karalyeva
This film is filled to the brim with fantastic Hollywood injokes and highly entertaining dialogue for those people who are familiar with the historical private lives of these individual actresses. For those people who don't know the lives of "these old broads," don't bother watching it, you won't get it. I'm sure that's the situation with most of the people who gave this film negative reviews. I understand how this movie could be frightfully boring and meaningless to those people who aren't versed in classic Hollywood lore, as nearly all of the situations and lines are witty remarks about the actress playing the role, but for those of us who get the joke, it is a brilliant, hysterically funny piece of work.
chad478
This is definitely the best made-for-TV movie that I have ever seen! Four of Hollywood's greatest stars, Shirley MacLaine, Debbie Reynolds, Joan Collins, and Elizabeth Taylor team up for this absolutely hilarious comedy. MacLaine, Reynolds, and Collins play three former movie stars who appeared together in a '60's musical entitled "Boy Crazy", and team up once again for a reunion special. They're all terrific, but it's Elizabeth Taylor's delightful performance as an eccentric Hollywood agent that is sure to stay with you long after the movie is over.I hope they make a sequel! It would be such a great joy to see these four equally gifted ladies together again.
Marie-62
I have never seen Elizabeth Taylor, Debbie Reynolds, or Joan Collins act in their prime, and what drew me to this movie was the fact that all of the old stars were in it. I have seen Shirley MacLaine act, and I was pretty much hoping that they didn't give her a dopey motherly part in which she's too eccentric and snotty. Let me just say one thing about that, they gave her a motherly part in which she's eccentric. A little on the snotty part, yes, but she's definitely not dopey. Shirley plays Kate Westbourne, a mother of "documentary" producer Weslie Westbourne. Kate was once in a show with two other women, Piper and Addie, and now finds herself realizing on what she really missed with her son. Addie (COLLINS) is a real sex-maniac whom slept with basically EVERYBODY and has a run-away jail-bird for a boyfriend. What makes Addie so funny is her "tummy tucks" and "face lifts". She still thinks that she's twenty-five. ("Look dear, one more face lift and she'll be able to blow her nose through her forehead.) Piper is the good-two-shoes ditzy blonde whom everyone loves. Debbie plays this part perfectly and is so cute at it. Piper and her husband Bill have a hotel. The nice thing about this woman is that she raised four children and unlike her 'peers' has a decent life. The truly funny thing about this movie is not only in the cast, but in the writing as well. Carrie Fisher was FANTASTIC. She wrote the script so that it had that wring of adultness to it but didn't stray from reality. As a fan of old movies, I was grateful to see one more "dance in the limelight" for the old broads. They deserved it. :)
Tommy-92
Okay, so the film is almost totally witless, crude, vulgar, and silly, and heavy-handed in its treatment of the homosexual subplot. The script could've done better justice to these stars, but the stars, or at least two of them, generally execute the professionalism we have come to admire so much in them. And they do have fun spoofing their reputations and public personas... Debbie Reynolds, in particular, seems to be having the time of her life making fun of her eternally perky, virginal persona. I am not familiar with Joan Collins' other work, but though she looks great 'cause of all those fac... uh, never mind, and can toss off a good bitchy line or three, and the sight of her Italian digs is one of the only funny moments in the film, she really doesn't seem to be that good an actress. Elizabeth Taylor's cameo is generally embarrassing (What was with that accent?), but even she has a good moment, dishing with Reynolds about the husband she stole from her. Is it a coincidence that Shirley Maclaine, who looks embalmed compared to her costars (Or at least doesn't mind not trying to age naturally-in preparation for her next life, perhaps) gives the only truly genuine performance in the film? The USA Today review mentioned that it's weird that, of the three stars of the cult hit movie musical "Boy Crazy," Reynolds is really the only one of these stars to have truly made a name for herself in the real-life golden age of movie musicals, and then usually in supporting roles, (Maclaine made a few movie musicals near the end of this golden age which are forgotten today,anyway, and Collins never made a movie musical and was never a "movie star" in any case, finding her greatest success on TV). This perhaps accounts for why we don't see that much singing and dancing, except in several quick glimpses of rehearsals, until the "grand finale," if it can be called that. And then there's the sight of Reynolds and Collins singing (Well, Reynolds singing and Collins attempting to sing) "Get Happy" in the gay dance club. It's cheap and debasing, and guaranteed to find its way into the Great Camp Movie Moments some day soon. I hope that was intentional. But all in all, these ladies go out there and give their all, or attempt to as long as they can, which is really all we can ask for in such a sorry showcase as this.Perhaps the most telling sequence in the film is the first run-through of the special that salutes "Boy Crazy," with the network brass and the sponsers watching. The ladies' dance steps are off, their dubbed-in singing goes out of sync, a load of fake snow gets dumped on them, and all the boys, real and cardboard, fly everywhere. But they keep going and attempting to do something with it, until they're finally exhausted and overwhelmed by all the snow getting in their eyes and throats. Maclaine even huffs out a "Yeah!" at the end before collapsing. That is exactly what this movie is about... eventually even these, uh, dames can't get past this mess of a script and finally resort to petty bitchiness because they have no other way out, it seems. But through it all they attempt, professionally, to make something out of this, (Maclaine most of all) and for that they must be commended.The last line of the film is Taylor's: "Get off your asses for these old broads!" Crude, natch, but the point is certainly taken. They deserve it.And oh, yeah, Liz really did steal Debbie's husband. "Freddie Hunter's real name was Eddie Fisher, the father (with Debbie) of Carrie Fisher, alias Princess Leia, who was partially responsible for this script. Carrie also wrote a fictionalized memoir, "Postcards From the Edge," (Please God it was better than this!) and in the film version of that, Maclaine played the character based on Reynolds. Collins was one of the actresses considered for the role of Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile, before Liz got that one and began her legendary love affair with Richard Burton... while she was still married to Eddie Fisher! ANd then Liz and Collins both played the same role, Pearl Slaghoople, in, respectively, "The Flintstones" movie and its sequel, "Viva Rock Vegas." See, it's a lot more fun to ponder the various connections these ladies have had to each other over the years than to wonder why, despite their valient attempts to make something of it, they decided to do this.
