VeteranLight
I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.
Zandra
The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
Francene Odetta
It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
runamokprods
While this certainly has it's moments, especially in the very strong performances by Nolte, Midler and Dreyfuss, time has dulled what I remember of it's satirical edge. Paul Mazursky always seemed torn between making socially provocative if still mainstream movies, and making movies that were way too cute for their own good – and this is a great example of both sides. There are some really incisive and funny moments about what it means to be rich and poor in America. Unfortunately - for example - there are also about 300 cuts to reaction shots from the family dog – a good 290 more than needed. For every darkly subversive joke that works, there's a 'wacky' one that might feel more at home in a mid-range TV sit-com. Probably still worth seeing once for the acting, and the terrific moments that work, but - for me - not worth owning to for the loss of nerve and the moments that don't.
scatman188
Hello everybody. It's my first review and I am not very sure It's gonna be the best. I'll try. I love cinema since I was a kid. It made me dream so soon and I tried my best my life to be the nearest to the fantasy world. This movie was very touching to me in some way. I don't know exactly why, but I felt very identified with its different characters. I think the story was very cheerful and funny. We all know that it doesn't have to be realistic to express that strange human nature in ourselves. I think this movie is a satire that talks about the immature people trying to give a sense to their lives. This premise doesn't change the fact that, even if it is silly, it is, to me, very endearing. Firstly, I like the principal character, because of his courage and his impertinence. Probably, this is which I will more identified with. Secondly, the rich family really made me laugh, each one of them, from the wife, so alienated in her superficial and material life, full of appearance, to the kid, the typical adolescent who doesn't know what to do with his life, so careless to his parents. Then its the servant, a sign that is a middle-high rich family of Beverly Hills, one of the most riches cities in the world. She is a Latin woman who doesn't have a hight level education and she soon choose to believe that she is oppressed by her boss. So she became Marxist. I know that this story sounds absurd, but I think that this picture is probably one of the best entertaining comedies I ever seen. I like watching it from time to time. I probably will watch it again soon. I like very much the rhythm of the film, its music and its montage. It's a very swift movie, easy to see. Nothing complex. Even though, you can always feel that the filmmaker is talking about deep matters. That is the good thing of art. You can always discover new reviews and feel new experiences across them. Im very sorry about my English. I'm practicing because it's been a long time a didn't practice. I hope to improve it on the future. I would like to write much more in the future. I have spent a long time watching thousands of movies and I want to share my experience and my opinions. I hope anyone to like it or find it useful. I'm sure there is many people here who loves cinema as much as I do, probably more. I'm not watching by now so many movies as I used to do, but I still feel for films a deep love and respect. I've been thinking a long time that films have many to give to the people, not only entertaining but culture, freedom and learning. I know this is to simple to be written, but I need to be clear, so I could find my way to be happier in the future. I think we are all destined to be happier if we make and effort for that, the right thing. Thank you very much to all who have red me. I hope to write soon again. Kind regards and wishes.
Bill Slocum
Funny to see how little attention "Down And Out" gets today - bare-bones DVD release, a paucity of IMDb reviews, a modest Wikipedia entry - given that less than 25 years ago this was one of the highest-grossing comedies of its day. What happened?The stamp of the 1980s may be part of the problem. A very '80s look and vibe surround this social satire, where a bum named Jerry (Nick Nolte) is rescued by hanger tycoon Dave Whiteman (Richard Dreyfuss) and put up in his fancy Beverly Hills estate. Jerry finds ways to ingratiate himself with everyone in the household, even the normally hostile Whiteman dog Matisse. Dave soon finds reason to curse his generosity.I'm in agreement with ratnazafu's earlier comment that this film's connection to its time is part of its charm, though its pastels-and-neon visual signature is not for everyone. The script by director Paul Mazursky and Leon Capetanos is fun and arrestingly non-formulaic, but rather underbaked in such matters as who Jerry really is and what the issues are with the Whitemans' distrait offspring. Most critically, there's a tonal problem at the center - Nolte's direly realistic acting manner clashes with the film's overall cheerful and lightweight spirit."There's something very threatening about you," Jerry is told early on by Dave's wife, Barbara (Bette Midler).Nolte famously prepared for the role by living for days as a vagrant (insert obvious Nolte joke here), and I think the experience made it hard for him to settle into a comedy about being homeless. His gruff, bleary manner is established early and never quite goes away, even as the script paints him in the role of a smooth-talking rascal.In one scene, we see Dave and some new homeless friends parody the famous "We Are The World" song in a drunkenly over-the-top, amusing manner. Nolte is in the center of the frame, but tries to get out of the shot by hiding his face behind a pole. I don't think he saw himself acting in a comedy, and for the most part, he isn't.Dreyfuss and Midler, on the other hand, have a lot of palpable fun, and their careers deservedly got huge boosts from their performances here. At times Dreyfuss seems to be channeling Jackie Gleason, but it works, especially as he develops Dave as a genuinely likable character frustrated by his new friend Jerry's refusal to join the rat race. Midler does well with a tougher part, a shopaholic narcissist. "That was the cherry on the cake of my day" she groans when Dave tells her he saw their son in a tutu.Jerry finally achieves his breakthrough with Barbara through sex, a device the film not only plays up with a silly orgasm scene but repeats with the Whitemans' maid and daughter. The latter ravishment proves a breaking point for Dave, who loses it in a big finale which throws up as much fireworks as it can in a way that points up the story's overall lack of nourishment.Mazursky movies have a unique quality, full of ideas and visual invention, diverting enough so that you don't particularly mind even when they don't go anywhere special. There's nothing dislikable about "Down And Out", unless maybe you are Nick Nolte, but nothing memorable, either.
ratnazafu
One of the charms of Down and Out is it's "dated" quality. Paul Mazursky has a great talent for capturing an era in popular culture and some of his movies, such as Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice are incredible historical records of their times as well as durable entertainment. Down and Out jump-started Richard Dreyfuss' flagging career, as well as Bette Midler's as a movie actress and Little Richard as a popular singer. This is something modern audiences probably don't know, just a historical side note. Nick Nolte prepared for the part by actually living on the street and not bathing for a month. An actor who takes his parts seriously.Another fun quality of Mazursky's films is that he puts his friends and family into his movies. Don Muhich, the dog psychiatrist, was Paul's psychotherapist in the '70s and has that role in two other Mazursky movies (B&C&T&A and Blume in Love)
