Clue (1985)

This movie is really enjoyable and fun. Metacritic is full of it.

CLUE is the only film that's based on a board game ever to be made. With this unusual concept in mind, you won't be sure of what to expect when seeing this film for the first time. I know I wasn't. But I do know that after seeing it for the first time, I would see it many more times over the years to come. And that's precisely what happened.The film plays out much like a stage farce in the sense that it's mostly on one set, with a simple concept that develops into something much more complex, with the characters losing control of the initial situation they find themselves in. Six people are invited to dinner at a manor house by an eccentric millionaire. When they arrive, they find things are not what they seem, especially the absence of their host. But it soon becomes apparent why they are there and a murder is committed. To say anything more would be to give too much away, suffice to say that the six people are based on the six suspects in the CLUE board game (Scarlett, Mustard, Green, White, Plum and Peacock). For anyone who's seen MURDER BY DEATH, this film is very similar in terms of plot and there are similarities in how it unfolds too.It's mainly the actors who make this film great and hold it together. Tim Curry is simply spellbinding as Wadsworth the butler. As far as I'm concerned, this is Curry at his best. I was honestly gripped by disbelief when I learned that his part was originally written for Leonard Rossiter. Great as though Rossiter was, this fast-paced running around farce-style comedy is really not his style. So I really don't think the film would have worked with him playing Wadsworth. It would have been a very different film that's for sure.So this is really Tim Curry's film and I always saw it that way right from the moment of the first viewing when I was 14. But as the years have gone on, I've come to appreciate the other actors more. Madeline Kahn is probably the best as Mrs White, who improvises her dialogue in a key scene towards the end of the film. The other actors all have fun with their roles, and Martin Mull's many exchanges with the others provide some of the finest and funniest moments in the film.Aside from the very spirited performances of the cast, one of the most enjoyable aspects of the film are the very funny one-liners. And it's hilarious watching the characters try to handle the many new situations they are thrown into as the film goes on. It's very much like a stage farce as I've said before. But since it's so difficult to translate this humour to the big screen, complete with the single set, then it's all the more reason for Jonathan Lynn and John Landis to be congratulated for pulling it off.The film also boasts a great soundtrack and the inclusion of some 1950s songs, particularly Shake, Rattle and Roll and Sh-boom, was a great choice. I for one prefer the use of Shake, Rattle and Roll for the end theme rather than the one originally intended.Overall, CLUE is a great farce-like film that boasts some great acting performances, a fast pace, lots of surprises and plenty of memorable one-liners. It's one of my all-time favourite comedies.

To be honest, I did not grow up playing this game. I kinda knew it had characters like Mr. Green and Scarlet, and it was like a detective game, but this kind of stuff never fascinated me. But boy was this movie extremely entertaining.I loved each and every one of the characters. They were all so interesting and funny and I cared a lot about them. I was on the edge of my seat throughout this whole movie wondering who was gonna die next, who was it, and what was gonna happen. Yeah. You can tell how amazingly shocked I was to find the alternate endings. Gosh that shocked me and the fact that the movie got me jumping in the air wondering what the heck just happened deserves recognition.Yeah everyone needs to see this movie. It was very good and very fun to watch. And I totally knew it was the butler ;)Yeah go watch this movie now.

With butler Tim Curry greeting a series of guests coming to a secluded mansion, you know from his first scene (stepping into a pile of dog doo left by some fierce dobermans) that this is going to be a farce of the highest sort. Comparisons to Neil Simon's 1976 masterpiece "Murder By Death" are obvious, especially with the presence of Eileen Brennan as Mrs. Peacock, a senator's wife who has her own share of secrets. Joining her and Curry are Madeline Kahn as a very black widow, Lesley Ann Warren as a prostitute who uses sex for more than just the money she gets from it, Peter Boyle as a perverted scientist, Martin Mull as an aggressive Army colonel, and Michael McKean as a gay FBI employee. Murder takes a while to begin, but the bodies slowly pile up in this locked old dark house where gifts of the lethal weapons are passed out to allegedly knock off Curry who has the only key to let everybody out.There are three endings to this if you want to see them all, and after the second one, I was ready for it to be wrapped up. This isn't as consistently funny as "Murder By Death", and to be honest, I enjoyed the Gene Wilder/Gilda Radner flop comedy "Haunted Honeymoon" slightly more than this. Still, it has many amusing moments. "Mrs. Peacock is a man?" (Slap, slap....), and Curry's energetic performance running all over the house, while Kahn gets some tongue-twisting lines that proves almost 20 years after her sad early death that she remains one of the funniest women in the movies. Hiding her subtle beauty in a Chita Rivera Spider Woman wig, she delivers each line as if she was one of the dobermans devouring the bone that Curry threw at them before stepping into the unseen poop. The three men aren't as funny as the women, with Brennan going overboard delightfully as a matronly woman who is obviously a nervous wreck, and gets more and more frantic. Bit parts of the French accented maid and Asian cook are well cast, and while the film has mainly the house as its set, it is never claustrophobic. Far from a perfect comedy, this is still old fashioned fun with only a touch of modern sexual sensibilities added to give it a non "G" rating.