Chances Are (1989)

I've watched it many times over the years. It sticks with ya because of the fantasy romance part of it. I've watched it with many friends and now I just watched it last night with my family. They enjoyed it as well. Who couldn't love Johnny Mathis after all these years. He's got the theme song no less. There's also another song I love on that soundtrack by Peter Cetera and Cher called 'After All'. Watch it, it's very charming and enjoyable. Pay attention to what's forgotten at the beginning because it returns at the very end. See if you can figure that part out when it is just about 10-15 minutes into the movie.

Chances Are is a charming, weird, clichéd and even a little bit perverse romantic comedy.Louie Jeffries (Christopher McDonald) is a lawyer who has uncovered a bent judge and suddenly dies in a road accident in 1964. He is reborn as Alex Finch (Robert Downey Jr) but in 1987 he meets Louie's daughter Miranda at Yale University and later his wife, Corinne and when he visits his old house for dinner, Louie's memories later return to Alex. He realises he is Louie Jeffries, Corinne's dead husband reincarnated as he has memories of events only Louie would had known.However it seems that Alex is not meant to get back together with Corinne but rather help her move on especially as their best friend Philip Train (Ryan O'Neal) a Washington Post journalist has always loved Corinne and help raise Miranda but Corinne has never got over her dead husband.At the time, Chances Are was a feel good comedy, well acted but stretched credibility and Alex falling for Miranda (Louie's daughter) was a little bit icky.

I would like to say skip this one because it's silly, trite and predictable, but I like everyone in it so much that I can't. Sure you'll kick yourself over wasting 90 minutes that you'll never get back when it's all said and done, but it's like bowling-alley jello shot; you only have to try it once to know it's terrible. All the actors involved do the very best they can with an awful script and are charming enough to keep you from actually pouring salt in your eyes. And given the right combination of sedatives, one can slow down the mind enough not to be bothered by the fact that each situation is visible several miles down the road. If you run across this on cable on a Tuesday night go for it, but don't pay to rent it.

Chances are if I watched this again I might get physically sick, the film is so annoying.....unless you believe in psychics, re-incarnation and the other hocus- pocus which this promotes big-time. The "re-cycling of souls," they call it here. Puh-leeze.This story has been done several times before with such films as "Heaven Can Wait." It's also been done a lot better. Too bad they had to waste the talents of Robert Downey Jr., Cybill Shepherd, Ryan O'Neal and Mary Stuart Masterson.At least it's a pretty tame film, language-wise. That's about the only redeeming quality of this movie.