Well, Bonnie and Clyde they ain't. I recall this movie getting a lot of fanfare when it was first released back in 1977, hard to believe it'll be forty years old soon as I write this. Today was the first time I watched it and it was sort of underwhelming. I've never seen Ed McMahon in a principal movie role before so that was new for me. George Segal and Jane Fonda had the right chemistry to pull off their roles here, but a lot of times I thought the story was forced and didn't ring true to character. The stereotypical use of black and Hispanic actors in the picture would never pass muster today, though I don't generally have a problem with those kinds of portrayals when used to comic effect.
Something I'd like to point out that really has nothing to do with the movie itself, but I've noticed this in other pictures as well. I generally turn on captioning when watching films so I don't miss any nuance in the dialog, and fairly consistently I find that any words that might be considered controversial are 'X'ed out. So for this picture, any time someone uses Dick Harper's (Segal) first name, it appears in captioning as 'XXXX'. You can do the translation, but the only thing that it does is draw more attention to the more prurient use of the word. I have to laugh every time it happens.
I guess you can have some fun with this one in a Seventies nostalgic kind of way, but for me it wasn't very memorable at all. I actually know a married couple whose names are Dick and Jane who are friends of mine, and managed to reference the film the last time we got together. It was for a Happy Together concert tour we went to featuring a bunch of bands from the Sixties and Seventies, so at least we kept it in the same era as the picture.
Something I'd like to point out that really has nothing to do with the movie itself, but I've noticed this in other pictures as well. I generally turn on captioning when watching films so I don't miss any nuance in the dialog, and fairly consistently I find that any words that might be considered controversial are 'X'ed out. So for this picture, any time someone uses Dick Harper's (Segal) first name, it appears in captioning as 'XXXX'. You can do the translation, but the only thing that it does is draw more attention to the more prurient use of the word. I have to laugh every time it happens.
I guess you can have some fun with this one in a Seventies nostalgic kind of way, but for me it wasn't very memorable at all. I actually know a married couple whose names are Dick and Jane who are friends of mine, and managed to reference the film the last time we got together. It was for a Happy Together concert tour we went to featuring a bunch of bands from the Sixties and Seventies, so at least we kept it in the same era as the picture.