First Family

This is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen.I saw it when it came out in the theater in 1980, and I still think it is one of the best movies I ever saw.Gilda Radner was in one of her funniest movies ever when she was in this.

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.

First Family is a waste of time. It has a couple of funny moments, but thats about it. Buck Henry directs Bob Newhart, Harvey Korman, Rip Torn, Richard Benjamin, Fred Willard, Bob Dishy and two of the funniest ladies who ever lived Gilda Radner and my personal favorite movie actress of comedy Madeline Kahn. Ironically they play mother and daughter and in real life were only 5 years apart in age. Another sad thing is they were also very good friends and died of the same disease ovarian cancer just ten years apart. They deserved to be given a better script worth their extraordinary talents. On Saturday night live they were given better scripts. The only reason to watch this is because its the only film they ever made together. They could and should have been a female comedy team. But this is all we have.

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...

This morning they were playing old Howard Stern interviews on Sirius and one of them was with Gilda Radner, and sadly every time I see or hear her I'm reminded of this train wreck of a movie. We were four couples all devoted fans of the cast members and Buck Henry and forty years later we are all still scarred by this atrocity. Sometimes we hear the phrase, "A one-joke film", if only… In the Trivia caption of this movie it was said that the ending was rewritten because of negative feedback from audiences. The beginning and middle should have been rewritten, although I don't know that the ending we saw could have been worse. I believe that most of the other reviewers are in agreement that what makes this film so bad is the waste of the talents of these fine comedians.

One reviewer stated that this was the only movie he ever walked out on. We too were tempted, but I think we were hoping for something redeeming to save The First Family, sadly that was not to be.