Fire Sale

Everyone to his own taste. Leonard Maltin is a wonderful critic, but this time I disagree with him. A friend of mine showed me a tape he made of this movie in 1979. I could not stop laughing. Sometimes a movie doesn't have to have a message when it's being funny (Ace Ventura, as a case in point). The stars of this movie are comedy giants, but the supporting cast is just as funny. Richard Libertini steals the movie as a house painter cum psychiatrist. Alex Rocco as a clothing salesman is hilarious. I have an old VHS tape of this movie that I made off HBO. I would love to see this movie released on DVD. If there is any good reason why this movie is not being released I'd like to hear it. I've showed the tape to my kids, and they went crazy for it. I think the time has come to let the world enjoy this laugh riot. I'm surprised that cable hasn't shown it either instead of the same tired retreads over and over. Let's hear it for comedy that isn't pretty.

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!

This is probably the most difficult movie for me to critique. The cast includes several of the greatest comedic talent of the twentieth century, and the material is to die for. In addition, I find the Jewish humor of both Arkins, both Reiners, Sid Caesar, Woody Allen, etc. to be some of the best available in cinema. I soooo wanted to love this movie!! Unfortunately, I cannot wholeheartedly recommend it, and beyond saying simply that it isn't as funny as it could have been, I would have some trouble explaining why. Leonard Maltin gave this a 1-star review, calling it "truly unbearable." And yet Keith Bailey, one of my personal favorite reviewers, stated on his website www.badmovieplanet.com that he absolutely laughed himself silly with this movie, calling it a "comic masterpiece." Other reviewers on this website are similarly at polar opposite opinions, and this made me insanely interested in seeing it for myself. Though it has mysteriously never been available on video or DVD, I did find a quality bootleg copy on ebay. As far as I'm concerned, neither of the two reviewers is correct - my appraisal is more of a middle ground between the two.

It seems to me that Robert Klane had a fantastic script, which pulled out all the stops, balancing almost six wacky subplots surrounding a dysfunctional Jewish family. The multiple-subplot structure of "Seinfeld" episodes most certainly takes its inspiration from this movie. Several individual lines are magnificent, the ideas are completely original, but the execution was inefficient. For one, the cinematography is some of the worst I have ever seen - the whole movie is too dark due to insufficient lighting. Second, the timing of most of the jokes is way off. The best example is a scene involving the simultaneous asthmatic attack of both Rob Reiner's character and his father. On paper, this could have been a wonderful bit of dual comic overacting, but the actors underplay it, as if they are embarrassed by the whole thing. And director Arkin makes the unwise decision to prolong the scene for what seems an eternity.

Similar sloppiness pervades the movie, and as such, I found the IDEAS of the movie downright hilarious, but I just couldn't laugh while I was watching it. This is one of those movies that seem a lot more entertaining in hindsight than while you were actually viewing it. That might be the reason why so many reviewers here have fond recollections after so many years. Mind you, I'm not saying it is a bad movie, and that you should steer clear of it as Maltin suggests. But what I am saying is that it has been overrated for two reasons: 1) It has basically disappeared from the public for 28 years, giving it a cult movie mystique, and 2) People have overly nostalgic memories after not having seen it for many years.

Because I love the type of comedy this movie aspired to be, I would like to make a recommendation. Instead of seeing this movie, I suggest Larry Cohen's 1981 horror spoof "Full Moon High," also starring Arking and his son Adam. That movie had similarly anarchic Jewish humor, but the difference is that that movie pulled everything off magnificently, and additionally its is much easier and cheaper to find on video. That film was, indeed, a comic masterpiece.

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!

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.