Customer Reviews

My Breakfast With Blassie [VHS]

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you are prepared for a low-budget, high nonsense movie, you'll love My Breakfast with Blassie. The movie seems either very spontaneous or highly disorganized. Whatever the case is, it is a slow starter. Those who are not intrigued with Kaufman may get a little restless, but those who are patient will really enjoy this little bit that has been put together. I laughed my tail off, and my girlfriend (who is not a huge Kaufman fan) found it humorous.

At first you will be scratching your head asking yourself......"What the heck is this?" By the end of the movie you will be laughing like a madman and be telling yourself....."now I get it." Die-hard Andy fans will love it. Any wrestling fan who knows Freddie Blassie will love it. This movie has no point, not reason for being made, and no plot. It is just two guys sitting down shooting the bull about absolutely nothing. And it keeps you captivated.

The film "My Dinner with Andre," is made up almost entirely of a highly intellectual dinner conversation between two old acquaintances at an upscale restaurant on Manhattan's Upper West Side. So here, Andy Kaufman made a film about an anti-intellectual breakfast conversation between former pro-wrestler/wrestling manager Freddie Blassie and himself, at a very downscale pancake house in Los Angeles.

We are treated to Kaufman and Blassie discussing things like their aversion to shaking peoples' hands: Blassie notes that the person extending his hand could have just been wiping himself "and their finger could have gone through the toilet paper."

Kaufman and Blassie are being served breakfast by a very pregnant Thai waitress. Blassie rubs her belly, talking friendly to her and telling her it's for good luck. Then, after she walks away, he tells Kaufman, "Now we don't have to tip her so much." Later on in the film, he rubs her belly again, and then, after she walks away, comments: "That's another one we'll be feeding on welfare."

Kaufman's parody works, but it may not be for everyone. If you haven't seen "My Dinner with Andre," you may not fully get it. Also, this kind of humour is very different from almost anything you will see in a "mainstream" Hollywood comedy. But, having said that, I found "My Breakfast with Blassie" to be a real gas and recommend it highly!

Just in time to "scoop" the Criterion release of the engaging but much-maligned conversation film My Dinner with Andre comes the (long-awaited? maybe) dvd release of Andy Kaufmann's hilarious and uncomfortable low-budget improvised spoof: "My Breakfast with Blassie." Kaufmann, complete with neck brace and in the midst of his "intergender" professional wrestling phase, meets an old hero, the former wrestler and (then) current manager Freddie Blassie. Instead of intellectual conversation about art and life in a French restaurant in New York City, we are in an L.A. diner, where Andy chats with Blassie about breakfast, fame, germs and disease, and wrestling, where he harasses other diners, and eggs Blassie on to reveal his latent and disturbing racist and sexist attitudes (suggestive of the subsequent comedic work of Sacha Baron Cohen in Borat).

It's an intriguing look at Kaufmann's approach to comedy, and a funny counterbalance to the high-brow conversation in Louis Malle's film. Is it brilliant? Of course not. It's an improvised amusing and awkward encounter between an artist who creates comedy from pushing a certain persona to extremes and a former wrestler who has long since blurred any line between his persona and his personality. Well worth watching for both lovers and haters of My Dinner. (Note: this was originally shot on low quality video, so don't expect a high quality cinematic experience. I think that's part of the "charm" - or perhaps the whole point of the thing is that these guys are not about charm and the film aesthetics certainly mirror that.)

I love this movie. The first time I saw it I thought it was real. The more I watch it the funnier it gets.

this film is genius. pure and simple. after what seems like a boring first ten minutes, you start to realize just what you're watching and then all of a sudden you realize everything you've seen and continue to see is hilarious.

the only down side is that the tape begins with some home movies of the premiere. bad idea. andy looks horrible. he looks very sick, his arms are thin as rails and he tries to compensate for the loss of hair due to chemotherapy by shaving it into a mowhawk. not only that, but he really seems to not know where he is or what's going on around him. you almost want to cry.

Name any world figure or celebrity superstar, and Andy Kaufman could have upstaged him. What a shame the Lord took him so young, but I, for one, don't argue with God. I wonder where Andy would have gone with his career. Anyway, see MY BREAKFAST WITH BLASSIE. While not as funny as some of Kaufman's work, the film certainly does what the late artist did best: command undivided attention.

The world will never have the honor to experience another Andy Kaufman. A true genius and will always be missed greatly by his fans. People had a hard time understanding his type of comedy. But for those lucky people that did, loved him and appreciated his courage. I have so much admiration for this man. Especially, for him to be so much before my time.

I haven't seen this in a while but it is a film that i will never forget. When i first saw it (actually the only time I ever saw it) I proclaimed that it was the greatest work of comedy ever created. To this day I will stand by that statement until I see something that surpasses it. Sure, films like Spinal Tap or Bottle Rocket are great competitors, but for my money Blassie is unbeatable. This is the pinnacle of creative comedy.

An absolutely essential picture for any fan of professional wrestling. Andy Kaufman was never much of wrestler (what kind of a man fights girls only to lose?) True, the film starts a bit slowly, but the pace builds in an elegant way, to its finish, a finish that is not expected. "Classy" Fred Blassie - the man who added "pencil-neck geek" to our lexicon - is at his offensive best here. He is a tie to the Golden Age of Wrestling, before Hulk Hogan and the other latecomers. Whether it is puerile comments about "broads", or demonstrating the fine points of using a pre-moistened towelette, Blassie is a master to see at work. I took my girlfriend, not a wrestling fan, to see this picture, with no explanation. She laughed until her sides hurt. On my next movie night i paln to shoe "My Dinner With Andre" before the meal, and "My Breakfast With Blassie" afterwards. Why, O why couldn't Wallace Shawn do some work with Fred Blassie?