Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski are fun screenwriters, (though I am not sure they are still working) having produced script for Larry Flynt and Ed Wood....they are not always concerned with tradition, and find great hools in telling the story. They then seem like the perfect choice for writing the story of Andy Kaufman, the most non traditional of performers...and certainly the first five minutes of the film does not dissapoint...Kaufman(Jim Carrey) stands in a movie screen, tells everybody it is his movie and the weirdness ensues.

Ok.

Well, then the next two hours never captures this same kind of "what is real?" feeling. I mean, don't get me wrong. I enjoyed this movie, and Carrey does an amazing job of recreating Kaufman onstage...but I thought there were a few problems...one is that no one knew Kaufman that well, and therefore it is almost impossible to create a bio pic for someone you can't actually identify with. Therefore we are saddled with forties bio cliches" I Want to Be The greatest of all times" and the fantastic"I want To Play Carnegie Hall", and the obligatory "guy finds cyst on his neck".

Second of All, Kaufman just comes off like a jerk half the time.

Third of All, when the film ends, we are no further along about Kaufman than When the film started.

But as I think about it, here an hour and a half after seeing the movie, I wonder if the wanting more, the frustration, the unanswered questions is not the ultimate Kaufman prank. And the pranks are the major gist of the film. Much of the film is about an audience not knowing how to take it all...and they are brilliant pranks...just when you think you have it figured out, Kaufman's illusionary reality takes over.

So have we been had? Is this film pretending to be a meaningful bio, and is the ultimate prank? Did we watch
this just to be part of a giant illusion, to be caught up in the routines, to cringe at the innapropriate gags, to wonder why all the members of Taxi are playing themselves twenty years later and DiVito is playing someone else?, and then walk away feeling we have seen a genius or a madman or both...
and feel like we have been involved in some giant Kaufmanesque experience...

All in all, I think this is a worthwhile experience...

or maybe Kaufman is alive, and paid me to write this.

Also, anyone who has seen this movie must agree with me, in that Jim Carrey was at least ripped for an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, if not the Oscar statue itself. I can only imagine that it is very rare when an actor is nominated for Best Actor at the Golden Globe Awards, wins the Golden Globe, and doesn't even get nominated for an Oscar? I've lost most of my respect for the Academy.

Don't be fooled by the fact that this movie didn't sell as good as most of the other Jim Carrey movies -- this is definitely his best performance so far (though not as funny as some of his previous blockbusters, this movie is not intended to be a "full-blown" comedy).

The DVD release looks great too. Not only do you get a great movie at a great price, you also get a lot of extras at that price, something which is rare these days when you often pay somewhat extra to get the "collectors edition" or "special edition". I'm a huge R.E.M. fan too, so the inclusion of two R.E.M. music videos ("Man on the Moon" and "The Great Beyond") is simply great!

This is an amazing movie in which we see Andy brought back to life through Jim Carrey's performance. In fact, you do not see Carrey anywhere in this film. All the jokes and gags are by Andy, not Jim, ANDY. The rest of the casts' performance supports the movie, such as Paul Giamatti's portrayal as Bob Zmuda and Courtney Love's portrayal as Andy supporting and loving girlfriend, Lynn Marguiles.

It's odd how it did bad at the box office and with some critics, who were writing it off as one of the worst films of 1999. Now that it's on video and DVD, it's getting good reviews! Where was the support during the 2000 Academy Awards (it didn't even get 1 nomination!)? You have to understand and figure out the movie before passing judgement.