Customer Reviews

It's My Turn [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Yes,this is a funny love story. Kate Gunzinger(Jill Clayburgh) is a mathematics professor who flies to New York for her father's wedding. The wedding was never seen. She meets and falls in love with her father's fiancee's son Ben Lewin(Michael Douglas),a retired baseball player(injury forced the retirement). Charles Grodin is Homer,Kate's roommate whom she shares an apartment with in Los Angeles. However,in one scene,Ben plays in an all-star game with various real-life MLB alumni(those as themselves). Rounding out the cast are Dianne Wiest(FOOTLOOSE),Daniel Stern(BREAKING AWAY,MY BLUE HEAVEN,HOME ALONE 1 & 2,CITY SLICKERS 1 & 2) and Charles Kimbrough(TV's Murphy Brown). The theme song was a hit for Diana Ross in 1980 when this film was theatrically released. The soundtrack album is long out-of-print and was never re-issued on CD. The song appears on several compilations,though.

This is an engaging, thoughtful, funny film. Jill Clayburgh seems at ease with being ill-at-ease and it's fun to watch her struggle as the Michael Douglas character enters her life. Douglas, as usual, adds his own brand of male energy as the baseball star whose injuries have forced his retirement. Also, Charles Grodin is wonderful as the rejected lover.

Jill Clayburgh is this film. It has a wonderful clamness to it and you can sit down and really enjoy watching it. Michael Douglas is great as the love interest. Those who are Yankee fans will love the shots of Yankee Stadium.

Wow.....I just can't believe what I'm about to say. I loved this movie! For twenty plus years I avoided it like the plague. The slurpy song, the femminist angle, it all seemed like a rehash of a dozen other "B" movies. WRONG WRONG WRONG! For starters Jill Clayburgh has never been more lovable in a very vulnerable way. She radiates and if I may say this.....her acting makes her appear to be even more attractive than she is. Her sensitivity made me fall in love her. You will too. Then there's Michael Douglas. When he enters the movie I mean it's slam dunk. He is nothing short of fantastic in the roll. Totally believable on every level. One note of interest is Charles Grodin. See if you agree with me on this. He looks like either the director had trouble with him or he had trouble with her. His performance is awkward and out of place. Dare I say amateurish! Very curious indeed. Other than that I swear when it ended I wanted it to go on for another half hour.....at least. All these years wasted. What other awakening is out there for me to experience. Yogurt? No way! Don't miss this movie.

The whole film, "It's my Turn", from beginning to end, is jive. Watching this film was a truly hateful experience.

Two words, Baby: Chick Flick! The characters portrayed in "It's My Turn" seem about as real as the two-dimensional cardboard likenesses of film stars that one might see in the lobby of a theatre.

The whole concept behind the movie is laughable. It's full of campy 70's feminist rhetoric, and about as deep as a soap opera about Barbie and Ken. Not much to think about, really. The dialogue sounds like a series of mindless jokes. Did people really talk like that back in 1979?

Charles Grodin and Mike Douglas portray a couple of Archie and Jughead-types on the make. Jill Clayburg's performance is particularly laughable as a seventies version of everywoman who struggles with the mundane problems of life in Chicago and New York. A meaningless sub plot: Her father fails to comply with her beatific ideas of perfection!

I saw this film at the local cineplex over twenty years ago, and since then, have never forgotten the experience. Upon the conclusion of the film I felt that I had wasted two hours of my life. I was so irritated that I seriously considered breaking into the projection room, taking the film from the projector and burning it with some lighter fluid and a match.

Would I recommend this film to my friends? Sure! Why not? Anything's better than watching "The English Patient".

Bonus Comment: I predict that by the year 2020, this film will be a tremendously popular camp favorite with people who are yet to be born, or are in their early infancy.

By 2020, Charles, Mike, Jill and the rest of the gang will be enroute to the old actor's home. By then, kids will look at "It's My Turn" in much the same way that most kids of today watch reruns of old TV shows like "The Beverly Hillbillies" and think that their parents were dolts.