Customer Reviews

It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

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

 

 

I just got through watching this movie. It started out slow, so I thought it was going to be a made-for-boring movie but it picked up, was fun to watch and wound up being a good movie.
John Candy's picture appears on the cover of the DVD case but he is not the main character or STAR of the movie. I'm sure he was put on the cover because he has greater Star Recognition than all the others. His character, who comes in halfway through the movie, is just supporting. It IS a pleasant movie to watch.

DO NOT BUY THIS. The cover of the package is fraudulent. John Candy is NOT a major character in this movie. This movie is some cheap independent made movie full of cheap bathroom humor (if you can call it humor). We turned this movie off 10-15 minutes into it and Candy had NOT made an appearance yet. His name appeared in the end of the cast credits.

I don't know who wrote the blurb for this movies - John Candy does not "head up the cast" of this movie unless you consider under a minute of screen time "heading up" the cast. It's not about a jealous husband trying to get his wife back. It's about a gold-digging wife (Stephanie Powers) who sleeps with her exhusband (Anthony Newley) on a regular basis while draining her present husband dry. And setting up a deal to curry political favor by sleeping with the man running for mayor of wherever this city is supposed to be. They can't even get the name right - Anthony Newley's character is "Sweeney" not "Skeet". The photo of John Candy on the box is from a later time, also. It's a young John Candy in the film and he has about 1 minute of screen time.
The drawing power for me was Isaac Hayes and John Candy. Isaac Hayes plays Anthony Newley's buddy/sidekick and he is in the movie for much too short a time. a young John Candy plays a cop in a "blink and you'll miss him" role. So if you thought that pairing would be cool to see, you're probably right, it would be. It didn't happen in this movie.
If you like a long pointless movie about characters you don't care about doing stuff that doesn't make any sense to anyone, this is the movie for you. Especially if you're not a John Candy fan, you probably won't notice he's in the movie. If you want to see something funny with Isaac Hayes or John Candy, keep looking. Almost anything is better than this drivel.

It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time is the greatest horrible movie ever made. It "stars" John Candy and Isaac Hayes, but in actuality stars two completely unknown actors, with Isaac Hayes serving as the male lead's sidekick, while John Candy delivers about 45 seconds of total airtime. The film opens with a dated but catchy theme, drops the viewer randomly into the movie, shows absolutely no comprehendible plot except for random zaniness, and ends just as mysteriously as it began. In the end the film works on a comedic level not originally intended. The film is so bad and campy that in a round about way, it achieves its goal: pure comedic gold. It is the stuff of cult movie classics, and for anyone that enjoyed Troll 2, this movie is highly recommended.

A great cast including Stefanie Powers, Lloyd Bochner, John Candy, Anthony Newley, Yvonne DeCarlo and Isaac Hayes. Newley's escapades are hilarious and it's fun to see these well known actors in a show before they were famous.

I gave this movie to my husband because he is a big John Candy fan. I did not know that John Candy was barely in the video almost like a cameo. I was disappointed and so was my husband

This really should be considered false advertising. John Candy plays a VERY small part in this movie, although he does have a couple of very funny lines and one hilarious scene. That being said, the plot of the movie is not high brow in any sense, and it's sort of dated, but it is amusing and fun.

The main characters are actually Stefanie Powers, Anthony Newly, and Isaac Hayes, all of whom play roles with which they are not usually associated, which made their characters interesting for me. It was also fun to see Yvonne DeCarlo and few other familiar TV faces.

If you are a John Candy fan, and you are looking to buy this movie primarily to see him, you will likely be disappointed. If you are looking for a bit of mindless entertainment, this movie just might do it.

Since this movie is available from many different video companies (it's obviously in the public domain because no one wants anything to do with it), I will let you know that I am writing in response to the Trinity company release, which should be cited for false advertising with its cover picture of John Candy.

John Candy has only a very, very minor role in the movie. It's an Anthony Newley/Stephanie Powers vehicle with a prominent role for Isaac Hayes, although he gets remarkably little to do.

But don't let any of the star names entice you, this movie is an embarrassment for all involved with it and a total waste of time for anyone watching it.

The writing is amateurish, the editing is even worse, and the music is a total insult to the audience. There's no point in talking about the plot, because there isn't one worth mentioning. There is nothing funny about anything at all in the entire film.

The only reason this movie is still around to sully our lives is that it's free--the video companies don't have to pay anything for it, and it's no wonder why.

Absolutely Godawful. To get you into the right frame of mind, IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME (1975) is a movie where, when being squirted with a mellow stream of water, nobody has the sense to simply take one step to the left or right to get out of the way. They just stand there flapping their lips, looking shocked while the good guys laugh up a storm.

Always be wary when a movie or book contains a "signal from Fred". When it exists right there in the title, you know you're in for trouble. The movie title should not be the film's primary excuse.

And yet, not only do I have that objection to the title (surely no part of this seemed like a good idea), I'm not even sure what it refers to at the story level. What plot point is supposed to have seemed like a good idea? The kidnapping idea? I'm baffled at what else it could mean, but even that doesn't fit.

I'm getting ahead of myself. The story concerns Anthony Newley as an unappealing slacker and his generic ex-wife, played by Stephanie Powers. The Digiview version of this DVD release erroneously states that Newley tries "to have Powers get involved with a local politician". This is false. Clearly whoever wrote it wasn't paying much attention to the film (I can't blame them). Newley's motivation is, in fact, to get her as far away as possible from the politician (and also away from her current husband).

Indeed, the early comedic set pieces involve Newley's sabotage of the budding romance. This includes some "hilarious" hijinks involving Newley bringing a bunch of far-out party-animals to a stuffy formal event (after first slipping laxatives into the food, naturally), and later setting a skunk loose in a cabin. Yes, we aren't talking about the most original gags here. The sad part is they aren't even executed well. It's tired comedy pulled off rather poorly. It has the added indignity of not making any logical sense either. How the hell do you pull someone's suit pants completely off without his noticing? And what pharmaceutical company sells their laxative products in a container that freaking huge? If you need to buy your laxatives by the gallon, there's something seriously wrong with your diet.

The incidental music has been fiercely criticized for sounding absolutely over the top and distracting. It's bad enough to have unfunny jokes thrown at you, but do you really want to hear loud, obnoxious musical cues blasting out of your speakers to remind you that you're supposed to be laughing? I'm glad I'm too much of a luddite to own a high-performance surround-sound system; I'd have been deafened. Between the goofy trombone effects to the electronic farting noises, I could only dream of dignified silence

To distract me from the mind-numbing tedium, I started playing a little game. A plot point involves an upper class twit running for mayor, so I tried to figure out what city it was. We're never told directly; I looked for clues. First of all, Newley has a distinct London cockney accent. On the other hand, Powers speaks with a generic California/Hollywood accent. Her husband attempts a Noo Yawk accent. Several of the characters near the start of the film employ Northeastern US accents (think Connecticut or Massachusetts).

So, where is this movie set? With this mixture of accents, I was stumped. But then a major clue emerged. The politician's license plate is visible in one shot. And the plate reads... Ontario.

Er, well, I'm sure that clears things up.

So, is this guy planning to run for mayor of Toronto? Or were the visible Ontario tags merely a mistake that should never have appeared on film?

Am I putting more thought into the specifics of the movie's fictional setting than the filmmakers did? Probably.

The script has a lot of flaws and unexplained moments. Why, for example, does Newley hate that dog? Why is Power's husband so intent on knocking down his mother-in-law's house? (We aren't even given a greedy reason why he might wish to do so. There's no oil on the land. No big strip mall that needs building on her lot. He's apparently just doing it because he's evil.)

Multiple companies have released this film on DVD, and all of them capitalize on the fact that beloved comedian John Candy has a part in this film. Despite the impression you may get from the packaging, do not buy this movie on the understanding that Candy has a large role. He does not. This film is 91 minutes; Candy's character doesn't even show up until minute 55. He has very few lines.

There are few rays of hope. Isaac Hayes -- in the "best friend" role -- seems to have enjoyed himself. Unfortunately, while this does make the film a little more entertaining, watching someone else enjoying himself isn't quite as much fun as actually enjoying yourself. I could appreciate that Hayes was having fun. I just wish I'd been able to do the same.

Oh, and Stephanie Powers' mother is fun. It took me a little while to figure out who she is. But once I did, I had to laugh (one of the few laughs the picture provides). It's Yvonne de Carlo -- TV's Lily Munster. She's not just amusing for kitsch value; she's actually quite funny.

Yeah, this movie would be vastly improved by cutting out everything except Isaac Hayes' sculpturing scenes and the sequences of Lily Munster taking potshots at a lawyer with a shotgun. This really is a film that only its mother could love and reinforces the rule that there's nothing worse than a comedy that isn't funny. Oh, and the Digiview version clips off a few seconds of the opening animation, but I'm not going to complain about having less of this movie to see.

I bought this movie as part of a 50-movies (on 13 DVD's) package they sell for 31$ at a local bookstore so I wasn't really expecting anything. As the title says this is a good drive-in comedy, but don't get fooled by the fact that there's John Candy in the credits, we see him only toward the end and he says only about 10 lines of text. Isaac Hayes have a more prominent role but it's still a Anthony Newley movie, he's somewhat funny. The movie is about a guy, Sweeney (played by Anthony Newley) who like to use practical jokes to solve everyday problems like how to keep your mistress away in a log cabin for a few days. The beginning is a bit slow but there's a funny ending.