Customer Reviews

The Secret of My Succe$s

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

1. A great lead actor: Michael J. Fox in the prime of his career, really drives this film, and makes it as enjoyable as it could possibly get. I doubt any other actor of the time could have pulled this one off. He plays someone trying to be the yuppie that Alex P. Keaton strived to be in the hit TV show Family Ties.

2. Excellent supporting cast: Robert Jordan and Margaret Whitton as Fox's uncle and aunt by marriage; and a good sidekick: John Pankow (Ira in TV's Mad About You) as Fox's mailroom, lowest on the office totem pole counterpart, who played off Fox very well. I did find Helen Slater to be a little cold.

3. Euro chic cinematography: With Carlo Di Palma (Blow-Up, The Appointment, Hannah & Her Sisters) on board, the look of this film was several notches above other similar films of the timeframe. Just look at some of the interesting shots in the film, including a scene where you see Robert Jordan in the mirror of a restaurant, while he's talking to Helen Slater with his back to the camera. Little stylish elements like this really make it an enjoyable rewatch in the present day.

This one never went overboard with the sexual antics, and remained very innocent compared to the huge lot of other 80's R-rated romps. It was also a few years ahead of just about every other teen film of the day, and I mean it in the sense that everyone else was in High School, while here we have a young man's journey on a career path after college. This would also make it appealing to young adults who were otherwise too old for the John Hughes type movies.

The DVD is definitely worth adding to your 80's film collection, especially considering it's low price. The extras are the trailer, cast bios, and some production notes. Presentation is widscreen and the picture quality is high.

Some say it was very contrived, and I can't dispute that, but surely you can't overlook the entertainment value of this rather unique, yuppie, 80's gem. A film truly tailored for the 80's MJF.

1987's 'The Secret of my Success' was looked at by producers and possibly Mike himself as just another way to keep himself busy and broaden his fame while in the 'Family Ties' era. But 'The Secret of My Success' exploded when Michael J. Fox's talent wasnt the sole shining star of the movie..providing a great supporting cast of huge actors like Maggie Whitton, who played Fox's sensuous aunt Vera. Michael J. Fox comes to New York from a small country farm where his parents live, to give a familiar story of determination to succeed in a city that still rings true: "If I Can Make It There....." Fox gets one foot in the door of a major corporation when his jerk uncle Howard Prescott decides to hire him in the mail room. The movie is perfect for Mike, whos' tremendous acting talent lends itself well to a young boy who works his way up the ladder of a multi-national corporation headed by a creep, and on the verge of overturning. I make it sound too dark though...the movie is non-stop laughs and an uplifting story that really does put a permanant smile on your face. Along with the greatest soundtrack Ive ever heard, which if youre buying this movie you HAVE to get the CD too, with all original songs and scores by performers like Pat Benatar, Night Ranger, David Foster, and Restless Heart. I can tell you right now if you've ever watched an episode of 'Family Ties', ever saw 'Back To the Future' 5 or 6 times in the last 4 years on tv or loved Fox's reign on 'Spin City'...this movie is perfect for you. A fast-paced, hilarious, energetic and cheerful movie that's great for the whole family. It deffinately gives us one of the many great things to remember about our friend.

I think a good test of how good or bad a movie is, is by how long it feels. Some 90 m. movies feel like three hours and vice versa. Secret of My Success feels like a half an hour. That's pretty good.

Brantley moves from Kansas to NYC in order to make it in the corporate world. Problem: he gets laid off even before he starts. He's a trooper, though, and doesn't want to run home with his tail between his legs so he goes to his Uncle Howard for a job. It's not exactly what Brantley envisioned as he is stuck in the mailroom. Using corporate bureaucracy against itself, he manages to swing a job as a vice-president. It gets pretty funny from there as Brantley tries to maintain two identities without being found out. The elevator scenes are priceless!

This movie is the definitive eighties comedy. Michael J. Fox gets to showcase his screwball comedy antics and the rest of the cast is equally fine. Helen Slater stands out as a female executive that manages to break through the glass ceiling only to be pressed up against it and fondled by the smarmy CEO. "Auntie Vera" is also a hoot as the sex-starved wife of Uncle Howard.

The DVD doesn't offer too much in the way of extras, but that's okay because the movie alone is worth having on disc. Get this one right away.

I found it interesting that Roger Ebert disliked this movie. This movie is not artistic or well-acted. The situations are ludicrous and unlikely. However, this movie offers well-executed comedy that is highly entertaining.

Michael J. Fox is Brantly Foster, a recent college graduate and the nephew of a business executive and his wife. Foster is intelligent and considers that perhaps Uncle Howard (Richard Jordan) might give him an opportunity in his company. A job in the mail room was not exactly the start that Foster had in mind.

Foster realizes that in a corporation the size of his uncle's that it is easy to do things without anyone realizing what is happening. So Foster sets himself up as newly hired executive Carlton Whitfield. Most of the executives accept Whitfield for what he seems to be. Foster's only significant problems are keeping Uncle Howard from finding out that he is also Carlton Whitfield and keeping his mail room boss from learning that he is not always delivering mail when he should be.

Foster/Whitfield soon encounters beautiful Christy Wills (Helen Slater), a young and highly intelligent executive, with whom he soon falls in love. Just as quickly he also encounters Aunt Vera (Margaret Whitton) and has more than one amorous encounter, before and after finding out she is his aunt by marriage.

With Foster impersonating an executive while working in the mail room, courting Christy, who, unbeknownst to him, is also involved with Uncle Howard, and avoiding Aunt Vera as much as possible, the comedic potential is high, and the movie delivers. Much of the comedy is borderline slapstick, but much of it is also situational.

The highlight of this movie, as with many light comedies of the 80s, is the somewhat cliché happy ending in the face of apparent doom. While you know there has to be a happy ending somewhere, unless you were very attentive it was easy to miss the clues given that suggest what the ending might be.

This movie is one of my favorite 80s comedies. While some critics have treated it harshly, the movie is fun to watch over and over because the situations, while predictable, are well done. Michael J. Fox at the peak of his career always brought a likable presence to the screen and his execution usually brings at least smiles and more often laughs.

A fairly strong recommendation for a charming feel-good entertainer about a young gun making it to the top, starting of course from the mail roon. We might as well have called it "The secret of how I succeeded without really trying". The script is thus obviously doozy and relies on some major implausible situational gaffes, but the energy of Michael Fox and the brilliant comic timing of Margaret Whitton as his aunt makes it all borderline credible. Plus, the snappy final half hour is the best part of the film, with some thoughtful romance thrown in for good measure. I guess we all have a hint of Bradley (Fox' character) buried in ourselves. A fun rental to lighten things up.

"The Secret of My Success" owes all its minimal success to the casting of Michael J. Fox, one of the most likable screen presences in all of film history. In "Back to the Future," he was the overwhelmed high schooler who accidentally traveled back in time to 1955 and had to find a way back. In "Teen Wolf," he was the highschooler turned into a werewolf. In "The Hard Way," one of the best cop-buddy films of all time, he was the eager-to-please Hollywood actor trying to do some good-natured research.

All his roles fall back on the Sweet Guy persona. In "The Secret of My Success," he plays Brantley, a Kansas boy who makes the big move to the Big Apple, where he lands a job at his uncle Howard's (Richard Jordan) firm. He gradually makes his way up the ladder as a mail boy, but his real break comes when he is mistaken for a higher-up and tries to woo hard-to-get girl Christy (Helen Slater), a beautiful co-worker of the company who buys Brantley's job position.

Simple premise, but it becomes all the more entangled when Brantley has to run back and forth between different job positions, changing clothes in the elevator and getting in a heated affair with his uncle's wife (played by Margaret Whitton), the kind of lady who doesn't take no for an answer.

The film's amorality is what struck me on multiple viewings. It sort of seems dirty and unclean -- Brantley's a farm boy but he's eager to get in a romance with his aunt. The casual sexuality of the film is what, ultimately, makes it sort of disturbing, and also sort of memorable, as odd as that may sound.

Fox shines in the lead role, and with any other actor the film would simply fall flat on its face. And, to be honest, a film like this could never be made nowadays -- I can imagine Jim Carrey in such a role, but the outcome would be wholly different. The eighties were an entire generation of comedy unto themselves. A lot of people love the comedies from the eighties because so many were made with so little thought and yet a lot of heart, kind of like "The Secret of My Success." Its mediocrity is what drives it, amazingly, but also its heart, and so many comedies nowadays lack the heart of the comedies from the eighties.

I come back to "The Secret of My Success" a lot, probably because I saw it on TV when I was younger and it's been in my head ever since. It's a routine film that's hardly recommendable, but I actually enjoy it a lot the more I watch it, and it has a kind of frenetic comedic energy that most of the films of the genre are lacking nowadays.

The script, by Jim Cash nd Jack Epps Jr., seems as though it were one from an earlier decade. It has a delightful sweetness to it that's simply not unnoticeable.

I understand how many would dislike this film. The critic Roger Ebert gave "The Secret of My Success" 1.5/4 stars upon its inital release in 1987. I can't say I wouldn't have, either, if I were in his shoes. But comedies, over time, sort of grow on you, and this is one of those cases.

It's not as good as "Back to the Future," or "The Hard Way," but it's a lot like Fox's "Teen Wolf" (1985): fast-paced, extremely routine, cliched, flawed, and lots of fun. Don't miss this one, even if it isn't exactly the pinnacle of comedy.

This is a great exemple of what happens to the business today, the movie itself is great, with the image of the "white knight" American who save the corporation. I in a academic point of view find the concept hysterical, even more if you look at corporation today! We might need more Brantly Foster around.

Anyway Micheal J. Fox Rules!

Okay, so maybe it really deserves 3 and 1/2 stars. As someone who went to college in the 1980s and did the New York corporate ladder thing, though, this film, for some reason, captures those times better than any I've seen. The nervous tics, the lack of trust, the yearning for intimacy, overall cluelessness, even the earnest act of pretending not to take any of it too seriously, all very authentic. Is it a put on? Yeah, but so were the 80s. So don't rent "Wall Street" or any of the other films of this genre which take themselves way too seriously. Fox and Slater deliver the goods, though you might forget what film you were watching two hours later.

no, not an academy award winner, but it was fun to watch, and it was light but fun entertainment. If you want serious, just wake up in the morning and live life. Othewise take a break with this movie, and just don't take it seriously.

The Secret of My Success is, without a doubt, one of the definitive movies of the 80's. Micheal J. Fox is not only an American hero, but he is also a fine actor. His character, Brantley Foster, is a class act. Foster epitomizes the American dream and how one can achieve it- if they want it bad enough. This movie is not only great for entertainment, but a great addition to anyone's film collection. Highly Recommended - A+ OH YEAH!