Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Pretty Good

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

**SPOILERS** a lot of neat references to some of the things that news reportage as part of the Sixty's radical anti-government left action groups. Starts out as a light-hearted look at a smart private detective who's career is exactly Jake Gittis'. Dreyfus plays this part very well. Susan Anspach is a former crush whose murder changed Wine (Dreyfus) into a guy who's more than a little P.O.ed at authority, the government, the me-generation ex-hippie phonies that his ex-wife is being seduced by, and, mostly whoever killed his girl. He has to deal with all of it, and one really good scene was when he was in a prison where a brother and sister radical are in for (I believe) killing a cop in an explosion)., When Wine, asks how long they are in for, he is told "forever". When he is interviewed by the F.B.I., he sees how they have surveilled him deeply, and how they didn't care about and were disdainful of Lila, (Anspach). He verbally levels their Karma, and sets out again on his quest. He discovers what he must, tracks down the bad guy, and exacts revenge; disguised as self defense. It was neatly done. I've read the negative reviews, and I disagree. I think it is a very good movie; alternately fun and serious, with a good ending, and a character who is a good guy. These days, are there ANY good guys out there? DVDs are available, but they are expensive, so if you can get it, well... Okay. I stand corrected by myself. By God, just had the thought to find out if Amazon was gonna re-release it; they have. I ordered it. You might wanna too...

Saw this in the theatre back when it was first released. In a nutshell, my problem with this film is that the entire plot is revealed in the first five minutes with nothing else to show for it. Of course, this was not understood as the film unfolds, so the rest of the hour and a half you're anticipating that something significant, or even interesting, is about to happen, and it never does. Only when the credits start rolling does it become clear that you just wasted an hour and a half of your life. I'm quite certain that I've invested more emotional capital in this film writing this review than anyone involved in making it. Just a crappy film.

I saw this film when I was 18, and at 51 I realize what a dope I was. This is sloppy 70's film-making at its WORST. Dreyfus is (like the entire film) using cutesy shorthand in lieu of acting. One need only look at the constant continuity errors to realize that everybody must have been either high, or thought making a quality film was too bourgeois. I "got" the 60's. I was a teen in the 70's, and "The Big Fix" is typical of the hipster coding that allowed the excesses that typified Richard Dreyfus "the drug years". What was well written wisenheimer dialog in "Jaws" and "The Good-Bye Girl" is here reduced to winging it, and the wires of laziness clearly show the puppet to be merely in motion; mimicking performance. What a silly, and disingenuous waste of time this film still is!

The Big Fix is a mystery that does not answer every question that it raises, but it nails the Zeitgeist of the late 60's from a vantage point 10 years later. I have only seen it once, when it first came out and I have looked for it ever since.The story is slow to develop with Moses Wine (Dreyfuss) having trouble with seemingly every aspect of his life. We learn that he feels displaced in time, and cannot get past the radical time in his life. I and many others have had those same feelings in the 35+ years since.The sense of confusion and struggle fits exactly the feelings many of us experienced at the time. Taught to respect the police by our Greatest Generation parents, we often found that we were at the top of the police list of suspects for anything from subversion to bad manners and bad dress. The sense of alienation that I felt at the time permeates the viewing. I may have read too much of myself into it; if so, The Big Fix evoked it from my own life.Best scenes without spoiling the story: Leon Redbone's "I Wanna Be Seduced" while Moses gets ready for a date with Lila Shay (Anspach).Moses at the TV station reviewing scenes of past demonstrations; the images are shown projected on his face. No real detail is visible except the tears on his cheeks. Powerful.The reunion of old friends as they dance around the swimming pool of the house that was built by selling out the old radical values.Finally, a sense of something incomplete at the end. The mystery solved, but every question not answered. How true to life!