Fire Sale

I saw this movie back in 1977 and thought is was a comedy classic. I still remember plotlines and laugh when I think about some of the dialogue and situations. Like Benny and his wife stopping at all the Howard Johnson's from NY to FL and her having to take pictures of them. When Benny collapses in the parking lot of the H.J. his wife yells at him, "Benny! Get Up! You're not going to ruin my vacation!' When they get to the hospital she thinks she is in their FL hotel resort. Benny on his deathbed and his wife calling the same caterer that catered her hysterectomy to do the funeral for a man who isn't even dead. The H.S. Basketball coach that "adopts" a grown black man because his wife wants a baby and she acts like she is caring for an infant. Alan Arkin buying the boy a purple Cadillac with Leopard skin upholstery. (How delightfully un-politically correct!) Or how about Benny plotting to get his shell-shocked Vet brother-in-law or brother, whatever, to burn down the store and then we find out that Russell cancelled the fire insurance policy to buy more clothes for the store. When Benny finds out that the store is no longer insured he miraculously comes to and rushes to try and stop Sherman and his wheelchair from burning the place down. Ah.so many memories! Good Times! Good Times!

Like many of the previous reviewers, I only ever saw this movie once, and that was a long, long time ago (again like them). But even though I was only a teenager, where for me the world of the US East Coast Jews may as well have been on another planet, what gags I did understand (and I realized that there were many, many gags that I didn't!) were exceptionally funny. Leonard_M - loosen up a little. The movie IS funny.

Unreleased at first in the cinema in Australia, this absolutley demented farce sat on the shelf until after Arkin's original THE IN LAWS came out and was a hit here. Then Fox decided to give it a run and it was lukewarm. Pity, as a raucous Jewish comedy is is a pretty good one and anyone into anarchy as comedy (Big Store, Duck Soup, Where's Poppa, etc) will enjoy the screaming antics of a very fractured extended family. I think it ended up on a double bill with maybe Mel Brooks' THE PRODUCERS or something like that which matched the mugging and screaming. At my holiday resort cinema in that period we would show it on student nights and get a good reaction. Kids and old Jews loved it though.

After reading the positive comments here and seeing the 1 star rating on my digital cable guide, I decided to give it a chance (plus, I'm a big Alan Arkin fan after seeing him in 'Catch-22', 'Glengarry Glen Ross', and 'Little Murders'). And I have to say that it's not as bad as it's made out to be. It's actually really really funny--if you have a certain sense of humor. I was dying with laughter during the scene where Arkin and Rob Reiner started fighting on the father's bed--on top of the father! There were other good scenes: the kids throwing the rocks through the windows, Arkin approaching the basketball player on the court, the crazy Jewish mother throughout the whole movie, "Keep Out Putz!" written on the office door and the scene with the comatose dad and the insurance guys. I could go on because I really liked this movie. The only thing that kinda bugged was Rob Reiner's attacks, but eh. What are you gonna do?

I think that you have to enjoy a certain type of humor to find this movie funny. During the whole thing I found myself drawing parallels to my favorite sitcom, Arrested Development. Crazy dysfunctional family? Check. Adopting a kid of a completely different race for personal gain? Check. Buring down a business for money? Check. (Episode 2 of Season 1--Top Banana!) Multiple story lines that culminate into one big finale? Yup. And there was even a big wacky ending involving all the family members. Both are very slapstick-y comedies with both dry and over the top jokes. If you love that kind of humor, then you'll really like Fire Sale. If you're more into standard comedies, then you'll probably become very easily annoyed and change the channel.

I'd love to see a cheap DVD of this movie out in a letterbox format. I remember Fox Movie Channel used to run some kind of promo trailer/short documentary before showing it, so I'd love to see that as well. Plus, some of the scenes are very dark. I'm not sure if this is the print of the movie or Arkin's intention, but it would be nice to see this movie remastered and released in the future, but that probably won't happen. A girl can dream though!

From the second the movie starts in the dark w/ the (noise) of a blowdryer, warming up the cold toilet seat, till the very end I loved this movie. I'm sorry that I've never seen it on TV or in the video stores. The comedy just kept on coming and coming. Here it is 1999 and I seen it in 1977, it's my favorite comedy of all times. I only wish that I could share it with my family now.