Product Details

• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Fox Home Entertainme
• VHS Release Date: March 13, 2001
• Run Time: 101 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00000ICUV
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #552,199 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

It's unfortunate to report that The Impostors--a misguided, but slightly noble, attempt to return to both the Hope and Crosby Road movies as well as the screwball comedies of the '30s and '40s--really, really doesn't work. Writer, director, and star Stanley Tucci (who created the gorgeous Big Night) plays Arthur, who along with Maurice (Oliver Platt) finds himself stowing away on an ocean liner and forced into multiple masquerades. The film has a dream cast of supporting players, including Steve Buscemi, Tony Shalhoub, Isabella Rossellini, and Campbell Scott, but the humor never works and this vessel founders quickly. --Keith Simanton

From The New Yorker

A gross miscalculation from writer-director Stanley Tucci. The movie's very first joke bombs (it's time to retire the ten-spoonfuls-of-sugar-in-the-coffee-cup gag), and so do those that follow. Tucci and Oliver Platt play a couple of struggling actors in nineteen-thirties New York who get caught up in a wacky shipboard adventure. Tucci imports a number of comic styles-silent film, Marx Brothers, farce, even "Godot"-like absurdism-and fails to make any of them work. He loves his impressive roster of actors-including Alfred Molina, Campbell Scott, Lili Taylor, and an uncredited Woody Allen-but loves too well and not wisely: many of the scenes appear to be the result of undisciplined improvisation, and nobody comes out looking good. -Ken Marks
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful period comedy [Wish it was on DVD!], March 23, 2002

By 

Matthew Horner (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Impostors [VHS] (VHS Tape)

It is no surprise that The Impostors didn't do much at the boxoffice. In a time when gross-out comedies are the rule, this stylish, charming effort is definitely the exception. What modern audiences may not realize is that comedy covers a rather broad area. Way back in the 1930s, W. C. Fields was doing now classic movies which were rude, crude and very funny, depending on what you finds amusing. In those days - and for the next fifty years - many different types of comedies were made. Perhaps today the media tends to want to believe the public's tastes are universally the same. I know that Hollywood's marketing strategies seem to come from one common pool of thought, which is why it often cannot market anything not fitting a certain mold.

The Impostors is a fond tribute to a gentler form of humor. Writer, director and star Stanley Tucci has proven with this and 1996's Big Night that he is one of our brightest independent film makers. His biggest attribute is his ability to make us laugh at certain stereotypes without ever being cruel. His is a loving touch.

The time seems to be the 1940s. Tucci and Oliver Platt play Maurice and Arthur, who are best friends and very out of work New York actors. Maurice is tall and thin and seems to be the heart of the pair, while short, chubby Maurice is its brain. Trying to con a baker out of some pastries, they wind up getting tickets to a production of Hamlet instead. During the performance the star, whom they can't stand anyway, winds up getting too drunk to finish the play. Later, in a bar, they are caught by the actor doing a rowdy impression of him. He becomes irate, and in the ensuing chase, the two somehow wind up as stowaways on a luxury liner. Naturally, the star winds up being one of the boat's passengers.

The ship is peopled with delightful eccentrics, including a broke socialite and her depressed daughter, a deposed queen, a gay tennis star, a psychotic Arabian sheik and a couple of fortune hunters. For the most part, the crew is equally mad, and Maurice and Arthur find themselves trapped in this madhouse at sea.

The film is full of sight gags and one-liners, most of which work. Lili Taylor, who later this year will appear as Eleanor in the remake of The Haunting and as Janis Joplin in the movie of the same name, is delightful as the sympathetic social director. Steve Buscemi nearly steals his scenes as a heartbroken crooner ironically named Happy Frank.

I really enjoyed this little jewel, and a most viewers with a sense of the absurd should, too. I even liked the movie's tag line. "Why be yourself when you can be somebody else"? I am really looking forward to Mr. Tucci's next effort.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best comedy of the 1990's!, September 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Impostors (DVD)

The Imposters is a classic farce. The film is not only hilarious, but also packed with talented actors. (I haven't seen this many cameo's since The Muppet Movie.) Stanley Tucci and Oliver Platt play two umeployed actors in New York during the 1920's. They accidently become stow-aways on a classy ocean liner. Not only are they stow-aways, but a rival actor on the boat is out to destroy them. The comedy in this movie is not only brilliant, but extremely entertaining.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dangerously funny!!!!, June 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Impostors [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Hat's off to Stanley Tucci for directing, writing, and starring in the most refreshingly original comedy I've seen since The Blues Brothers. This is a relentless character-driven comedy set in a timeless style reminiscent of the golden age of Hollywood. From the opening scene until the end of the credits this movie will hypnotize you with incredibly well timed physical comedy and perfectly delivered dialogue that lift the classicly esoteric situations to a new level of genius. This movie is not only well written but brilliantly realized by an incredible supporting cast including Billy Connely, Isabella Rosellini, Steve Buscemi and Campbell Scott.