SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

fung0 It's not surprising to see some bad scores for this challenging little film. If you know nothing about it, be warned: this is one of the blackest 'comedies' you're ever going to encounter. But it's also one of Neil Simon's best works, cutting much deeper and sharper than simple little farces like The Odd Couple.Prisoner of Second Avenue tells the tale of a man coming totally unglued under the pressures of the modern world. Jack Lemmon plays a modern Job, suffering every trial a sadistic - but very up-to-date - God could imagine. Neil Simon brilliantly weaves in a gleam of underlying humor, which Lemmon brings out with his usual skill. But it's never more than a gleam; you have to be sensitive to it, or this film will seem like a dreary ordeal.In fact, far from being dreary, this is a remarkably joyous, uplifting film. It shows us that hope is always just inches away, if we can only see it. Our crushing problems are largely internal: what matters is how we meet them. Seeing that lesson, of course, is the challenge. Like the song says, when you've been down so long, it starts to look like up to you.Aside from its clever writing and fine performances, Prisoner of Second Avenue features some great New York ambiance, and a real feel for its time. This is a more personal, less-theatrical, less-contrived film than most of Simon's works.The Prisoner of Second Avenue is not just entertaining; it's therapeutic. Open yourself to the slightly masochistic pleasure of wallowing in it, and feel your own aches and neuroses burn away!

edwagreen Neil Simon's writing at its best is epitomized in this 1975 film with the psychoses, neuroses of urban living together in a New York heat wave to give its protagonist, Jack Lemmon, a nervous breakdown, after he loses his executive position.Lemmon is terrific as the eventual malcontent finally blaming society for his woes. He is most ably assisted by Edna, played deliciously by the always superb Anne Bancroft.Frustration is the center core of this entertaining film, and also an excellent supporting performance by Gene Saks, as the supposed stable older brother of Lemmon who exposes his frustrations at the end of the film. Another case of sibling rivalry, but on a loving scale.Urban frustrations abound in a very decent film.

bkoganbing Neil Simon's The Prisoner of Second Avenue ran for 798 performances on Broadway for the better part of two years in 1971-73. Peter Falk and Lee Grant played the parts that movie names Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft took over. Essentially it is a two person play without a lot of character development for anyone else. Lemmon and Bancroft are Mr.&Mrs Mel and Edna Edison and the ever patient Edna as the film opens is listening to one of Mel's patented rants about how the world is just victimizing him. It seems that way as among other things the apartment is robbed, Lemmon loses his job, he becomes a crime victim, and even the neighbor upstairs tired of listening to him, douses Lemmon with a bucket of water. Eventually Lemmon becomes a candidate for the rubber room. Bancroft thinks if they can just get out of the New York City rat race, Lemmon might become a human being.For which task she enlists her brother and sisters-in-law. In the end however the roles are reversed. The Prisoner of Second Avenue doesn't quite succeed as much as Simon's other work like The Odd Couple or The Sunshine Boys. Like them it depends on the skill and chemistry of the leads. Fortunately Lemmon and Bancroft have skill in abundance. Still I came away from watching this wondering exactly what did I just see. The plot is almost non-existent, but if you like both the leads than don't miss this film.

Neil Doyle Worth a chuckle or more, this sometimes hilarious comedy hits a raw nerve with anyone who has lived in an apartment building where you can hear all the noise you never wanted to (at all sorts of hours), in a world that starts with listening to the radio news detail one horror after another.That's the way the Broadway play started. The lights went out before the curtain opened and all you heard was a radio announcer delivering one crazy incident after another on the local news. That was the prologue to what you knew was about to follow. Then the curtains parted and the play began.JACK LEMMON and ANNE BANCROFT play off each other brilliantly, but when all is said and done, there's just something missing in this Neil Simon comedy. The payoff that you should feel when the movie ends, just isn't there.And yet, when you hear some of the news, it's almost quaint. Just think what was supposed to get a laugh: a news flash that a Polish freighter had just run into the Statue of Liberty. How tame!! Imagine what kind of news flash there would have been if this were written after 9/11.Good supporting roles from Gene Saks, as Lemmon's brother, and Elizabeth Wilson and Florence Stanley as his sisters.It may be lesser Simon, but it's still worth seeing, especially for New Yorkers.