentary track?
One of the best - Rating: 5/5
Noises off is one of the best comedies ever. It's a staple of the Five Door Farce genre and the cast assembled for this movie could not be more perfect. A little slapstick, a little British humour, and a something new to see every time you watch it.
the worst movie ever - Rating: 1/5
I overheard someone talking about this movie at the movie rental store. The store didn't carry it. Since movies only cost between $10-$20 I usually end up buying them to add to my collection. My husband almost "killed" me. We just kept looking at each other hoping it would get better. What are we missing? How has this become so highly rated? Where are the funny parts? Thoroughly discussed:(
