Customer Reviews

Private Parts [VHS]

5 star:		(61)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I'm a big Howard Stern fan however, I'm giving this movie 3 stars because it falls short of living up to the geniune vulgar comedy present in the book. yeah I said vulgar and its damn funny.
This film hardly shows us Howards funny but, true childhood expereinces such as when his mother made him wear her underwear to school because all of his were dirty. We didn't see him get beat up by blacks when living in a predominantly black community. We didn't see his comical sexual experiences during his adolescent years as he described in this book. The list goes on and those were the funniest parts of the Book yet, this movie didn't take advantage of it.
It appeared Ivan Riteman (whatever way his name is spelled) chose to only focus on Howards career & marriage and put a lighthearted spin on it. Yeah, I know Howard eggxagerates his personality on the radio but, the book had more of a politically incorrect NC-17 tone to it. This Movie however, fails to capture that but, instead makes Howard into a likeable goodhearted person. That was obviously Paramount's strategy to make this film appeal to a broad mainstream audience however, That clearly backfired since it only earned 42 Million and most of that revenue came from loyal Howard Stern Fans. I think this movie could have been the funniest movie ever made if the director used Howards book as a blueprint, however it ends up being a tame watered down version of what it should have been.

Howard Stern is the world's most famous radio DJ. He's obnoxious, sleazy, perverted, silly, and overrated. However, his 1997 semi-biographical film Private Parts, adapted from the book with the same title, is outrageously funny.

The movie gives us a closer look at Howard's college years, his beginnings on live radio, and rise to fame. But the movie focuses more on his romantic life with his wife-to-be Allison, played by Mary McCormack, his hysterical confrontations with WNBC's executive, the one Howard calls Pig Vomit, played by the even more hysterical Paul Giamatti, and his collaboration with long time partners Robin Quivers and Fred Norris, played by themselves.

I personally do not approve of or like Howard's show, but this movie cracked me up laughing when I first saw it, and still does today.

Recommended

B+

I first saw "Private Parts" about a year ago and it was a lot different than I thought it was gonna be. It's pretty much just a biography of Howard Stern. It shows how he first became interested in becoming a disc jockey and how he achieved the fame that he currently has as being the only DJ of his kind. But unlike most people might think at first, the movie presents Mr. Stern as more of a sensitive guy than it does gross or immature. It tells of all his struggles and conflicts he had to go through to become the Howard Stern he is today, especially how he struggled in getting his wife to accept his kind of humor on the radio.

That's not all that's good about the movie. "Private Parts" is hilarious at times and all the naked women in the movie look good, especially Jenna Jameson.

If you'd like to learn more about Howard Stern, you need to see "Private Parts." It's entertaining and it might change your mind a little bit about Mr. Stern after you see it.

This film is not for everyone. As much as it does, at times, candy-coat the raunchy nature of Howard Stern's radio show, PRIVATE PARTS will never convert adamant Howard-haters.

Still if you sit back and enjoy the story, this is a fun movie about the rise of a famous (and to some infamous) radio personality who invented a genre of talk show that's been copied relentlessly over the last 20 years.

Directed by "Hill Street Blues" actress Betty Thomas and loosely based on a best selling book by the same title, PRIVATE PARTS stars all the characters Howard made famous since the early 80s on DC and New York City radio shows.

As a result, this cast is mostly comprised of non-actors playing themselves, at various stages of their lives so you have to "suspend belief," as Howard himself urges viewers at the beginning of this film. (A 40 year old Howard Stern doesn't look like the geeky teenager he once was, though trust me he still looks geeky).

Since every Howard fan has already seen this film many times over, I would recommend PRIVATE PARTS to open-minded people who are unfamiliar with him but up for a great tale about the life (complete with its struggles and successes) of one of the most controversial characters of the late 20th century.

Because I love his actual radio show, but found his old TV show, lacking dimensions of Howard that do not involve sex workers, I appreciated director Betty Thomas's approach to telling the Howard story. Rather than exclusively focusing on lesbians and pornography, Thomas also reveals the conflicting nature of Howard Stern, complete with an overbearing, critical father, an off-kilter mother and Howard's disturbingly normal and loving relationship with his wife.

What I loved best about PRIVATE PARTS were the scenes that depicted random people hearing Howard Stern's radio and literally looking shocked by what they were hearing. I remember the first time I heard Howard during the summer of 1985 when he was still on WNBC. What I heard that afternoon startled me and that is precisely what has kept me tuning in ever since.

It's not that I agree with Howard (though more often than not I do) it is just that I never hear people say the things that come out of his mouth. And that in a nutshell is precisely what makes Howard great. Rather than a foul-mouthed shockmeister, Howard is really the voice of a silenced group of people most of us interact with every day. It is not the voice of left-leaning Hollywood with its politically correct poster children.

Instead Howard is the vocal mouthpiece of the random Joe, who secretly thinks about sex 24 hours a day while straddling the fence between liberal and conservative opinions. Because ultimately he is obsessively concerned with himself, his weight, his body functions and the world around him as it relates to him, Stern offers a stream of conscious window into the inner minds of those complicated middle Americans who voted for Bush, made Bay Watch must-see TV and who to this day continue to baffle exit-pollers.

-- Regina McMenamin

No question, Howard Stern has had an interesting and illustrious career. I suppose it was a good idea for him to make this movie when he did - and it was done well by Ivan Reitman. The movie has a good feeling to it and it has some very funny moments, but there's not much to it beyond the story we'd already known about Howard - as revealed over the years on his radio show.

It's entertaining - and I especially like the parts where Howard plays himself as a college student. Keeping things so so tame may have hurt the story somewhat, but the success of the movie speaks for itself.

Oh, as an aside, this DVD has one of the gayest photos I've ever seen on the cover.

Zany radio/TV personality Howard Stern plays himself in PRIVATE PARTS, a fast-paced, funny bio-pic. Most noteworthy is the performance of Paul Giamatti, playing a control-bent radio executive who tries to make Stern conform to company standards. Also, Stern writer Jackie Martling brightens the screen playing himself - if you can see PRIVATE PARTS in letterbox format, Martling even turns up the energy in the background, doing the bump with Stern's cohost Robin Quivers in the AC/DC concert scene. Just as on the radio show, Howard Stern shares the spotlight in this film, orchestrating madness with no dull moments. PRIVATES PARTS doesn't hold back on the nudity, something some people may wish to imagine on the radio rather than see in the movie. If the naked parts don't bother you, see PRIVATE PARTS.

I loved the Howard Stern movie, I have seen it st least 7 times. The story was funny and some of us can relate to being unpopular and finding that certain someone who loves you for who you are. I am dedicated listener to his show and find his crude humor entertaining and no way insulting. I highly recommend this movie to who are not Howard fan's, your point of view will change after you see it and you may end up with some kind of respect for a guy who got to the top by just being himself.

In this film starring and based on the book by radio personality Howard Stern,he,as himself,narrates from beginning to end about his childhood through 1985. Robin Quivers,as herself,met Howard in 1981 when he joined DC 101 in Washington,D.C. as a talk show host and she was a newswoman. Mary McCormack is Alison Berns Stern who Howard met while he studied for his communications degree at Boston University. Paul Giamatti is Kenny "Pig Vomit" Rushton,the program director at New York City's now-defunct WNBC 660 AM. Howard is returning home to his family and supermodel Carol Alt sat next to Howard on the aircraft in which they traveled. As themselves are Howard's other team members,Fred Norris,who Howard met in Hartford,Connecticut in '79,Gary Dell'Abate,the producer and Jackie "Jokeman" Martling,the head writer. Alison Janney is Dee Dee,the DC 101 programming director. Norris and Quivers,since Howard first met them,have stuck with Stern everywhere he went to this very day. Stern met Dell'Abate and Martling at WNBC in '84(Stern came to the station 2 years earlier). If you're a Howard Stern fan,this film is for you. WNBC was bought out by WFAN,a sports station,in 1988. Stern and his team were fired from WNBC in September 1985 and two months later,they went to the newly christened K-Rock,where they still are today. Howard and Alison have been divorced since 1999 after 21 years of marriage. The couple have had three daughters. Betty Thomas,who starred on NBC's Hill Street Blues,directed this film. She also directed "The Brady Bunch Movie". Giamatti also appeared in "Donnie Brasco","The Cable Guy" and "Big Fat Liar". We all know that Stern is a comedian in his own right,delighting his audiences with gross,sexual and racial humor.

... it's rude.
It's crude.
It's downright lewd.
It's disgusting.
It's vile.
It's nasty.
It's sexist.
It's despicable.
It's ridiculous.

But it is laugh-out-loud, gut-busting, falling-on-the-floor, screaming-at-the-top-of-your-lungs FUNNY!!!

'nuff said.

Judy Lind

ok look, the movie is funny as hell, but im still waiting for a "special edition", i wanna see deleted scenes, behind the scenes, or commentary or something!!! um, its Howard Stern, us fans deserve that...