User reviews

This is one of Lily Tomlin's best movies. It's kind of corny, but it's supposed to be. Did anyone notice the bright colors, that satire the 70's, like the lime green? It's charming and amusing, and as a kid, I guess when Pat disappeared it was a little scary, but I knew she would be OK, because she was the star of the movie. It was not that scary, I've seen a lot worse. Most of all, it's very entertaining, and not the least bit tedious if you have a sense of humor and a good imagination. When you watch a movie like this, you have to suspend your disbelief and let your inner child out. This is one of my favorite comedies. Lily is great!

Not-so-funny satire of American compulsive consumerism society, based partially on Jack Arnold classic 1957. movie, with several scenes knowingly re-acted completely close to original.

Instead of Grant Williams, here we have Lily Tomlin as everyday housewife slaving for her family and shrinking away, to the delight of media hungry for sensations. Besides being more or less ignored by her family, used that Tomlin simply have to take care of them, she has other serious threats that don't involve cats and spiders but something far more dangerous - humans. Along with quite inane plot, everything is exaggerated: this is not a kind, loving family but a bunch of spoiled brats throwing tantrums, husband and his colleagues are more concerned with profit, Mexican maid is non stop dancing and even neighbors are more concerned about giving interviews than actually giving Tomlin support. Any normal person would pack her bags long ago and run away, but Tomlin - being good wife and self-sacrificing mother - totters on, even as her steps became smaller and smaller. It sounded as a good idea on the paper but is not really funny, perhaps because main character is simply not likable enough - Tomlin is great comedian when given chance to be wicked but as a perpetually serving housewife she is simply annoying (only once, she appears as rude telephone operator "Ernestine" and that minute lightens up the screen). Perhaps great fun for teenagers who delight in obvious jokes but not particularly involving as movie experience and sadly, very far from thrill of 1957. original.

Lily Tomlin has so many comedic talents. And they are all here in this film. Dry wit, dual roles (she's good at that), Ernestine the operator, Edith Ann, the little brat (in a deleted scene). Pure enjoyment. I remember seeing this as a kid. Now as an adult, I enjoy it again, being able to catch little pieces of the humor I never understood as a child. An adorable comedy is all this is. I read so many of these user comments and find too many people looking for some sort of message or spiritual enlightenment or an answer to the meaning of life. Get real. It's cute. Just enjoy it.

12 and under cinema.

I saw this in the theater when I was 11, liked it, and filed the memory of it under "good movie" in my mental cache. All of it's socio-political subtext --endless stabs at Madison Avenue, mass marketing and gross consumerism: Pat is a pimped-out product whore in the merciless clutches of her scAmway-pushing neighbor, and it eventually begins eating away at her, quite literally-- these bits of 'wink-wink' adult humor sailed right over my Bazooka gum-chomping, 11 year-old head.

The fun in "Incredible Shrinking Woman" was the ignorance to the script's so-called message. What tickled us kiddies in the audience was the sight of a pocket-sized Lily Tomlin sporting plastic Barbie sneakers, bedding down at night on a cot in the Barbie Dream House, and cruising down the hallway carpet in an out-of-control Barbie Dream Car. And when the 10-inch version of Pat attempts to perform her daily chores, such as washing the dishes...hee hee... fun stuff if you're a kid.

This flick resurfaced on cable recently, I was reminded that most of what we liked as 11 year olds is pretty cringe-worthy to us as adults. But I went ahead and watched it anyway because it has 3 things working for it:

-Lily Tomlin

-the nostalgia factor

-& that irritatingly catchy "What would we do without Galaxy Glue?" tune

Veteran comedic actress Lily Tomlin really gets to show off her chops here by playing no less than three roles. The principal role is that of Pat Kramer, a suburban wife & mom who mysteriously starts shrinking one day due to overexposure to an abundance of chemicals. In short order, she becomes the talk of the town, even going on the Mike Douglas show. She also comes to be exploited by evil scientists who are bent on world domination. Charles Grodin is cast as the harried husband struggling to accept his wifes' diminishing size as a fact of life; Ned Beatty is Grodins' sleazy boss.

Partly a spoof of the classic Richard Matheson story "The Incredible Shrinking Man", this wacky 1980s fantasy functions mainly as a satire of rampant consumerism. As such, it's far from being subtle, and is a little hard to stick with at first due to it being so chaotic. But Tomlin, never more appealing, is the glue to hold it all together. She's terrific; her other roles are neighborhood busybody Judith Beasley and her classic telephone operator character. Grodin is in fine form, and Beatty is a hoot. The villains are played by the likes of Henry Gibson, Elizabeth Wilson, and John Glover, and they're all good. Shelby Balik and Justin Dana are cute as Pats' kids. But the man who deserves a special shout-out is makeup effects ace and multiple Oscar winner Rick Baker, who hilariously, endearingly plays a gorilla named Sidney.

Written by Jane Wagner, and directed by Joel Schumacher (his feature filmmaking debut), this was admittedly never quite as funny as this viewer would have liked, but it was still hard to dislike. It does work towards a priceless, farcical finale. The special effects are quite amusing throughout, and those color schemes in Pats' house are offbeat, to put it one way.

Reasonably entertaining, overall.

Six out of 10.

If I were still a child I would perhaps give it a higher score, but from what I remember it did get a bit lame at times and the effects while good for a kid would not stand up as well now. Still, it was a funny movie about a woman whose husband is like with an ad office or with a company that makes a lot of different products. Whatever he was, his job made it so his wife came into contact with a lot of different products which in turn causes her to start to become smaller and smaller. At first there are just a few subtle signs like her appearance at a window, but soon it becomes very apparent. While she gets shorter and shorter she gains the attention of a rather dangerous person and ends up imprisoned. The film for the most part is funny, kind of strange turns here and there such as the monkey, but hey it was never meant to be a serious film. It does though get a bit to dark in the end for the type of movie it was up until that point. Still, Lily Tomlin is great in the lead role as the shrinking woman and Charles Grodin does an admirable job as the father, though it is a role he can do in his sleep.

A good idea that doesn't work: a sassy, sweetly-zonked wife and mother discovers to her surprise that all the household and sundry chemicals her advertising-executive husband brings home are making her shrink. Actually, this gloppy-looking comedy does manage to get off on the right foot, with playful and funny glimpses into Tomlin's home-life, but once she shrinks and crosses paths with ready-set villains (not to mention talk show host Mike Douglas...who sings!!), the movie frays and falls apart. It's badly photographed (one of the worst-looking movies of the 1980s--what were they thinking when they watched the dailies?) and allows star Tomlin too much room to stretch her comedic chops (playing kooky characters incognito, Lily is much friendlier and funnier just playing a quirky modern woman). A disappointment for Tomlin's fans, especially since the biggest laugh in the picture is delivered by a gorilla flipping the bird. ** from ****

Lily Tomlin is known for her acerbic wit, her sharp tone, and her sense of style for all these years. Ever since "Rowan and Martin's Laugh In", most of her characters come to life in this movie. In "The Incredible Shrinking Woman", she plays Pat Kramer, a housewife who started to shrink, at a alarming rate. I don't mean about her weight, I mean about herself. She has been commonly exposed to all the chemicals around her house. Even small, she can make it all around her surroundings. When she got caught and put inside a lab, she meets a new friend, a big gorilla1 The minute she escapes the lab, the bad guys go after her and the ape. It was funny when the gorilla gives the bad guys the finger after they say, "FREEZE!!" The more she shrank, the news get grim. When she shrank away, it was sad. However, when she came back, they indeed got a new pet, and it's not a dog nor a cat. Then a new problem occurs, I don't think she's worried. A fun movie, lots of gags, and it was a great start for "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" later in the years. 3 out of 5 stars!

I had some expectations about this movie, but ultimately I regret the 1/half hour I spent seeing this mess. This film is just a one-woman-show with Tomlin in three roles (two of them completely pointless), but the jokes are at best worth of some cheap sitcom and the movie fails almost each attempt to be funny. Grodin is super-lazy and the introduction of a man in a gorilla suit in the second part of the movie cannot revive a predictable, banal plot with a moral not more complex nor subtle than a Saturday morning cartoon. The few PROs (some nice F/Xs, an authentic 1980s flavour and an excellent Ned Beatty in a thankless role) are not enough to save the movie.

It has been decades since I've seen The Incredible Shrinking Woman but I have the fondest memories of the movie. It was so fascinating to me to see Lily Tomlin shrinking day by day while still trying to be a mother and a wife. It was both funny and sad to me as a kid.

Somehow forty-something years have gone by, and I, a big Lily Tomlin fan, am just now getting around to seeing "The Incredible Shrinking Woman". Was it worth the wait?

Well--it has some good things going for it; a promising new director who would continue on to big things, reliable leading man Charles Grodin, a good solid supporting cast (including Elizabeth Wilson, who played Roz, Tomlin's office adversary, in '9 to 5') and multitalented Tomlin herself--all mixed in with a plot that goes from clever to silly.

Trying to buy the premise of a shrinking woman--who attempts to live a normal family life, escape kitchen drains and evil captors, and bond with a gorilla who's smarter than the bad guys---takes some doing. But even the ridiculous parts are bearable due to Tomlin's appeal and investment in her role. Much as I love her, seeing this once is enough for me, but I'm glad I did. You just may feel the same.

Pat Kramer (Lily Tomlin) lives in the suburbs of Tasty Meadows, California. She's a suburban housewife with two bratty kids. Her husband Vance (Charles Grodin) is an advertising executive and Dan Beame (Ned Beatty) is his boss. Her maid is Concepcion. Her neighbor Judith Beasley (Lily Tomlin) is a cosmetics saleslady. She faces a barrage of chemicals and consumer products including an experimental glue from her husband's work. Her doctor discovers that she is slowly shrinking. A dark mysterious organization wants her blood for a shrinking serum to shrink masses of people.

This is a satire and a dark comedy. Problem is that it annoyed me much more than it humored me. The kids are annoying. Every character is annoying in some ways. The in-your-face style is annoying. The production is annoying. That puke pink is annoying. The only appealing aspect is the split screen, the enlarged sets, and the forced perspective. The simple visual of a tiny Lily Tomlin in the everyday world is fun. It pushes a dark worthwhile narrative on modern consumerism. It would work better if the first part is more real and less in-your-face. The movie can build to the surreal later on as she shrinks and they throw in a gorilla. The start is too off-putting and it gets too silly.

I recently had to watch this film for a "mass media/culture" class in college, and I have to say it was pretty bad. While Schumacher is not one of my favorite directors, I did not expect the trite, preachy piece of crap which this movie turned out to be. Tomlin, Grodin, and Beatty do their best to follow a god-awful script, which beats you over the head with insanely liberal thinking (AND I'M A LIBERAL!). Basically, the film says CONSUMERISM=BAD while pandering to a consumer market. Any film with such a simplistic plot (SHRINK THE WORLD'S POPULATION?!) and dumb comedy has no right to be preachy. C'mon people, a monkey? While the first half hour or so was amusing and pretty right-on satire for the early 80s consumer mindset, the film got too bogged down in its own pretentiousness and quickly fell apart.

What really bugged me, and many others in the class (including the professor) was the horrifically stereotyped maid, Concepcion. With her slutty Latina ways, ignorance of English, and simpering Mexican friends, I was surprised Hispanic rights groups were not up in arms. I thought it was akin to the loyal, watermelon-eating, "Yessuh yessuh" black servants of movies through the 1950s. It was truly as offensive as those horrific depictions and even more out of place in a movie with such liberal, high-minded subject matter.

All I can say is the actors try, they really really do. And for about half an hour, the film succeeds. Then tanks miserably. Do yourself a favor and watch something intelligent and funny with a similar theme instead of this garbage. I would suggest Terry Gilliam's Brazil.

The director Joel Schumacker made a fine movie criticism over the american consumerism on style comedy of the 80', in that time Lily Tomlin was a great name is this genre and made a fantastic three roles, but somehow the picture is a bit dated now.

Nevertheless has good moments, jus a few a mix of comedy, sci-fi and family movie., Charles Grodin is the same patetic guy and Ned Beatty in best performance as always as the bad guy, 80' cheesy, but never disposable!

Resume:

First watch: 1991 / How many: 3 / Source: TV-DVD-R / Rating: 6.25.

Ambitious consumerism critique. Might have been better with a more serious approach. All actors try to be funny far too hard.

Okay, my students laughed at me when I admitted this, but this film scared the living hell out of me! Granted, I was only five when I saw it, but that scene where Tomlin falls down the garbage disposal and the housekeeper can't hear her screams because she's listening to loud music...I ran out of the theater when that happened! Looking back, the plot was rather hokey and they relied too much on Tomlin's star power. Still, the special effects were okay for the time. The commentary of our consumerist society didn't work as well. It may be worth a watch on cable, but to this day I can't even watch 9 to 5 without whimpering. 'Galaxy Glue, Galaxy Glue, what would we do without Galaxy Glue?'

I've always loved Lily Tomlin. Who doesn't? But this classic HBO release delivers no absolute laughs just cuteness. The core cast is good like always. But the script and production just fall a tad flat.

Granted, when I last watched this movie, I was probably no more than 10 years old, but it has stuck with me and I would love to see it again! Though others may think the graphics and effects were lame, I look at it this way: it was the 80's...all movies that have effects and such look lame now that we've gone digital and become more technologically advanced. To me, the premise and the antics are what carries this movie in a way that it's a must have in any comedy fan's video library. The physical comedy that stems from Lily Tomlin's vertically challenging situation is pure fun. C'mon, how could the antics from shrinking at a rapid pace NOT be funny?!?!? Now, just have to find it so my daughters can share in the experience...

This was a movie that was on a lot when I was a kid, and I have kind of fond memories of it. But I also haven't seen it since I was probably 10 years old, so to some degree, it's almost like I'm watching it again fresh for the very first time.

And, man, what a weird movie. Obviously, the original Incredible Shrinking Man was pitched as something of a horror movie, and this adaptation retains that. Whereas the original movie was about a mysterious cloud of cosmic dust, our shrinking agent here is a cocktail of various food and pharmaceutical chemicals. I remember this movie instilling a fear in processed foods as a kid.

Nowadays, the fearmongering over artificial chemicals in food and perfumes feels adjacent to the crazy anti-vaccine people to me. Though I suppose standards and laws back in the 80's were a lot more loose than they are today, the whole "chemicals bad" message in this movie does ultimately tie into a shady corporation trying to establish a New World Order. Just saying.

But the weirdest part is how Lily Tomlin's sense of humor blends with this movie. She brings in a lot of characters from her comedy shows, and there's quite a bit of slapstick. There's a lot of other comedy actors in here too, like Charles Grodin, Ned Beatty and Henry Gibson. I don't know if the humor works. It doesn't feel like a dark comedy, but it's clearly trying to go for something.

This woman is effectively dying, there's a coverup from the chemical company about it, there's all this real stress and strain it's putting on the family, the whole final act takes place in an animal test lab where cute and innocent specimens are locked up... but there's a funny gorilla and a silly chase scene where the cops slip on hundreds of banana peels. Just a really, really weird mix.

But it never goes too far. It keeps it reigned in where it never feels like it crosses a line and makes you ask, "Who is this for?" It's ultimately something I don't think we get a lot of. It's not the same horror/comedy mix that made, say, Ghostbusters work so well, but it is still an interesting blend of strange science fiction, horror, and laughs, if nothing else.