This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

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

This movie isn't at all what I expected. I thought it would be much more predictable, more cartoonish, or childish, like "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World." Certainly there's a lot of slapstick, and a lot of the references and jokes are dated - but, for the most part, this movie stands up to the test of time, and is skewering so much more than the tobacco industry: the self-righteous Joel-Osteen-like preacher, the Tea-Party-like Christopher Mott Society, the product tie-ins to the city's stunt, the resulting media circus, the attempts by the town to make money off their stunt, the anti-capitalist protesters (Occupy Eagle Rock?), the armed militia, the corporate villains afraid of the movement, the new age guru… it's all here, just like now. This a darkly hilarious, searing, indictment of misplaced American values, most of which we're still embracing today. If you are going to watch, keep in mind that this is a very visual movie - most of the laughs, and the satire, come from what you are seeing, not what's being said, so you have to watch (no multi-tasking!). It's also a movie worth watching only on a channel that won't cut any of the very adult language. The almost-silent Pippa Scott almost steals the film, IMO - she's brilliant, as is her character. Second comes Judith Lowry as the gun-toting Odie. There's only one thing I don't like about the movie: Bob Newhart. He's more creepy than funny, which I didn't think was possible (I'm a big fan).

This film would pretend to satirize and critique small town Babbitry. But I think what we are left with after watching it is the sense or the message that the damning failure of people in small towns all over America isn't that they are greedy or hypocritical, but merely that they are personally ridiculous. Lear could forgive them their addiction to tobacco, which is really just their conditioned response to manipulation by tobacco company execs. --What he cannot forgive is their being embarrassing to anointed, omniscient hipsters such as himself.For example: What is the satirical strength -- or the purpose -- of fleeting, disjointed closeups of the hands of middle aged and elderly women tugging at and smoothing their girdles as they file out of church Sunday morning? There's a sense that Lear is addressing a grievance here, possibly working off a grudge or past slight. But what does Lear have, really, aside from contempt? And is the contempt really earned and fair? And is it entertaining in it's own right? To that last, I say no. As a film, it is just too mean-spirited and misanthropic at it's core to be a rewarding or honest watch. It makes the fatal mistake of all diatribe literature, which his TV shows skirted because of the short format. His soured view is absolutely fatal at feature length, unrelieved as it is by frequent commercial breaks to dilute the rancor. In long form, it is too clear that Lear cannot create engaging and truthful characters. Even actors you always like -- Dick Van Dyke, Jean Stapleton, Bernard Hughes -- are weird jerks or Pavlovian puppets in Lear's hands. Apparently, nothing like entertainment value or human empathy can stand in the way of Lear's particular message nor his brand of "relevant" '70s evangelism.

Disclaimers are popular these days so I'll start by admitting that I dislike Norman Lear's body of work. And I admire most of the things in his cross-hairs in this satire: middle America, the church, the military, capitalism, the family, etc.Nevertheless, this film is hilarious.Liberals of Lear's stamp are usually rotten at satire. They don't understand that a satirist has to understand and even have some sympathy for their targets (NOT empathy -- if you don't understand the distinction, look it up). Lear's work, especially that made for television, shows a tendency to hit his targets with a great big hammer to destroy any mindset he fears because he can't or won't bother to try to understand it.This satire, about a town that pledges to give up smoking for thirty days, is remarkably subtle. I have not read the source novel for the story, so I can't say how its approach affected the final product.The main reason this movie is watchable is a remarkable cast that includes some of my favorite performers.Dick Van Dyke carries the movie as the preacher who sees his mission as getting jobs and prosperity for his run-down Iowa town by making his community attractive for business via good p.r. (back then even Lear knew jobs were created through providing a favorable climate for business, something forgotten in 2010). Van Dyke was not always the best judge of movie material, but he turns in a solid performance in his best movie since "Mary Poppins" Some of the other actors would become notable after being plugged into some of Lear's television shows, but the old hands are the ones who make the show.Tom Poston and Edward Everett Horton have too little to do, but they steal every scene they are in. Horton has no lines but, up in his 80s, his face is still wonderfully expressive. Poston is the rich dipsomaniac who has to leave Town because "the booze bone's connected to the smoke bone and the smoke bone's connected to the head bone -- and that's the word of the Lord!" Bob Newhart, as the man desperate to undermine the town's pledge, and Bernard Hughes, as the chain-smoking town doctor, are the highlights of the piece. Newhart shows a comic range beyond his later television persona, and the only character in the movie who comes close to overshadowing Newhart's is Hughes' doctor. Hughes wrings every drop of laughter from his portrait of a man suffering seriously from withdrawal.And then there's Bob and Ray. These comedians, known primarily from radio, portray satires on important newsmen of that era. Anyone alive when there were only three networks will recognize Bob's "David Chetley" and "Hugh Upson" and Ray's "Walter Chronic" and "Paul Hardly" ["Good day!"]. Every moment Bob and/or Ray are/is on-screen is golden.So, it's possible to make a good and funny satire without giving undue offense to one's targets. It's a lesson many so-called "funny men" (and women) of today ought to learn.

Before he changed prime time television forever as the creator of shows like ALL IN THE FAMILY,MAUDE,THE JEFFERSON,GOOD TIMES,and ONE DAY AT A TIME, Norman Lear hit a bullseye as the director and co-writer of COLD TURKEY, a savage black comedy which takes a wicked swipe at the tobacco industry, thanks to a razor sharp screenplay and a first rate comic cast. This dark satire follows what happens when a tobacco company, so secure about the popularity of their product, decides to announce a nationwide contest where they agree to award $25,000,000 to any town where the entire population of the town can quit smoking for 30 days. A small mid western hamlet called Eagle Rock,Iowa decides to take up the challenge, led by the town's energetic minister, Rev. Clayton Brooks (superbly played by Dick Van Dyke). Some citizens are quick to balk at Brooks' challenge because he doesn't smoke and therefore it is no sacrifice to him. Brooks, a former smoker, silences these nay-sayers by agreeing to start smoking again until the contest starts, getting re-addicted and therefore making the same sacrifice he's asking the citizens of Eagle Rock to make. This lays the foundation for some outrageously funny scenes,including Brooks' efforts to get one citizen (Tom Poston) to participate who refuses not to mention how Brooks deals with finding a substitute for smoking after the contest starts. The first rate supporting cast includes Pippa Scott as Mrs. Brooks, Vincent Gardenia as the Mayor, Edward Everett Horton as the head of the Tobacco company, Jean Stapleton as the mayor's wife, and memorable comic bits also contributed by Bob and Ray, Barnard Hughes, Barbara Cason, Graham Jarvis, Judith Lowry, and Paul Benedict. A smart and nearly forgotten comedy classic that still holds up, thanks to the genius that is Norman Lear.