Joyeux Noël

Ok...strange little movie? Oh yes, but I like weird humor. I thought it was very funny, and to my surprise a good movie to consider for christmas time. It is a aptly named title, as each character has their own quirks and bits to add into a pot of building insanity, unitl it finally boils over into total chaos. You really have to give yourself over to the movie to enjoy it. Just accept the fact that just about everyone in it is OUT OF THEIR MINDS and you'll enjoy it a lot more.

Mixed nuts might as well refer to all the crazy mixed-up people in this film. A lonely transvestite. A serial killer. Several very "oversexed" and frustrated people! An ex-con-desperate Santa and an extremely pregnant girl. Perhaps Adam Sandler's silliest performance ever. What a cast! Steve Martin. Madeline Kahn. Rob Reiner. Gary Shandling. A temperamental elevator and a dangerously stale fruitcake. A vet who also has a people-practice. 3 cute dogs. A most unusual Christmas tree! Murder and mayhem! Alas, it's Christmas eve and there are not enough suicidal people to go around to justify the existence of a crisis hotline that has just been evicted! I find it enjoyable in a very zany and offbeat sort of way. Rita Wilson is adorable as the love-starved female who has a serious "crush" on Steve Martin. Disliked by most critics, and you will either love or hate this movie!

I think I might cry. I feel so hopelessly misunderstood. This movie is brilliant.... I feel as though the epitome of my sense of humor has been rated "two stars"... this is depressing...

It's just... brilliant. It's completely nonsensicle and pointless and brilliant, much like a dream I might have when on too much cold medicine. Much like the dreams that I find most delightful...

It's one of those movies I find myself quoting all the time just to hear the lines again. Everyone thinks I'm nuts when I quote it because of course no one has ever heard of it. I've taken to making the little "plop" noise that Steve Martin does when he gets too flustered... when I get too flustered. Madeline Kahn is my hero. I relate too well to Mrs. Munchnik, sanity surrounded by chaos only to find that deep down, she too is a nut. If I were stuck on an elevator, I would have acted just as she had, making up little raps... It's the simple stuff... simple stupid stuff. That's what makes this film so brilliantly refreshing. It's so dumb! Take Adam Sandler, for instance. There was no reason for this character whatsoever. It was entirely random and uncalled for. It was almost as if he happened to be walking by and they called him over and said "Hey, Adam! Wanna be in a movie?"... the only thing he did was show off his mad ukulele skills. And he made me laugh... he was there for the sole purpose of being funny, no strings attached. It was so refreshing. As was this whole movie. Like a good dream! To me it is proof that when you have fun making it (which it appears impossible that they did not), you have fun watching it. At least I do... I'm gonna watch it tonight and appreciate it's wonderfulness.

Seeing Madelaine Kahn in a scene where she talks through the door to someone she imagines in a serial killer made me laugh my head off and cry at the same time. How could someone that funny die so young? Watching Steve Martin dance with a transvestite, so reluctantly at first then really getting into it, is one of those classic scenes like Jack Lemmon and Joe E. Brown's tango in Some Like It Hot. It reminded be of the extreme awkwardness of my dance classes in grade 7 physical education.

Other scenes had too many people running and shouting. Some people seem to find that funny. I don't. Perhaps it reminds me too much of childhood.

One of those "slice of life" stories, "Mixed Nuts" portrays several hours on Christmas Eve in a crisis hot-line center where Phil (Steve Martin) works. Over the day, a most unusual series of events happens, and no one's life will ever be the same again. Some of the scenes are real shockers (you'll know them when you see them).

Steve Martin has a great time with the role, as does Rita Wilson as Catherine O'Shaughnessy, Phil's co-worker. You'll really like the elevator scene. Great support from Madeline Kahn, Robert Klein, Juliette Lewis, Anthony LaPaglia, Rob Reiner, Adam Sandler, and Liev Schreiber make this movie truly one Christmas treat. Jon Stewart and Parker Posey also appear.