Customer Reviews

Forget Paris

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This review refers to the Warner Bros. DVD edition of "Forget Paris".....

Andy and Liz(Joe Mantegna/Cynthia Stevenson) are about to take the plunge. You know, tie the knot, add the ball and chain,,the Big "M"...Marriage!. But wait...at their pre-wedding celebration dinner, Liz is meeting all of Andy's friends and what a tale they have to tell..

The story of Mickey and Ellen(Billy Crystal/Debra Winger) begins to unfold as each of the couples take their turn relating the events, and they're not always the picture of wedded bliss!

Mickey and Ellen met under unusual circumstances. It seems Mickey's deceased father "got lost" on the way to Paris for a burial.Ellen is a supervisor at the Paris airport and helps Mickey find and bury his father. And so it begins..they fall in love and have a long distance(there's the little matter of a pond)relationship.They finally marry and live happily ever after...NOT....well maybe...

It's one thing after another, as these two try to adapt to the other's world. The laughs and the smiles are non stop, and when Ellen's Dad(William Hickey) comes into the picture you know you're in for a treat!

A well seasoned cast keeps the story moving beautifully. It includes Julie Kavner, Richard Masur, Cathy Moriariarty and John Spencer. Mickey is a basketball referee, so you're also treated to some wonderful cameos by some sports legends. Billy Crystal directs and also wrote it along with Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel.

The DVD is beautiful. It has an excellent picture and colors and you have the choice of widescreen or the standard version. The sound is in Dolby Digital Stereo surround and the wonderful music is nicely spaced. The soundtrack is also marvelous. Besides the original score(Marc Shaiman) and songs by Carole Bayer Sager and Anita Baker, you may also fall in love again with tunes by Duke Ellington, George Gershwin and Cole Porter.

Get romantic,watch some basketball, have a good laugh...and...enjoy...Laurie

The romantic comedy is a very popular genre at the movies right now. I suppose that it always has been. In "Forget Paris" the emphasis is on the comedy, rather than the romance, and it provides a nice counterpart to some of the others.

The story is structured in a fashion that will be familiar to Woody Allen fans. Three couples are sitting around at dinner telling stories about their absent friends Mickey (Billy Crystal) and Ellen (Debra Winger).

Mickey and Ellen first meet in Paris through a rather amazing set of circumstances. (I won't give it away.) They fall in love, but Mickey has to go back to work-he's an NBA referee-so he leaves. He pines for Ellen, though, and it starts to affect his work. (There's a great scene with him and Kareem Abdul Jabbar.) Finally, Mickey returns to Paris and they resume where they left off.

Eventually, they decide to get married and Ellen quits her job and moves to California with Mickey. That's when the problems begin. Mickey is constantly on the road, so Ellen gets lonely, plus she hates her new job. Basically, she's miserable.

Trying to make things work out between them, Mickey quits his job and stays home with Ellen. In the meantime, she has gotten a great job that she loves so she's never home. Now Mickey is miserable.

If you suspect that somehow everything works out in the end, you've probably seen this kind of movie before. No matter. A romantic comedy succeeds or fails, not based on its originality or unpredictability, but on its charm, humor and the charisma of its characters. On that basis, "Forget Paris" succeeds.

Billy Crystal produced, directed and co-wrote the film, in addition to starring in it, so it's his picture all the way. With that kind of pedigree, you know it's going to be funny, and it is. Sometimes hilariously so.

It also means that there will be moments when the story or the characters will be sacrificed in order to serve the humor-and there are. There are too many scenes where Crystal cracks jokes and all Winger is given to do is laugh at them. That's too bad. An actress of her talent and intelligence should have a character that is more worthy of her.

There will be natural comparisons between this film and "When Harry Met Sally...," which also starred Billy Crystal. Although this picture is not as good as that one, it is still enjoyable.

Whatever paeans are sung to this impeccable lark of a flick will fall short of my true love and awe for it -- it is funny, very very well made and edited (not one boring or drawn out scene), both Debra Winger and Billy Crystal have a delectable chemistry and are in top form with their punchlines, and above all, this is a story that is so real and credible in its romance and emotions, one can almost _immediately_ identify with it. The story's narrative is in the reins of a bunch of people over a dinner table (quite an innovative flow as we lead Mickey and Ellen's lives -- Crystal and Winger respectively). The scenes and situations revolve around the couple's romance and the rough waters that they have to wade through, some touching, most quite interesting. And last but not the least, it just picks up some of the most beautiful songs by Cole Porter, the Gershwins and some other great american composers. This is all-round amazing entertainment -- pity it's not a sin to watch, or it would be as near bloody perfect as cinema can get!

This is the best romantic comedy ever! My wife and I have watched this movie a hundred times and it never fails to make us laugh and fall in love all over again. We relate to how bad things are when we're apart and just how wonderful life is when we're together! I couldn't recommend a movie more highly. The best thing one could do is buy this movie now and share it with the one you love often.

I have never been a huge fan of romantic comedies, but Forget Paris is a rare exception. The film stands out because of its superior writing, structure, and performances. Billy Crystal is in perfect form, and Debra Winger plays the perfect foil, showcasing her rarely-seen comedic talents. The supporting cast fills out the ensemble nicely.

I found the structure of the movie entirely engaging. Although the film could have been told as a straight story, the flashback devices kept me pulled into the story. In sum, this is not a film to be missed--even those who don't particularly care for romantic comedies will enjoy it.

This movie is incredible. Billy Crystal's comic timing is perfect (who else do you know who can be hilarious one minute, but then turn dramatic 5 minutes later and still seem believable?). If you loved "When Harry Met Sally", then this is the movie to follow it up with.

A romantic comedy, that deals with the end of the honeymoon and shows where the real marriage begins. Billy Cristal and Debra Winger add substance and spices to this classic comedy of mistakes around the figure of a Basket trainer who must leave as a modern gypsy.

To my mind one of the last original comedies in the nineties.

Debra Winger and Billy Crystal are surprisingly well matched in this romantic comedy. The two meet in Paris where Mickey Gordon (Crystal) has come to bury is father, a WWII vet for whom Mickey had little love. When papa's coffin gets lost, it falls to Ellen Andrews (Winger), an airline exec to help him out. Paris is magical, and they fall in love. Unfortunately, while there love endures, that Parisian spark doesn't survive the wedding. Crystal's bachelor life proves harder to leave behind than he thought (Mickey has what amounts to Bill Crystal's dream job - as an utterly fearless NBA ref - but may have to sacrifice it; He may also have to bear living with Winger's dementia-plagued father played by William Hickey). She may have to bear the obvious unhappiness of causing Mickey to lose his dream job, not to mention his loutish friends, including Joe Mantegna as a sportswriter, and primetime TV vet John Spencer ("LA Law", "West Wing") as a serial divorcee who derisively refers to his latest spouse as "the new Mrs. Jack."

If "Paris" is uneven it's because it's trying to be a romantic comedy that is often not very romantic or that funny. Still, the flick knows when to light things up (much of the story is told over dinner by Mickey's friends - especially Mantegna who display's a reporter's knack for knowing where his audience's attentions will flag, and a gift for reclaiming them) and in the end, romance wins.

Mickey and Ellen (Billy Crystal and Debra Winger), both 40ish career people, fall in love during a dream-like week in Paris, then spend the next several years trying to make "happily ever after" work out in spite of career, family, and settled habits. There is much to enjoy here: a talented cast, a romantic soundtrack, and some nice observations on the difficulties of reconciling career and marraige. However, the chemistry between Crystal and Winger never quite works and the dialogue is laden with one-liners that are supposed to be zingers but generally fall flat. In the end, it just didn't come together for me. It is, however, much superior to "City Slickers II," also written by Crystal in partnership with Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel.

Although the part of Ellen seems miscast with Debra Winger, somehow it works. Billy Crystal as Mickey is typically Billy....quick, animated, witty, and entertaining minute to minute. What a great gift of fun to give to someone who might need a laugh. I can't wait til Billy charms us with another movie!