Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Wonderful character development!

Stylish but barely mediocre overall

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

As a fully paid up film buff the main attraction for me was the inserts and the fact that they didn't consist merely of 'classics' but threw in stuff like 'The Bribe' and 'Deception'. The problem is, of course, that this is such an original idea that you can only do it once because any attempt to replicate it would inevitably be a parody of a parody. The three writers have opted for an ultra typical plot of the genre - 'professor/inventor/researcher/scientist', the type of man least likely to be married at all has a beautiful daughter who enlists the help of private heat to find his kidnappers/killers thus saving the time, trouble and expense of writing and finding a 'love-interest' figure. Steve Martin and Rachel Ward handle these chores competently and for good measure the writers throw in a wacky finale. Highly enjoyable.

Carl Reiner's collage film homage and/or parody to 1940s film noirs and thrillers is unusually funny and a clever example of placing movie scenes in a new context as a means for comedy. I'm not sure if you actually need to be familiar with the noirs that the film borrows from, but having only seen one (the excellent Notorious) of the nineteen films from which scenes are lifted, I didn't get much enjoyment through recognition.I used to think that the film would have been successful even without the recycling of old material, but it struck me this time that that would wipe out the entire movie. Nevertheless, the funniest part is Steve Martin's deadpan narration that helps framing the clips. The only thing that I don't think is very funny is the recurring cleaning woman gag, but that still makes for a very high success rate.

Ooh deary me. Either I forgot or didn't realize Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid took basically three main actors and spliced them into decades old films. (I did eventually, roughly one third of the way in, but I'll get to that later.) This Steve Martin feature escaped me for years until a close friend recommended it to me. I'm not the biggest Martin fan – I can only name three I especially liked, Roxanne, All of Me and (guilty pleasure) Housesitter – so I was in no hurry to watch this. And as much as my friend and I agree on 90% of movies, some we don't. So, it was no 100% guarantee I would like this.Well, just to sum it all up, that 90% statistic turned to 95% of our movie compatibility. I was laughing throughout this movie, way after and when I woke the next morning, more scenes floated in my head and I found myself laughing some more.Private detective Rigby Reardon (Martin) is so stereotypically almost flat broke and down on his luck when "doll face" Julie Forrest (Ward) shows up at his office door with an assignment for Rigby to investigate her father's murder. (Yeah, I say stereotypically but not in a bad way as that's the premise/spoof of this movie – either mocking or playing homage to film noir of half a century earlier.) Slapstick immediate surfaces and he takes the case on, meeting dozens of individuals (from a grand multitude of black & white features) who advance the case/story so he can get to the bottom of the murder.Seriously, as a joy this was to watch – my first time of many guaranteed viewings – I don't want to give away any more. Each scene opened up more laughs for me. And it's one of those rare, VERY RARE films that starts off slow, mediocre even, and gets progressively BETTER.One of the biggest complaints I have with a lot of films is the fact the director and/or writer is so incredibly preoccupied on making a movie based solely on one HUGE SECRET or TWIST that they simply forget to make a movie that happens to have a twist. M. Night Shyamalan films fit perfectly into my argument – but more recently, A Perfect Getaway. The worst part of those films is if you happen to figure out the "secret twisted" climax in the first few minutes (or someone spoiled it for you), you're literally sitting there for two hours where they try and confuse you and throw obvious clues your way. And you never actually get a well made movie – just a bunch of misdirection so you'll be so-called blown away at the end.Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid didn't do this. They played homage to anyone who is in LOVE with those 1930-1940s classics and grand stars (my personal favorite of the group was Grant and Davis) and used wonderful splicing new and old techniques. This is obviously a "gimmick" yet, when other lesser directors/writers would rely on this, this was only part of the equation. There was really a story here and it really was built as a film noir mystery, albeit slapstick 1980s humor.As I stated, I didn't catch this "device" of using old and new until about 1/3 in, with Cary Grant. I didn't read anything about this movie, so since it was black & white (and Martin actually had dark hair) I figured they filmed this when Bogart, Grant and Davis were all still alive and dyed their own hair to appear younger. Yeah, I'm a dope. Seriously, I should've known better.Obviously, I won't make that mistake again (i.e. in my definite repeat viewings) and when I realized what was happening, the movie opened up to me, making it all the more hilarious and especially when Martin dresses as some of the characters they're mimicking.I would highly recommend this movie, especially to those movie buffs of decades past. Though I am only rating it 9 out of 10 stars now, that might change, even with viewing #2. And I can't wait to see this again. There's severe comic genius here – the finale's battle of words between Reiner and Martin is just one of many examples. SEE IT! Side Note: If you have the DVD – make sure you watch the hilarious trailer, namely the last 2-3 seconds had me rolling.

I was really interested in seeing this movie, because I like film noir and I like Steve Martin. And you know what, this is a very clever and affectionate homage. My complaints are that the story is disappointingly convoluted so it is sometimes very hard to keep up with what is going on and one or two of the jokes don't quite work. But overall it is very funny, and seems to have held up well over the years. The script is clever and sophisticated enough, and Carl Reiner directs with precision and acts his part of Field Marshall VonKluck very well. The cinematography is smooth and crisp, and I thought the performances were excellent. Steve Martin is great here, not only do I think Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid is underrated but this is one of his roles where Martin deserves a lot more credit. Rachel Ward looks lovely as Juliet Forrest and is terrific acting wise. The real joy is watching the archive footage of all those wonderful actors and actresses in those timeless masterpieces. Spotting stars such as Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Bette Davis, Ray Milland, Vincent Price and Ingrid Bergman all but to name a few was a delight in itself. Also the finale while silly is great fun. All in all, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid is well worth the look. 8/10 Bethany Cox