See Man On The Moon.
'Nuff said.
While man on the moon was a great movie (I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone)there were several things I didn’t like:
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Jim Carrey put a little too much of himself into the portrayal
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The Jerry Lawler incident is better when the individual has to ask himself whether it is real or not.
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The wardrobe and sets looked too contemporary.
Other than that, this is an excelent movie that sheds some light onto the sometimes incomprehendable persona of Andy Kaufman
I heard a knock at the door of my heart, but it was a vacuum cleaner salesman!
One thing that probably gave the movie a “contmporary” look was the fact that David Letterman refuses to allow himself to look as he did in the past. I remember Howard Stern commenting that while he was grateful to Letterman for appearing in his movie, he thought it was funny that Letterman wouldn’t wear a hairpiece so he would look more like he did 10 years ago.
I remember seeing Andy Kaufman on Saturday Night Live while I was babysitting. That’s the night he did his “Mighty Mouse” routine. I’m sure I had the same reaction as most of America: “What the hell was that?” Although back then, alot of things on Saturday Night Live made me say that.
I liked the movie, but I was a little upset that it glossed over his childhood in that one scene. Plus, they really tugged on the heartstrings during the funeral scene.
I was left just feeling sad. If the movie was true to life at all, it felt like Andy spent his life searching for something.
trisha
I was never a huge Andy Kaufman fan but i really enjoyed the movie. I did have a little more sense of his persona after watching it. I may still not like the man, but at least now I understand him.
She caught your eye like one of those pointy hook latches that used to dangle from screen doors and would fly up whenever you banged the door open again.
Concerning the David Letterman thing:
It appeared to me that it was the actual footage of Dave from the original program that was digitally “pasted” into the new footage of Carrey as Kaufman. It had that flat look to it, and the colors and lighting did not quite match. I actually remember thinking, “Hey, I thought they could do a better job with that sort of thing these days.”
Concerning the David Letterman thing:
It appeared to me that it was the actual footage of Dave from the original program that was digitally “pasted” into the new footage of Carrey as Kaufman. It had that flat look to it, and the colors and lighting did not quite match. I actually remember thinking, “Hey, I thought they could do a better job with that sort of thing these days.”
Really? Man, the first time I saw that I LOVED it!
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Teeming Millions: http://fathom.org/teemingmillions
“Meat flaps, yellow!” - DrainBead, naked co-ed Twister chat
O p a l C a t
www.opalcat.com
I too liked the movie. I found it difficult to watch Danny DeVito and not think of Louis DePalma. It was too weird.
Also the Phillipines scene was filmed in my girlfriend’s mother’s hometown: Bagio City.
(so what! -I- care!)
Sweet Basil
As someone who never saw the movie, how did he die? I don’t think I paid attention when it happened because, well, how could you believe anything about him? I first remember him on the tonight show, and he stayed in his Latka role the whole time, talking about how his island-nation had sunk. Wasn’t sure if it was an act or not (at the time. I was young).
(He must really be dead now, because I don’t think he could stand to stay underground this long.)
It is too clear, and so it is hard to see.
He died from lung cancer
-Frankie
I’m not a shrimp, I’m a King Prawn.
-Pepe the Prawn
I liked the movie, but I don’t think they revealed all that much about Andy that wasn’t already known. The saddest, or maybe ironic, is a better word for it, when they voted to keep Andy off ‘Saturday Night Live’, I thought it was a joke, and of course didn’t call. I’ve wondered since, were there others that thought it was a joke, and why Andy and his manager were so shocked by the outcome.
Also, it looked weird to see the ‘Taxi’ characters looking so old, and ‘Andy’ looking so much younger.
“Consider it a challenge…”
OpalCat:
I didn’t mean to imply I didn’t like Andy Kaufman’s “Mighty Mouse” routine, I meant that I was sort of blown away by it. I mean, the guy didn’t tell a joke, he stood there for most of the time looking extremely nervous, just lip-sync part of a goofy song. I was only 13 years old, so my concept of comedy was not all that sophisticated. Like I said, lots of things on SNL at that time were strange to me, like John Belushi’s Joe Cocker imitation and musical guests like Sun Ra. Strange but cool.
I like Man on The Moon. I thought Carrey did a good job of making us think he was Kaufman. Its such a tough proposition for a star as well known as Carrey is to portray a person who actually existed. Especially someone we have such a large record of seeing on television. George C. Scott became Patton for me, but I never saw Patton on a sitcom.
As far as the Saturday Night Live vote. That didn’t go down as portrayed in the movie. Kaufman staged a fight with Dick Ebersol. Ebersol went on the air with the 900 number voting scheme. Kaufman had suggested this himself; he wasn’t worried about losing, because he had an agreement with Ebersol that he would never return as Kaufman, but he could return as Tony Clifton. Ebersol didn’t hold up his end of the bargain. So, Kaufman kind of got screwed.
pat
Does anybody else remember a few weeks after the SNL Kaufman vote, when viewers voted to save Larry the Lobster from a pot of boiling water? Talk about adding insult to injury.
I can’t say I remember it, Ursa. But, I was perusing Zmuda’s book on Kaufman this weekend, and he said that the idea for the Kaufman vote was the Larry Lobster vote, he said the lobster vote came first.
I liked the idea of usually the actually people to portray themselves in the movie. I guess two of the people who noticeably weren’t there were Michael Richards from the Fridays skit, and Merv Griffin.
pat
Yes,I sure remember Larry the Lobster.
They voted to save him,but I read much later that they really did eat him afterwards.
Dont know if PETA knew about that!
got to be the voice of dissent here-- grew up watching, loving kaufman, but refuse to see that piece of crap movie, precisely because of my memories. just from the trailer/ad, you can see that jc does not disappear into the character.
hollywood is all about dollar signs, so a reprise of the people vs. larry flynt starring latka gravas gets made-- forget about the fact that comedy central regularly airs about three different kaufman specials in steady (if not heavy rotation) which spell the facts in the best way one can: they show what actually happened and one, at least, is hilarious (i’m from hollywood)
if you simply must shell out your hard-earned cash on kaufman, i might recommend renting the video, “my dinner with freddie blassie”-- hope i got the title right.
Anti Pro – I remember that SNL and I remember babysitting and calling to have him removed from the show. I HATED him.
I’ve never, ever, even for a moment, found him funny. And yeah, as anyone out here should know, I have a GREAT sense of humor. But he sucked then and he sucks now. Just because he’s dead doesn’t mean he got any better.
I dug up my SNL book. On page 478 there is this:
…the entire episode was a hoax conceived by Kaufman… Kaufman spent the week before the vote hiding out in his hotel room and worrying that the count would go against him, which it did. True to his word, and his joke, Andy Kaufman never appeared on SN again.
And FWIW: I don’t like Jim Carrey either.