First Family

This seemed like it couldn't miss--a satire on the First Family with Bob Newhart as the President, Madeline Kahn as a drunk First Lady and First Daughter Gilda Radner as a nymphomaniac. And it was written and directed by Buck Henry. Unfortunately this is a shambles.

The cast is game and does what it can--but the script isn't funny. The jokes are lame and infantile and, at one point, has everybody in ridiculous costumes for a costume party (like that's supposed to be funny). There are a few good moments here and there (that's why I'm giving it a 2) but mostly the movie just lays there. Towards the end it got almost painful to see this talented cast struggling with a lousy script. It's to everybody's credit that they come through this with their dignity intact. You'll notice Bob Newhart or Buck Henry have never even mentioned this film. That should tell you something. This movie should rightfully be forgotten. A must-miss.

Sometimes I awake in a cold sweat screaming, the nightmare always starts the same... I am watching First Family. This movie is so bad nearly twenty years later I am still upset at its mere mention. A waste of a great cast and an idea that while not academy award potential had some promise. My vote for worst movie ever...

To me, the first half is funny as heck. Overall, the White House antics amount to a perceptive spoof of scarcely managed turmoil. That exchange between mother Kahn and daughter Radner over upholding appearances even though the repressed Radner's hormones are bursting is poignant in a satirical way. And catch the punctured dignity balloon among diplomats at the UN. It's delicious.

But once second-half events move to black people's country of Gorm, the screenplay loses footing. Of course, by today's standards the spoof's racial side flirts with incorrectness, which may account for the sudden erratic uncertainty. There are still amusing moments, but the screenplay appears to thrash around with no clear direction. And the less said about the ending, the better.

Anyway, the cast amounts to a collection of TV all-stars, from Newhart to Willard to Radner. In fact, there's probably too many stars, such that vivid talents like Kahn don't get nearly enough shtick. Likely, producer-director-writer Henry was aiming at a Mel Brooks type burlesque, but only partially succeeds. All in all, White House subject matter remains a ripe target for satire, but needs better consistency than this one.

This had the potential to be a great movie. The cast is first rate, Buck Henry CAN write a good script (though he didn't do it here), and the basic idea is sound. But the storyline is bad. (Even a comedy has to have a interesting plot that makes sense.) And the script is weak, with too many unfunny scenes and jokes. That's really the bottom line: this movie just isn't funny. It's a shame, because this is a first-rate cast. Bob Newhart is one of my all-time favorite comedians. Madeline Kahn, Gilda Radner, Richard Benjamin, Fred Willard, Harvey Korman, and the rest deserve better than bathroom jokes. Newhart is the best thing in the movie. He's actually quite believable as the president of the United States. Usually, fictional presidents are played by the same type of actors: Hal Holbrook, Gregory Peck, etc. The mild-mannered Newhart is a nice change of pace. I wish someone had really written a solid, funny script for him. With the right material, either in a movie or a sitcom, Newhart could be a very funny fictional president. I hate to keep belaboring the point, but this movie was bad when it came out of the typewriter. Bad script equals bad movie. Still, I don't hate watching it, because of Bob Newhart. As I watch it, I keep imagining the better movie that COULD have been.

Some of my favorite comedic actors, in possibly the worst movie I have ever seen. Half way through I had to walk out of the theater, to relieve my pain! That is the first and only time I have ever done that in 50 years. I just never hated a movie that much before, or since. Buck Henry is such a smart comedy writer; just don't know what happened here...