... then I got the DVD. The last time I saw the movie was 13 years ago. I forgot how incredibly boring and inane a good chunk of the movie is, there are a few very clever bits of word play ("there you have it, stark raving sane") and the questions game is well done, but the majority of the movie is excruciatingly tedious. There are bits that draw out very poor jokes about Altman's character discovering various scientific principles that are never funny. Dreyfuss is a hoot and I love most of his lines ("We're actors, we're the opposite of people!") but this movie is mostly just dead air and tedium. Maybe that's the point too? That life is made up of mostly non events with the occasional flourish of brilliance, and then you die. Anyway, the only thing I really liked was the Floyd song at the beginning and the fact that the "ping" sound when Dreyfuss touches his imaginary sword is the first note of "Echoes".
Anyway, overall a pretentious flick that is far too enamored with its own cleverness.
Anyway, overall a pretentious flick that is far too enamored with its own cleverness.