Such a frustrating disappointment

Beautiful, moving film.

A Disappointing Continuation

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

It does not drag despite the fact that the two girls and George Carlin all do a little cross dressing. (forgive the attempt at a pun) Bette and Shelley could not be more different in character or acting style and they do work well together in this one. Literally bouncy Bette and up-tight, befrilled and buttoned up Shelley are a great buddy team up. It's fun and funny and fast. Like all screwball comedies, the plot is preposterous but you don't really mind that. Pay attention to all that happens in the beginning of the film as bits will prove to be important to the plot twists and turns. Only down side was that Bette needed her mouth washed out with soap... we got that she was "lower class" than Shelley in more ways than her word choices. (sigh) All in all , it's an entertaining afternoon's watch (or re-watch)

This is a cheesy and also a very 1980s film made by Touchstone Films (The Disney spin off) which made films with more mature themes that included risqué scenes and strong language.Bette Midler was signed to a multi film deal with Touchstone and made several films for them. Here she plays a brassy loud mouth opposite Shelly Long's more snooty and posh character. Both acting wannabees who attend the same drama class run by a strict Russian acting coach.Both are having an affair with a school teacher (Peter Coyote) who later dies in an explosion and in the morgue the mismatched couple meet and realise that they both have been sleeping with the same man and shockingly he is not dead as the corpse here is not as well endowed as Coyote was.The rest of the film is a caper as they are chased by some mysterious men, the dead schoolteacher is alive somewhere, has something to hide and not quiet the person they thought he was.The rest of the film is a caper film as they go looking for Coyote and ends up in the New Mexico desert with George Carlin as a faux native American.The film has aged and although what might had looked fun and entertaining in the late 1980s, it looks rather kitsch now and the plotting is loose and rather silly. Even the direction looks bad in places, such as the airport chase sequence and you have Robert Prosky turning up twice as different looking people but it certainly did not fool me.Some of the stunt double work looks poorly executed and the rock jumping scene at the end is over the top. Still Midler and Long make a good pair and push this silly film along.

Terribly embarrassing and unfunny 'comedy' from Arthur Hiller about two women who pursue a mysterious man across the U.S., both determined to win him from the other.Leslie Dixon's story is a disaster (containing a sub-plot involving the inept heroines saving the world's vegetation from certain destruction by a deadly virus), never holding its audience for a minute, and hardly ever raising a laugh. Director Hiller can't do a thing with this awful tale, and is completely reliant on stars Long and Midler to carry proceedings.The two leads are really the only element that make "Outrageous Fortune" even remotely watchable. Likable Long and mad Midler do all they can with their hopelessly limited material, which is very little, and in so doing reduce the pain of sitting through this total waste of celluloid. The next best thing after the girls are the end credits.Director of Photography David M. Walsh amazingly does nothing with the potential packed closing scenes, while editor Tom Rolf could never do enough. Also starred Peter Coyote, Robert Prosky and George Carlin.Saturday, June 29, 1996 - Video

Peter Coyote did not know what he was letting himself in for in Outrageous Fortune when he started kanoodling with both Bette Midler and Shelley Long, both fellow students in Robert Prosky's acting class.You do got to wonder what to make of a guy who's attracted to such opposite types as Long and Midler. Shelley expands a bit on her famous Diane Chambers character from Cheers. And Bette Midler is simply Bette Midler and that's good enough for me.These two naturally don't hit it off, but when Coyote turns up as the victim of a bomb blast, both Midler and Long show up to say they're next of kin. Upon examination of the lower extremity of the burned cadaver which is all that's left, the two of them come to the same conclusion it's definitely not Coyote.Long and Midler just want to find this guy and get an explanation for his behavior and to find out who he really prefers. But there's a lot more to Coyote as the two of them on a merry chase that takes them to the New Mexico desert find out.Besides those already mentioned look for good performances from John Schuck as the rather rigid thinking CIA man and George Carlin as a droll and philosophical Indian.You can't say there aren't any more good women's roles being written when you see Long and Midler in Outrageous Fortune.