Truly Dreadful Film

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Very fond though I am of Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft, I could not have known how lucky I was to find a VHS copy of this movie (yes, I still use a VCR). Any big fan of theirs should prioritize it. It is jam-packed with humor and Lemmon's endearingly characteristic pathos. It was another tailor-made role for him, and Bancroft played her part to perfection. It is also very much a New York City movie in that Manhattan is not simply the backdrop, but is experienced as such. It has been my observation that spiraling into madness is always funnier than madness itself. The movie is after all based on "a serious play that's very funny" to quote the playwright and adapter Neil Simon. Although it soars as a comedy and certainly does not go awry as a drama, I give it nine stars instead of ten because it is considerably more amusing to me than it is emotive. It is great comedy and good drama, as apparently intended.Sylvester Stallone's memorable cameo is a much appreciated bonus!

Jack Lemmon & Anne Bancroft play Mel & Edna Edison, a middle-aged couple who live in a Manhattan sky rise apartment complex. When Mel unexpectedly loses his job, he tries in vain to find another, but in this economy and at his age, that proves difficult, and Mel finds himself increasingly depressed after a further series of setbacks leaves him homebound, and near insanity...Neil Simon story doesn't sound much like a comedy, but has a good script and sympathetic performances detailing their increasing desperateness. Not nearly as funny as "The Odd Couple", though not as harrowing as "The Out Of Towners", this modest satire falls somewhere in between, and works well, though does come to a stop more than a conclusion.

For some reason, I only think us New Yorkers would appreciate this movie, but maybe not.Anyone aware of what Manhattan was like in the 1970s will know this movie really nailed it; it terms of location shots, attitudes, Jewish stereotypes, and so on. This was a pre-Koch time in New York (May he rest in peace- he just passed a couple days ago. Great mayor, great person) and city was at the beginning stages of becoming an open sewer.Street scenes will surprise all modern-day Manhattanites; I watched this movie several times, and there's not a single store or shop around then that survives today. (Near 87th & 2nd Ave.) So sad. Jack Lemmon's character was funny, from start to finish, without TRYING to be funny. Always a treat- watch for Sly Stallone as a "mugger."

A real buried treasure in the Neil Simon canon. Jack Lemmon is a recently laid off New Yorker struggling to make sense of his life while fighting the daily demons of urban living. From nasty neighbors to insensitive relatives, Lemmon is hit with all of it...his life is in a nosedive! Neil Simon's screenplay is very cutting, even more so than in his earlier anti-NYC tirade THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS. Melvin Frank's direction does come off as a bit unimaginative, but that's really because most of the movie takes place in the apartment Lemmon shares with patient wife Anne Bancroft. The acting is excellent, with Lemmon giving a really great performance and Bancroft matching him with both her warmth and, when needed, caustic tongue. The supporting cast includes the great character actor M.Emmett Walsh as well as Elizabeth Wilson, Florence Stanley, and, in a rare acting role, the director Gene Saks, as Lemmon's overly cautious older brother.