Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

moonspinner55 Sandra Dee manages to dress exquisitely and take taxis all around New York City despite working as an out-call maid who has so little money she's forced to live in a cramped hovel with a girl roommate. But no matter. She meets eligible publishing magnate Bobby Darin and temporarily takes over an absentee client's bachelor pad as a front for her residence. The not-so-hilarious catch is: it's Darin's apartment. Tepid bedroom-comedy laden with misunderstandings and innuendo. Dee, making herself to home in Darin's swinging pad, actually manages to find bubble bath in his bathroom, while he--going along with her ruse--impersonates an interior decorator! A few funny moments (Darin, in his boxer shorts, causing a scene outside a pay phone; two nosy bartenders gossiping like sisters on the job) cannot compensate for an extremely thin screenplay by David R. Schwartz (working from Norman Barasch and Carroll Moore's story), which plays like third-rate Hudson & Day. *1/2 from ****

LarryBrownHouston The movie starts off great but then runs out of gas about halfway through and never comes back. That, coupled with a weak ending makes a disappointing final product. The first half is funny with a lot of funny dialog. The plot is a little one-dimensional and that's OK as long as the script is working, but in the second half the straightforward plot starts to get tiresome. Watch for many cameos and bit parts from actors you know...that helps to carry the movie. Arte Johnson succeeds in making an impression with just one minute of screen time and only a few lines, they should have given him more. Donald O'Conner has a large part but it's unsatisfying. He's too much bluster all the way through, his role is too much a single note. He does play a role in the plot it's not important enough and his character is too thin. He has one great joke ("teach her to walk") but other than that his presence fails to gel. He's so talented but you don't see that here. I think it would have been better if his part had been sillier, but of course I realize that it's a fine line between too straight and too silly.The style is the same type of sex comedy we know so well, everything seems innocent on the surface but the script is constantly spinning out suggestive jokes that can be interpreted in a sexual way. Since it's hard for any 1960s era movie to shock me, this style of script doesn't work very well and I usually find them juvenile, boring, and trite. But this one works better for at least two reasons: 1: it's funny stuff and B: it's pretty x-rated, helping it to retain its shock value.The first part of the script is full of great jokes and ambitious scenes with crowds of people, but at the half way mark that just stops. The funny dialog stops, the silly and ambitious scenes stop and the straight-forward plot is allowed to just run its course. Then there is one more huge joke (the phone booth) and that's it, the rest of the movie is flat. Then they do a big ambitious production piece for the climax but they don't do much with it and then the final climax is weak. Of course in any romantic film you need that final climactic kiss. It's usually boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy and girl get back together, climactic kiss...we all cry and go home fulfilled. In this movie they choose not to do that. They don't build the movie up to that final climactic kiss and in fact there is no kiss there. That's an odd choice and what they have there instead is weak.

tarryersceltic "That Funny Feeling" doesn't by any means test the acting capabilities of Darin, or the glamour of Dee, but it is nonetheless a delightful, funny, and even colorful, film. As a bemused and confused victim of "Joan"'s bizarre method of dealing with an unacceptable home address. There are some great visuals, Darin climbing out of the upstairs window to avoid a confrontation in his own apartment with "Joan", the phone booth scene, the moment when he gets in the cab and in answer to the question, "where to?" simply says, "I don't know." Darin and co-star Sandra Dee look great together - no wonder that happened! And it is always fun to see Donald O'Connor too. I'd have loved to hear more songs from Darin, but the plot just didn't call for them. The title song is a very catchy, though. It is a movie that takes me back to what was best in the '60's - innocent fun and romance with humor and charm.

Noirdame79 I don't for the life of me understand why critics have been so negative toward this film. It is a jewel of a movie, a romantic comedy that succeeds in both areas.This was the last film that the late former married couple, Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin made together, and it is one of their best.Joan Howell (Dee, adorable as always) is a struggling actress who works as a maid-for-hire. Tom Milford (Darin, handsome and charming)is a playboy business man. They seem to have little in common, except for the fact that Joan cleans his apartment (of which they are both unaware). After several run-ins (literally) the pair decide to go on a date. Humilated at the thought of taking him back to her cramped apartment which she shares with her wisecracking roommate, Audrey (the hilarious Nita Talbot), she decides to pretend that the apartment she is cleaning is her place, but what she doesn't realize is that it is Tom's apartment!!! Things escalate from there as a bewildered Tom goes along with her, all the while driving his poor harassed boss Harvey Granson (the one and only Donald O'Connor)insane, as he desperately wants to retrieve his priceless (but ugly) paintings from Tom's home. Of course, Joan discovers his deception and wants to get even, although she has fallen in love with him, and he has fallen in love with her. Wonderfully comedic complications and consequences take place.Larry Storch is priceless as Joan and Audrey's scrappy neighbor Luther, and Leo G. Carroll has a nice role as the owner of a pawnshop. James Westerfield nearly steals the show as a cop that Tom continually runs into, Robert Strauss and Ben Lessy are hysterical as two middle-aged bartenders with very vast imaginations, and Reta Shaw has a funny little bit as a miffed old lady.All in all, irresistible romantic fun!!! The title tune alone (written and performed by Darin) is in a class all by itself. Tons of fun.