Customer Reviews

The Tall Guy

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I love this movie. It ranks among my personal comedy favourites such as Blazing Saddles but for odd reasons.

Others may focus on the rather sublime surrealism of the stage performances where Jeff Goldblum teams up with Rowan Atkinson on the London stage but for me the essence of this movie is the sending up of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Many of your readers will not be aware of a production that the RSC did of the horror flick Carrie. I am. I was there and lived to tell the tale. Needless to say the concept was horribly flawed and clearly did not attract much in the way of customer support and thankfully had only a short shelf life.

The Tall Guy has some marvellous moments for instance the feather scene as well as a cartwheeling Goldblum on a hill in front of a large full moon. Emma Thompson in an unfamiliar role as an endearing nurse but the highlight of this quirky British movie has to be the scenes which centre on the RSC musical "Elephant".

Any of your readers who are familiar with the theatre aristocracy in England will know of the position of the RSC in that hierarchy. In recent years the question of government financing, the Barbican theatre location in London have all been major drama productions with the whole entertainment world being given free seats by that great arts patron, the media. The RSC is a self-contained little world much like a living opera with extravagant gestures and larger than life characters. And here's the rub. Elephant exposes a lot of the inner workings of the RSC and pokes fun at them. And a good thing too. A production company which produces a Romeo and Juliet where Romeo dies by an intavenous injection of poison deserves to be poked fun at.

Seriously though, the good thing about this is that it does show that the Brits can poke fun at their revered institutions whether they be Parliament or the RSC and not take everything too seriously.

Watching the VHS version again recently in eager anticipation of the DVD release I was struck by the realisation that two masterly comic productions have yet to air on VHS or DVD which would find great favour with US audiences: Not the 9 O'Clock News and Spitting Image.

On a final note there is something for music buffs too, the sight of...

No I will not spoil it. Have great fun with this DVD. Now what about Yellowbeard?

Postscript March 29 2002.

After watching the DVD several times, I dug out my old PAL copy of the movie which I had devotedly brought over with me from merry olde England. I was aghast to find that six minutes have been cut, all of which is unnecessary and detract from the movie. The cuts are not pretty and should be restored. Please, if anyone out there is reading who has the authority to correct this butcher's savagery, please do so. There really is no need to chop this delightful movie...after all the sex was left in. If you can, try to see the original movie. It will make more sense that way.

...

There are actually two versions of this film available, one is 92 minutes long and the other is 85 minutes long. Now, which do you think would be the better film?

Well, unfortunately, the version that was put to DVD is the tranced 85 minute version :(

As for the movie itself, I first saw it on TV late one night (in the 92 minute version) and loved it so much that I went out and rented it on video a few days later. But of course this was that awful 85 minute version. I mean, there are lead up to punch lines that never happen (in the begining of the movie, Jeff Goldblum is at his apartment, which he shares with an over sexed, and a bit inconsiderate, female friend, and is making himself a glass of OJ by pouring the remaining drips of several empty OJ containers, that he finds all over the apartment, into a glass. And just as he's managed to make the glass half full, he's distracted by one of his roomates naked boyfriends, entering the kitchen. He puts down the glass, which his room mate ends up drinking on him. It's a funny sceen in the 92 min. version, but in the 85 min. one, she never drinks the juice, but we still see Jeff seraching the apartment for juice containers to drain into the glass. Also, funny, Rowen Atkinson, bits, are cut out of the 85 min. version.

But, if you're a big fan of quirky comedy, Rowan Atkinson, or have ever wanted to see Emma Thompson in the buff... (yep, she has a funny nude sceen) then this movie's still a must have DVD (that is, unless you can find the 92 minute video, then you might want to go for that instead).

It just STINKS, that the distributors didn?t bother to put in the effort to track down a print of the FAR superior 92 minute version, to put to DVD? :(

THE TALL GUY has been a favorite of mine for years. I take great pride in being a fan of this "guilty pleasure" film! I try to turn people onto it as often as possible.

THE TALL GUY, first and foremost, is very British in its humor, which means there is irony, surrealism, and jokes that don't depend on insults (Americans *love* the insult-joke).

THE TALL GUY has the funniest sex scene (Goldblum and Thompson) that I've ever seen. And as others have mentioned, the ELEPHANT! musical is hysterical. I cried the first time I saw the musical numbers ... it's that hilarious.

At heart, THE TALL GUY is a sweet romance. But its British sensibilities and backstage humor (Goldblum's character is an underdog actor) lifts it above an average screwball comedy. And Emma Thompson is very charming as Nurse Kate! One forgets after all of her serious Shakespeare and Jane Austin roles that she is quite a comedienne.

So enjoy THE TALL GUY! And remember: "Somewhere up in heaven there's an angel with big ears."

*[a reference to my favourite exchange in the film:

Dexter (Jeff Goldblum): What's your name?

Kate (Emma Thompson): Kate. Kate Lemon. Horrid name.

Dexter (nervously): No, it's nice. Just imagine, it could have been `Hitler' or `Tampons'.

(Later he mistakenly introduces her as `Kate Tampon'. A fine example of the absurdist humour to be found herein.]

"The Tall Guy" begins the trilogy of films, written by Richard Curtis, in which Yanks fall in love with Brits. It's much less familiar than it's successors, "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "Notting Hill", but definitely their equal in the quality of its romantic comedy. Curtis has once again acquitted himself a samurai when it comes to these kinds of movies. Here, the romance is palpable, the wit heaped on in buckets, and the whole confection just plain delightful.

Jeff Goldblum, in the title role, is a far less cool and together character than he normally plays, but he pulls it off. He has the sort of acting style that makes you believe he's saying the words for the first time, layered over a unique rhythm of speaking that's all his own. His Dexter King -- an American actor hardly working in England -- is constantly falling down and getting stepped on (literally and metaphorically). He just can't do anything right. Until one day, Emma Thompson's Nurse Kate sees through his ruse of getting inoculated for a trip to Morocco, and falls in love with him. Thompson is clever, witty, terribly cool and efficient. Which makes her falling in love with Goldblum that much more effective. These two actors work extremely well together. And of course they share the famous scene of prodigious humping that does more damage to a bedroom than anything this side of Orson Welles in "Citizen Kane". It's quite ridiculous but very amusing.

The background of their romance is populated by much silliness. Leading the charge is Rowan Atkinson, as Goldblum's boss, a popular comic who's a tyrant out of the spotlight. Atkinson spews malice extremely well. And if I remember correctly, Curtis (who wrote for Atkinson on both "Blackadder" and "Mr. Bean") based the character on Atkinson himself! The final act is dominated by the absurd staging of a musical based on the Elephant Man ("Elephant!"). Watching the actors run through the show's songs, completely straight-faced, is a treat in itself. The rest of the movie is just as absorbing. If you liked "Four Weddings" and got sucked in by "Notting Hill", then treat yourself to "The Tall Guy" too.

One of the best comedies of the 80's. Whether it slipped under the public's radar or was simply a victim of poor marketing is up for debate, but "The Tall Guy" should be required viewing for romantic comedy buffs. Deftly directed by British TV comic Mel Smith with a high-brow/low-brow blend of sophisticated cleverness and riotous vulgarity (somehow he makes it work), this is the stuff cult followings are made of. The perfect cast features Jeff Goldblum as an American actor working on the London stage who is lovestruck by English nurse Emma Thompson (in her most uninhibited performance). Rowan Atkinson is so convincing as Goldblum's employer, a London stage comic beloved by his audience but an absolute backstage terror to cast and crew, that one suspects our lovable "Mr. Bean" really IS a nasty, arrogant, egomaniac off-screen. The most hilariously choreographed scene of "wild sex" ever put on film (featuring Goldblum and Thompson) is worth the price of admission alone, and the extended set-piece, a staged musical version of the "Elephant Man" (a mercilessly funny Andrew Lloyd Webber parody) begs comparisons to "The Producers". Seek this one out.

Both the good and the bad thing about "The Tall Guy" is that it is a British comedy with an American sense about it. That may mean that it's not terribly appealing to either people who like the British form of humour or those that like the American style, but I think it works very well!

It's an absurd tale of an American actor (Jeff Goldblum) relegated to perform as a second banana for a West End favorite (Rowan Atkinson) in a London theatrical production. His allergies force him to go to the infirmary, but his view of a nurse (Emma Thompson) gets him over his dislike of injections and begins getting weekly shots from her, just to spend a moment of pleasurable pain in her presence. After finally getting a date, and upstaging his fellow thespian, and after getting sacked for it, he then lands the lead role in a new musical, all about the life of John "The Elephant Man" Merrick! But, of course, complications arise.

The plot is helped greatly by the performances of unbelievable moments from the musical, and by a very raucous love scene with Goldblum and Thompson, one of the most violently joyous ones I've ever seen in a film! The three leads are all brilliant in their performances, especially Atkinson, who is much more Blackadder here, and not at all Mr. Bean.

Ok. It might not become your favorite comedy ever, But it's very cute for what it is, and is definitely charming and wonderfully funny.

It's absolutely worth a look.

Richard Curtis, eventual architect of 'Four Weddings', 'Notting Hill', 'Love Actually' and bits of 'Bridget Jones', kicked off his filmwriting career with this 1989 debut.

It shows its youthfulness. Just as 'Four Weddings' had at its core a string of sketches based on weddings Curtis had attended (but very skillfully linked by a romantic story), so 'The Tall Guy' appears to have started with the idea of a pastiche musical based on the Elephant Man, around which Curtis wraps a romance between a supporting actor and a nurse.

Curtis's great buddy from Oxford, Rowan Atkinson, is brought in to play a control-freak comedian -- no type-casting there, then -- but there are a few ex-Cambridge people too: Emma Thompson, Mel Smith etc. Jeff Goldblum is good as the lead, but there's no evidence that the script was specially written for him in particular or an American in general.

This film is perhaps now best known for the slapstick sex scene between Thompson and Goldblum, which manages to be (slightly) erotic while also revealing a basic truth about the domestic tidiness of all nurses I have known.

Many of the standard Curtis plot elements appear in a formative stage for this film: the early sexual encounter, followed by the break-up, followed by a finale in which the protagonists make a grand declaration of true love in front of a large crowd, the pop video sequence etc etc.

I suspect this is now a budget-priced DVD because Curtis is slightly embarrassed by it. But it's 88 enjoyable minutes of good, largely clean fun. As ever, Emma Thompson is the most convincing actor on the screen. Fifteen years on, she talks frankly about her varicose veins and growing old. It's probably handy to have a film which she can now show her children and say "This is what I used to look like before anything drooped."

Soon after making this, Curtis co-wrote the brilliant 'Blackadder Goes Forth' series for Rowan and friends, which was one of the comic masterpieces of the 1980s. Clearly outstanding at TV scriptwriting, Curtis may have felt after 'The Tall Guy' that he hadn't proved himself on the movie screen. But the movies were where the real money was (for writers), and five years later, Curtis perfected the formula with 'Four Weddings'.

This is a very funny, well-acted piece, for anyone who loves real, true comedy. It is a very perceptive commentary on the world of theatre, and the very idea of a musical comedy version of the tragic Elephant Man just makes me laugh again and again. Jeff Goldblum and Emma Thompson are really great!

Jeff Goldblum plays Dexter King, a tall American in London trying to establish himself as an actor. For the last two years he's been getting by playing stooge in the comedy act of a monumentally self-centered comedian, Ron Anderson, played by Rowan Atkinson. He meets Kate Lemmon, a nurse at a local hospital. In short order, he falls in love, gets fired by Anderson, is hired to play the lead in a London musical, has a fling, loses Kate, wins Kate back.

The movie is funny and a bit whimsical, very clever, and is merciless at poking fun at the theater establishment. Dexter's big break, for instance, is playing John Merrick in Elephant!, a musical based on The Elephant Man. Think of third rate (or even first-rate) Andrew Lloyd-Weber. The book and songs are so awful and ponderous they're fascinating. Dexter's face makeup, in addition to huge lumps and ears, includes what looks like a small elephant's trunk attached to his nose.

Goldblum narrates the movie and comes across as slightly neurotic but endearing, unsure of himself but able to come through when it counts. Emma Thompson's character is all brisk common sense with a big helping of drollness. They go to bed on their first date because, as Kate explains, it eliminates all the awkwardness later on. Their love making is hilarious and could have been directed by Buster Keaton. Rowan Atkinson, as usual, almost steals the movie. He has two or three routines on stage, one with Goldblum as stooge with both playing singing, dancing off-color nuns. "Is something bothering you, Dexter?" Atkinson's character asks solicitously afterwards backstage. "Well, yes there is," Dexter says. "Then sort it out," Atkinson snarls, "before I sack you and hire a lobotomized monkey to play your role." The happy resolution of the movie takes place in the emergency room of Kate's hospital where various badly damaged people are being brought in...maimed accident victims, a heart attack case, a fellow with a vacuum cleaner pipe lodged up his bottom. Somehow it all works out.

This is a sweet, funny, intelligent movie with three first-rate lead actors.

The DVD looks very good.

When I first saw this movie about 10 years ago, the primary reason was because Emma Thompson starred in it. 10 years later I have watched it again and have found there is an additional reason to view it: it's genuinely FUN!

The plot is not overly creative or original, but the film is set in London and is full of laughs. It's a Romantic Comedy - British style! This is one of Jeff Goldblum's earlier movies, before he was a really big name.

And if you're looking for women who are beautiful, intelligent AND talented in the acting department, look no further than Emma Thompson! To my knowledge, this film contains her the lone nude scene of her career [although I could be wrong on this one]. That in itself is enough reason to buy this DVD!

As Goldblum plays a struggling actor, people in the theatre community will likely get some extra chuckles from this film. However, it's a film that's also recommended for everyone else who enjoys a good RC and it's very couples-friendly. Oh, and did I mention it stars Emma Thompson???