Spoonatects
Am i the only one who thinks........Average?
FuzzyTagz
If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.
Dirtylogy
It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
Scott LeBrun
"Nickelodeon" is the heartfelt tribute by filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich to the earliest days of movie-making, in the first dozen or so years of the 20th century. Apparently a stickler for accuracy, that does show in the script credited to both Bogdanovich and W.D. Richter. It's based on recollections of vintage directors such as Raoul Walsh ("The Big Trail", "Sadie Thompson") and Allan Dwan ("A Broken Doll", "The Forbidden Thing"), and it's a pretty colourful and often delightful look at the filmmaking process of over a century ago.The film begins by telling us that this was a time when big-shot producers would go out of their way to prevent independents from having ANY success. Its story begins in 1910 Chicago, when attorney Leo Harrigan (Ryan O'Neal) bumbles his way into a screenwriting gig for larger-than-life character H.H. Cobb (a hilarious Brian Keith). Eventually, he's roped into directing. Burt Reynolds plays Buck Greenway, a charming Floridian who comes to NYC and somehow manages to become a movie star. Lovely Jane Hitchcock plays the starlet who comes between them."Nickelodeon" is not one of Bogdanovichs' most renowned films; in its time, it was an expensive flop. Part of the problem is that it's going to be far too silly for some viewers, that it goes TOO heavy on the old-style slapstick. It also probably could have used some tightening, as it DOES lose steam as it goes along. But there's still a fair amount to enjoy here. Bogdanovichs' obvious devotion to this period in film history is rather infectious, and the recreations of the era are well done. The stunts are likewise quite impressive.The main reason that this picture is able to sustain itself for just over two hours is that the cast is so great. O'Neal, Reynolds, and lovely Hitchcock do set off some sparks as their love triangle plays out. Keith steals all of his scenes, as does O'Neals' precocious, Oscar-winning daughter Tatum, who shines in her big negotiation scene. Stella Stevens and John Ritter provide likeable support as an actress and cameraman, and there are MANY familiar faces in character roles, including Harry Carey, Jr., James Best, Brion James, Priscilla Pointer, Don Calfa, Philip Bruns, George Gaynes, M. Emmet Walsh, and Hamilton Camp. You also get to see Lorenzo Music (voice of "Carlton, your doorman" and Garfield the Cat) in an actual on-screen bit, as one of Cobbs' writers.Some viewers may argue that the subject deserves a more clear-headed, less self-indulgent treatment, and certainly "Nickelodeon" does suffer from some excess. But this viewer personally found it rather charming, and it does create some interesting characters who are worth following from beginning to end.Also available in a black & white "director's cut" running approximately three minutes longer.Eight out of 10.
rewolfsonlaw
Just finished watching the color version on Turner Classic Movies. I loved "Paper Moon," especially the wonderful depression-era music, and "The Last Picture Show" (I grew up in Texas not so far from Archer City in the same era), so that's what I knew about Peter Bogdonovich, the director. I echo many of the reviews, without having known about the reception the film apparently received at the time. Even though I was grown when it came out, I just never got around to seeing it. Maybe I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much as now, as I approach 60.Yes, it's filled with slapstick, sometimes goofy, but the audience is in on the jokes. I felt like I was invited to the party, with all these wonderful actors (not in the thespian sense, but in the popular sense)as friends. The magic is that it makes you feel comfortable, because loving movies and movie making is part of my life, too. It appreciates the audience and wants us to have a good time with it.The director obviously loves the medium. In many ways, there was a Fellini-esque quality to it, as another reviewer wrote. The magic of Fellini was similar: he used the everyday strangeness of reality to make his films real. Hollywood is the make-believe; reality makes a better film.This is art imitating life. It celebrates the birth of the industry and the magic of the universal language of moving pictures, captured beautifully and simply in Brian Keith's closing monologue. It is Peter's love letter to the industry and to the audience, as only a lover could compose. It is beautifully crafted, the acting balanced throughout the ensemble, and the message delivered with wry humor. Though I didn't see it when released, it may look better now, in nostalgic retrospect. It IS a love letter, and at my age, it is a delightful homage to an industry that just "doesn't make 'em like this anymore." Thank you, Mr. Bogdonovich and all the cast. Love you, too.
F Gwynplaine MacIntyre
I have very mixed feelings about 'Nickelodeon', a movie by a director (Peter Bogdanovich) whom I find deeply self-indulgent. On the favourable side, 'Nickelodeon' is about the early days of film-making: a subject which passionately interests me ... and Bogdanovich makes clear that he shares that passion. Even more remarkably, 'Nickelodeon' makes considerable effort to get the historical facts straight. Much of the material here is adapted from personal experiences in the early film careers of Allan Dwan and Raoul Walsh, two directors unfortunately forgotten and whose work is often unfairly neglected. So, what went wrong?To be getting on with, Bogdanovich might have had a better film if he'd done a straightforward bio of either Dwan or Walsh (especially Walsh, whose life was fascinating). Instead, the real incidents from their lives are incorporated into the much less plausible slapstick shenanigans of some blatantly fictional characters. Throughout 'Nickelodeon', I had the nagging feeling that this was a roman-a-clef, with each fictional character based on an actual person from the early days of cinema. For instance, Tatum O'Neal (age 13 here) plays a girl who earns a living writing movie scenarios. I suspect that this character was inspired by Anita Loos, who actually did earn money writing movie scenarios while still a teenager. (Sadly, the late Ms Loos told some very vicious lies about other show-business figures -- including Paul Bern and Alexander Woollcott -- so I'm reluctant to believe anything she said about her own life.) All through 'Nickelodeon', I kept trying to guess which character was based on which real-life film figure ... and the problem is, there's not enough reality here to go round.We do get, commendably, a very accurate depiction of the Patent Wars. Thomas Edison held exclusive patents on several crucial components of the motion-picture camera: he hired men to shut down all film productions that used his technology without paying him royalties, and some of Edison's hirelings actually went so far as to fire handguns into the mechanisms of unsanctioned movie cameras. ('Nickelodeon' gets this right.) Most of the period detail is accurate throughout this film.Regrettably, the character played by Burt Reynolds is given too much slapstick material: a decision which annoyed me even more because Reynolds's character is clearly based more than slightly on the young Raoul Walsh, a film pioneer who didn't deserve to have his life and career reduced to pratfalls. Reynolds is also lumbered with an unwieldy script device which I call the Convenient Excerpt. We see him reading aloud Owen Wister's novel 'The Virginian', which was a best-seller at the time when this film takes place. Fair enough ... except, to my annoyance, the only time when we actually see and hear Reynolds doing this -- presumably working his way through the entire novel -- he conveniently happens to be reading the one and only passage in 'The Virginian' which would be recognised by people who haven't actually read the novel. (I refer to the "When you call me that, smile!" quote ... which was reworded for the film, so please don't 'correct' my version.)Brian Keith has a good supporting role in 'Nickelodeon', except that he delivers all of his dialogue with some peculiar sort of speech defect. Here, too, I got the impression that the fictional character on screen was based on a real person: in Keith's case, the early film producer Colonel Selig. Less effective here is John Ritter, who shows no sense of period and seems to be living about six decades later than the other characters.As the love interest, Jane Hitchcock (who?) brings absolutely nothing to her role except a distracting surname and the same facial bone structure as Cybill Shepherd. The latter trait leads me to conjecture as to why Bogdanovich cast her.I watched 'Nickelodeon' with a semi-consistent sense of enjoyment, but with a more prominent (and more consistent) sensation of "This could have been so much BETTER, if only...". Insert sigh of regret here. 'Nickelodeon' was a huge flop in its day, and I suppose that it deserved to be. At least it spawned one clever in-joke. Two years after starring in this flop, Burt Reynolds starred in the solid actioner "Hooper", in which Robert Klein played a character based on Peter Bogdanovich. When Klein starts spouting that movies are 'pieces of time' (a Bogdanovich quote), Reynolds hauls off and belts him. I'll rate 'Nickelodeon' 6 out of 10: it probably deserves less, but this poor movie is based on a subject very dear to me.
haildevilman
This movie is better seen now.At the time of it's release, Bogdanovich had run this formula into the ground.I saw this on video recently and I laughed a little more than I remembered. It still has quite a bit of humor in it.The subject matter is interesting too. Getting a feel for the early days of Hollywood and showing what it was like for the fledgling filmmakers was fun to see.The funniest bit was Leo and Buck's fistfight. That had to be the funniest fight scene I've ever, well, seen.That said, it could have been a lot better. I guess Pete just ran out of comedy at one point. Still worth a rental though.
