My Breakfast with Blassie

So, let me begin by saying that I like Andy Kaufman, I like wrestling, I like parodies, and I like My Dinner With Andre. I wanted very much to love this film, and I wish that I could be as positive about this as some of the other reviews that I have read about it are, but I found this film quite spotty. The parts where it is really parodying My Dinner With Andre were very funny, sometimes outright hilarious. Specifically, the beginning and ending voice-overs were very funny and a lot of the conversation between Andy and Fred was pretty good, plus the absurdity of the situation was entertaining. However, Andy and Fred did a lot of interacting with the waitress, the four girls at the next table, and Bob Zmuda (who was not playing himself), and that was all stupid and pointless. It was just Andy doing his "I'm a big, famous star" schtick and Fred being rude and insensitive. Four or five minutes of that would have been okay, but the twenty-minutes to a half hour of it to which the audience is subjected is just dull and irritating. The whole thing would be excellent had they edited it down to twenty or twenty-five minutes. So, if you're an Andy Kaufman fan, I would recommend taking the time to see it, but only if the opportunity presents itself.

For some reason I always believe Andy's on screen life wasn't totally scripted. When I realize what I've seen was completely planned and possibly even rehearsed, I feel a bit stupid. Then I remember that believing he was for real is all he wanted so then I feel better. The conversation here is boring. Blassie doesn't question if Andy really broke his neck and even says he told his wife Andy was really hurt when he saw it on tv. Blassie does have trouble hiding the fact that he's a total jerk but he manages to stay calm. The other people who were in Sambo's are the best part. It's clear they were meant to incite Blassie and even though they failed, they are the only reason to watch this.

The intention of this movie is to make fun of a pretentious art film using Freddie Blassie, the most bombastic, crude, and intellectually offensive personality in the media at the time. He was a legendary, loud-mouth wrestler known for calling his opponents, and anyone else he disliked, "pencil-neck geeks". (I remember he once held "geek" ringside announcer Dick Lane upside-down outside a window in the middle of a telecast.)

However, Kaufman's and Zamuda's cynical snot and vomit routines, no doubt intended to provoke Blassie into a rage, backfire. Although Blassie never seems to be "in" on the joke -- he is genuinely offended by (or blissfully ignorant of) Andy's mocking behavior -- Blassie comes across as warm, good-humored, brutally honest, and full of the love of life. Towards the end, Andy seems genuinely in awe of Blassie whose rich stories and politically-incorrect observations contrast sharply with Andy's feigned(?) shallowness and politeness.

Overall, this is a good film and very funny in places, but I came away more in admiration of Freddie Blassie than Andy Kaufman. Were it not for Andy's more imaginative routines in television, I would have a very poor impression of him. Nonetheless, I enjoyed this film, which, if nothing else, gave me an overwhelming nostalgia for Sambo's pancakes.

Hey why didn't you guys like my film? Did you go see Return Of The Jedi instead in 1983 or something? This is classic stuff, a real Blockbuster!

Why don't you go out and rent or buy a videotape today and see why I am called a Genius?

This movie got together because the man who produced wrestling manager and former wrestling champion Fred Blassie's novelty song, "Pencil-Neck Geek", Johnny Legend, wanted to film a very cheap parody of the awful art movie My Dinner with Andre, and decided that Blassie's young friend and protege, the eccentric comedian Andy Kaufman would be the perfect foil. Unlike My Dinner with Andre, which was carefully planned, Andy and Johnny Legend planted a few people in a Sambo's and just filmed Andy and Fred shooting the crap over breakfast for an hour. I think that's better anyway, as I HATE art movies They improvised wonderfully, and you gotta hand it to them for pulling off such a funny film in no time for no money. Andy was of course a huge fan of wrestling and he and Fred were friends for years, and you could tell by the way they talked to each other that they respected each other a great deal. The film is hilarious, and gives you real insight into the minds of Andy Kaufman, and Fred Blassie, the man who invented the infamous phrase, "Pencil-neck geek."

However, if you hate Andy and/or wrestling, I suggest you watch My Dinner With Andre instead.