Moment by Moment

"Moment By Moment" came out at a perfect in the career of John Travolta. Hot off the huge successes of "Saturday Night Fever" and "Grease" he must have thought he could do no wrong and boy was he ever wrong about that. You don't get much worse then "Moment By Moment" which is a silly love story between an older woman and a young man. A provocative idea you say? Perhaps, but there is nothing provocative about this movie.

Travolta and Lily Tomlin are cast in the leads and we can see right from the start that they have absolutely no chemistry what so ever. That right there would sink any love story. But writer/director Jane Wagner's awful script continues topping (or bottoming) itself with hopeless ideas and ridiculous situations without directly confronting the central issue of the story.

You would think in a movie about an older woman/younger man relationship we might get a reason as to why Travolta (who, get this, plays a beach stud named Strip!)is attracted to older women (particularly someone like Lily Tomlin). How about one small scene where we see him on a date with a girl his own age and he can't relate to her? With that we could understand his desires but here it's just plot device to move things along.

The whole movie runs on empty. Tomlin (who has since come out of the closet and admitted director Wagner is her longtime companion) is hopelessly miscast. She may be older but she sure didn't fit the bill for what a young man looks for in an older woman. They could have put some make-up or seductive clothing on her to try and at least create the illusion of the sexy woman but perhaps Wagner's intent was to show the normal everyday woman. I hate to tell you this Jane but people don't buy it when a normal, everyday woman is seduced by a beach stud named Strip.

"Moment By Moment" has long been forgotten and rightfully so. It's set up is preposterous, dialogue is laughable, and the acting is downright horrible. It's so bad it almost makes "Battlefield Earth" look not so bad. Skip this junk and thank me in the morning.

Though Ms. Tomlin apparently (and with good reason) tried to have this movie buried, it turned up on AMC last week, and oh joy! oh bliss! I was able to tape it to own for all time.

No lover of bad movies can claim such status if you haven't seen this one. It is an absolute DELIGHT from beginning to end, from the cheesy 70s titles displayed while a bored Lily shops Rodeo Drive to a "romantic" score, to the astonishing lack of character development by the lead actors, to John Travolta's reason for running away from home (Mom and Dad forgot his birthday -- two years in a row!) to some of the funniest dialog ever (Lily to John: "Are you a member of the Auto Club?", which line is wittily and meaningfully repeated at the end of the film; and the "tuna" lunch scene). John's character name -- STRIP -- should clue you in on the fun in store -- every time Lily utters it, you find yourself wondering if she's saying his name or issuing a directive. And the hot tub scene is one for the ages.

You'll find yourself wondering if it was all meant as a joke, but when you realize that all these people were apparently dead serious (witness Lily's phone "breakdown" with her ex), you'll want to watch it again and again to savor the wonderful horror of it all.

This movie has EVERYTHING (even two loveable mutts, one with a bandaged foot, and a mob murder subplot that dies quicker than the victim). If you must, scour your TV listings EACH week so that you won't miss the next showing. It will be well worth the wait, I promise.

I used to think that I had seen all 'The Bad Classics, but I have been mistaken.

WORST SCRIPT - WORST EDITING - WORST ACTING - UGH.

I'd heard of this film, but never understand the acute severity of CRAP that oozed from every sleazy, polyester pore in the rotten flesh of this movie!

How, by gods, did this pathetic drivel EVER make it to a public theater in 1978, and then, cruelly, at many more on TV, and in HI-DEF, no less? At least the 'hep 70' soundtrack' was in Dolby.

Pay close attention to Ms. Tomlin's laugh while pouring her friend a cocktail. This movie makes me ache for Joel, Crow & Servo.

I watched Waterworld a few nights back, and recalled the jibes by critics, calling it Kevin's Gate, etc. And now, I wonder why this big LOAD wasn't called Tomlin's Titanic.

I can't help flying in to hysterics imagining what the outtakes looked like. More drugs were snorted, shot, popped and smoked in this flick than Easy Rider. The cast party must've been quite the par-tay to

I wanted disparity to find something happy or at least conciliatory. No such luck.

So now I'm off to watch a good film, say, 'Manos, the Hands of Fate". (Even the dog is a better actor).

I've read the other comments on this movie and some of you are very cruel and immature. I'm a huge Lily Tomlin fan and will be the first one to say this movie is NOT her best work. However, it is not as horrible as some of you have said. It was 1978. Travolta and Tomlin were both at the peak of their careers. John loved Lily and wanted to do a movie with her. Lily had done two movies previously ( one of which garnered her an OSCAR nomination ) and was given the green light to produce her own movie with Jane Wagner. It was not their best work, but I can see where they both definetely worked hard on their roles. In part this movie was making satiric comments on upper class California values. That's what the reference to the pool filter was for. The husband's concerned more with that, Lily's Trisha is devistated. Her "phone breakdown" scene is very good. To be making fun of Lily or John's physical appearance is a truely sad attempt at reviewing this movie. It is a love story with the sex roles reversed. It was a bold attempt to try a different take the male/female relationship. The dialog is sometimes very dumb but I get what Jane was trying to do. Incidently, Jane Wagner is a brilliant writer who went on to write Lily's critically acclaimed 1 woman show "Search For Signs Of Intelligent Life In The Universe" which won a Tony award on Broadway. Unfortunetly, her 1st attempt at writing a motion picture was not the best vehicle for her talents.

It is a true testiment to the talent of John, Lily and Jane that they each went on to other successes after this movie bombed.

Watch it if you're a fan of John or Lily's or if you like unintended =camp in your movies.

Wretched, empty romantic drama gives the word 'shallow' a whole new face. Soon-to-be-divorced Malibu housewife (Lily Tomlin) wanders around Hollywood and the beach, running her fingers through her hair, coddling her mutt and rubbing her forehead; seems a stud like John Travolta is just what she needs, but he's more puppy dog than pouncing lover (annoying, childish, needy, clinging). There's a good line here and there: I liked it when Lily Tomlin says, "I've never had cheap sex...I have to admit I was looking forward to it." But Travolta's character ("Strip"!) is ridiculous and hasn't been thought out; he's just a bleeding heart ex-runaway looking for true love. It feels about as real as a cartoon. *1/2 from ****