SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Overrated and overhyped

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This was a movie that should have been a 21 minute sitcom episode. The minute I heard that sickeningly sweet, syrupy song sung by Johnny Mathis (Mr. Wobbly Vibrato himself) and Jane Oliver I knew this movie was doomed. The other thing is I just don't find anything remotely romantic about Alda and Burstyn. When Ellen Burstyn's character showed up in her hippie phase I just rolled my eyes and thought what BAD acting. I bet both Burstyn and Alda were very self satisfied with their performances. In the final scene, it is just one beige color after another. Ellen is wearing beige, Alan Alda is wearing beige, the furniture is beige. Even Ellen's wig is beige. I guess that kind of sums this movie up for me. It is a very beige movie.The only costume I liked on (blonde-wigged) Ellen Burstyn was the gorgeous black dress she wore with the rhinestone brooch and her lovely shiny dangle earrings. This, I believe, was their second meeting. Unfortunately for me, this is the one thing that I liked about the movie. Yes sadly I liked her black dress. That was it.

This is definitely a chick flick that's so out there in its story line that only someone who drinks the fantasy Kool Aid would enjoy for more than 10 minutes. The script could have been written by a 15 year old high school girl whose emotional brain cells just O.D. on that fantasy Kool Aid. For example, the film wants you to believe that a man & woman who met one time and had a one night stand were so taken by one another that they vow to repeat this sexual meeting yearly with virtually no contact in between. Then yearly, they both share their past 12 month's experiences in between sex.The laughable part is that the movie takes you through these yearly meetings by jumping 5 years at a time and showing historical clips of news events that occurred over the 5 years, mostly to fill in much needed film time, but also to misdirect the audience. For instance, after jumping ahead 5 years to a rendezvous during the hippie era, the guy is stunned when she is dressed in a hippie dress and says "Let's Fu_k" something totally out of character. However, since he just saw her the previous year, it is unlikely she would have made such a quick flip to "hippie" if they just met a year earlier. The 5 year news clip portraying the hippie culture leads you to believe that more time had past since he last saw her. All pretty tricky moves by the movie's director.And then there's another 5 year passing, complete with news clips, when she shows up for the next rendezvous 8 months pregnant and while together she goes into labor. We then see him struggling to call a doctor / hospital, when she announces on the bed that the baby is coming! That's where that segment ends & we get another 5 years of news clips before there next meeting, with by the way, no discussion about how the delivery 5 years ago went, and I guess the reminder that they have also hooked annually for these past 5 years.The most amusing aspect of this movie was reading some of the reviews here on IMDb that this was a great acting performance, especially by Alan Alda. Unbelievable!!!!

"Same Time, Next Year" was way before the romantic comedies got cheaper, overvalued and vulgar as they tend to be now. This is such a classy and charming movie and regardless that it was made more than 30 years ago it still has an bright and valuable appeal to all kinds of audiences, specially those who enjoy filmed plays with positive presentations, great cast and a deep and thoughtful movie.We join Doris and George (Ellen Burstyn and Alan Alda) on several romantic meetings at the same hotel located on a beautiful countryside, on the same date each year goes by from the 1940's up until the 1970's (the segments go at each five years). The funny thing is that they're not married with each other, they have their own spouses and kids, they're happy with the people they live with but they have this special bond between them that is quite unbreakable. They truly love one another but they don't see ways to end their existent relationships. On and on, they have discussions about life, love, sex, families, values and even a little bit of politics. Bernard Slade's play and script is more than just a romantic comedy with lovable moments. It's also a fascinating historical chronicle of the popular culture of the U.S. constructed through black and white pictures of famous moments and famous people from each decade, showing what was going on in the nation (the movies, the arts, the presidents, etc.) and there's the characterizations from both main characters (they change of political parties, or Doris becoming a hippie engaged in protests against the Vietnam war). Wish I couldn't make comparisons but I must to since I've seen plenty of similarities with another great films that deal with great love affairs. One cannot deny that Alda and Burstyn do have the same fun chemistry as Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy in Richard Linklater's "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset" (third part coming next year. YAY!); or Aimee and Trintignant in "A Man and a Woman" and its sequel; and I dare say the extremes of a Brokeback Mountain, after all both deal with the distance, the agony of being apart from someone you love even though you're already committed to someone else. Rich and well-elaborated dialogs mixed with hilarious and graceful sequences, "Same Time, Next Year" is a happy collaboration between director Richard Mulligan and actors Ellen Burstyn (Oscar nominated for her role) and Alan Alda. It's real and powerful performances, you really believe in those characters existing somewhere and even going through some unimaginable and funny situations (when she's about to have a baby during their evening together). They're excellent and the movie as well. Don't miss it. 10/10

(The movie is based on the successful eponymous Broadway play (1400+ performances, 1975-78) by Bernard Slade who also wrote the screen play.) In 1951, Doris (Ellen Burstyn), a housewife about to go to a religious retreat the next day, and George (Alan Alda), a married CPA doing a client's taxes, happen to meet one evening at dinner while lodging in the same California seaside motel that's near both their venues.They have instant rapport and both are surprised when they wake up in bed with each other the next morning. Each is happily married with children and neither has a desire to change that. But they're both so gratified by their harmonious, empathic relationship (and physical activity) that they decide to meet again at the same time, same place, next year.Almost all the action takes place in the same motel suite (easily visualized as being the set transferred from the stage play). We look in on their meetings every 5-6 years and their transformations over time: (George's increased wealth, his switch from being a liberal Democrat to conservative Republican, loss of a son, going into psychoanalysis, abandoning his quest for more money and property || Doris completing her HS and eventually graduating from college, a stint as a hippie, becoming a successful, financially secure businesswoman, etc.). Each serves as marriage counselor to the other at various points in their relationship. Each transformation by one person requires adjustments in their relation. Their relationship has some bumps (e.g., impotence/ED, pregnancy) to be conquered and amusing dialog. The ending didn't surprise my companion as much as it did me.IMO, this is a fairy tale that's probably served as a wishful fantasy to some travelers making out of town, overnight business trips as well as recurring nightmares to some partners left behind. But IMO the realities of actual relationships are that very, VERY few of any such extra-curricular relationships that are started would ever go so smoothly.The make-up artists did great jobs in varying the age appearances of Alda and Burstyn at the time this movie was made (he 42, she 46). The narrative calls for them to be near their early 30s at the time we first meet them, then following them as they age over the next almost 30 years.