Product Details

• Actors: Al Pacino, Dyan Cannon, Tuesday Weld, Bob Dishy, Bob Elliott
• Directors: Arthur Hiller
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• DVD Release Date: June 19, 2007
• Run Time: 107 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000A9QK5K
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,741 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
During a downturn in his career, Al Pacino starred in this unfortunate comedy about a guy coping with a new romance, a house full of kids, and a new play--and doing a bad job of it. Pacino is a playwright who is convinced that he's about to have his first stage success. As opening night approaches, his wife bolts from the marriage, abandoning him with five kids (only one of whom is his). While he tries to juggle rewrites and a potential entanglement with a flighty actress and a demanding producer and director, he also has to solve his baby-sitting woes. Talk about trying to do it all. If only the material was as funny as Pacino, who may have made this film out of allegiance to its writer, Israel Horovitz, whose play The Indian Wants the Bronx gave Pacino one of his breakthrough roles in the early 1960s. --Marshall Fine

Product Description
Life is getting complicated for Broadway playwright Ivan Travalian (Pacino). His flaky wife Gloria (Weld) is moving in with her lover, his director hates his new play and his leading lady (Cannon) is a terrified movie star who's never been on the stage. With five children to look after (most of them Gloria's), a budding romance with his leading lady, and a producer (King) demanding a rewrite, it's no wonder the emotionally and financially unstable Ivan starts to exhibit all kinds of irrational behavior.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a rare Pacino comedy!, December 11, 2003

By	Cubist (United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Author Author [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Author! Author! is a guilty pleasure. It features Pacino in one of his rare forays into comedy (the other being the underrated and little-seen '70s gem, Scarecrow) as a beleaguered New York City playwright who has to juggle a houseload of kids, a wife who is cheating on him and a play that he is struggling to get off the ground.

This is a sweet, endearing film that isn't too sappy as to give you diabetes. Pacino really keeps everything grounded and delivers a wonderfully understated performance. He lets all the kids ham it up and deliver the best lines, especially, as one reviewer pointed out, the youngest one who is a really good little actor. What happened to that kid? And you've got veteran thesps like Tuesday Weld, Dyan Cannon, and my personal fave, Alan King, who doesn't do enough films, IMO.

This is one of those comfort movies that you end up turning on partway through on TV and then watch all the way to the end. There is just something about it that is so fascinating to watch. Maybe because it was so reviled by critics and ignored by audiences that it now languishes in Cable TV limbo awaiting a possible DVD release... some day?

This film is also a great snapshot of NYC circa the late '70s early '80s. The film uses its locations so well and anyone who has lived there (or still lives there) will instantly recognize certain places and areas. It's almost like stepping into a time machine to a New York that doesn't exist anymore.

Watching this movie makes me wish that Pacino would do more comedies but sadly, he has a rep for doing intense dramas and is probably only offered these kinds of films anymore.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorites!, November 20, 2002

By	Kelly K. Coyle "generally annoyed" (Michigan) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Author Author [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I can't think of any other Al Pacino movies, well except Godfather, because I'm neutral about him. But this is such a sweet, over-looked movie! The kids are great, especially the youngest little boy, most of the Al's children are adopted from his horrible wife, and she is a putrid specimen of womankind! Obviously this woman read Moll Flanders, or something. . . she deposits variously fathered children with Al like he's the bank.
Al is a Broadway playwrite, living in my favorite city, New York. He's a vegetarian, looks lovingly after his 5 or so kids, while trying to write a play, get over his awful, awful wife and have a relationship with Dyan Canon. Read: He's stressed!

I put this movie in my ever-growing "Sunday afternoon, I don't feel like doing anything because the weekend's almost over" category. It will make you feel a little better about Monday.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars a disappointing wait, June 27, 2007

By	cynthia ladas "kye" - See all my reviews

I have waited for years for this movie to make it to DVD, only to be SO DISAPPOINTED with the treatment it recieved!! Not only is this a very good Al Pacino movie, but it is a very good movie period, so why when it is turned out on to DVD is it treated like a stepchild at a family reunion with the final scene left on the cutting room floor. I thought that the idea of DVD was to give the audiance what couldnt be give given on a 2 hour VHS tape, and the scene that was cut was one of the best in the film...when the kids bring him 'back down to earth' after the has spent his first day as a hit playwrite in bed. Guess I'm back to waiting for the 'soon to be released' Collector's or Deluxe Edition of this movie.