All Night Long (1981) Reviews

• A FILM That SHOULD NOT BE DISMISSED...

  olddiscs2002-02-24

  When It was first released in 1981, this film was dismissed as a disaster !! Most critics disliked and or dismissed it.. audiences stayed away...STREISAND was criticized for not only being miscast but replacing Lisa Eichorn who was fired... Streisand was repaying a favor for agent Sue Mengers/ & this was not a typical Streisand film..no singing. no hit record associated with it/ no directorial or producing chores done by Babs here..This was a small movie,about the mid life crisis of the main character played very well by Gene Hackman ! He needs a change from his job, his nagging wife, played by Diane Ladd, and his annoying son, Dennis Quaid... Along comes,sexy, blonde, Cheryl riding her motor bike..an atypical role portrayed by Streisand.. and Hackmans life progressively is altered. Streisand is excellent in this role, she totally loses all the Streisand mannerisms& personna that she is famous for,: she is not Fanny, not Dolly, not Katie or even Esther, she is Cheryl, with a hint of Marilyn Monroe, even sings off key... gives a very believable performance..much underrated!!!The film is short,sweet and to the point not a great movie, but certainly not the disaster thought to be..nicley directed by Jean Claude Tramont with a European flair...Hackman is really wonderful in his role and there is a nice chemistry between the leads...Give it a chance you wont be disappointed!!

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• Unique and underrated

  robb_7722006-04-20

  A huge box office bomb upon release, ALL NIGHT LONG has been criticized by many for it's uncomfortable mix of odd-ball comedy and quaint slice-of-life drama. Though it received some positive reviews (most notably from Pauline Kael and ROLLING STONE magazine), most mainstream critics hated it and audiences all but completely ignored it. It is also often cited by most of Streisand's die-hard fans as their least favorite film of the actress. While the film is certainly not without it's flaws, I have interestingly always thought ALL NIGHT LONG contained somewhat of a bizarre charm, and I've always wished it would receive a re-evaluation from the film-going public. As mentioned before, the film has it's problems. It's paced too leisurely (it's only 90-minutes in length, but feels more like two-and-a-half hours), Jean-Claude Tramont's direction is too light (the film needs more of a thematic punch in several scenes), and much of it's humor is surprisingly too subtle (odd seeing that most film comedies have the opposite problem). Having said all of that, the film is still worth checking out. Though Tramont's direction may be a tad too limp, his skewed perception of the American dream gives the film a dreamy, almost art house-like feel that makes the film more inherently interesting than the screen play would merit alone. Also, the varied cast is a lot of fun, almost all of them playing against type. Gene Hackman brings a equal mix of unusual serenity and touching pathos to his role of the would-be inventor who manages to find his true self by losing nearly everything that was once-important in his life. In an early role, Dennis Quaid throws himself completely into part of Hackman's airheaded son, making the intelligent personae he would develop in later films like DREAMSCAPE and THE BIG EASY even more impressive. Barbra Streisand is clearly miscast the role of the bimbo housewife who woos both Hackman and Quaid (Streisand replaced Lisa Eichhorn, who was fired from the film after two weeks of production), but her performance is still worth catching. Though she's never totally believable as Cheryl (a role that was poorly-defined in the screenplay to begin with), she is still a very likable, always watchable, and occasionally an endearing presence in a unusual little film that deserves a second chance.

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• Vastly underrated masterpiece

  simpsonsfan622006-04-06

  If you haven't seen this movie, do yourself a favor and the next time AMC is showing the same James Bond movie for the tenth time in a week or TBS is airing the same movie three nights in a row, take the time to visit the video store and rent this. I'm not a big Barbra Streisand fan, but this and What's Up Doc are two movies I never miss. Barbra actually plays someone who can't sing. That alone is worth taking a look at. But the real reason to watch this movie is Gene Hackman. Hackman is the most overlooked actor of all time. Unfortunately, he came along at the same time that his more flashy peers Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro and Jack Nicholson did. While his understated performances got lost in the shuffle, time has proved him to easily have the most lasting power. While all four of those have suffered downturns in their career--temporary in the cases of Hoffman and Nicholson, erratic in the case of DeNiro, tragically permanent in the case of Pacino--Hackman never for a moment stopped turning in quality performances. All Night Long is one of his greatest. While this guy could have become a sad sack that we merely pity, Hackman turns him into a fighter, watching the insanity taking place around him. He also invents the greatest product ever designed to be a symbol of the movie's theme. Hackman invents a mirror that lets you see yourself as others see you, as you really are, not as a mirror image. This film is about looking at yourself for who you are, rather that letting others define you. Don't be misled by those looking for a "10" like middle-aged crisis comedy. It's far more than that. "10" was garbage, this is brilliant. From Dennis Quaid's comment that somebody had a "brain hemorrhoid" (instead of hemorrhage) to the sublime Apocalypse Now helicopter scene parody taking place inside a grocery store, this movie is also filled with hilarious little touches. It's worth the rental. Get it. (If it's even been released yet, that is).

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• Double lives in suburbia...

  moonspinner552006-09-03

  Stuck-in-a-rut businessman Gene Hackman gets fed up with the rat race after being demoted from company executive to manager of an all-night convenience store. He longs to be an inventor (he creates a reverse-image mirror), and ends up divorcing his non-supportive wife over speculation he's having an affair with his teenage son's married girlfriend, a flighty sexpot in lavender chiffon. Comedy-drama has some early promise but not enough jokes, and it starts to sag just 40 minutes in. Hackman displays his effortless charm, and Barbra Streisand attempts something offbeat--though it's a gamble which doesn't quite pay off, as we never get a grip on her wispy Cheryl. The picture is a cracked egg: interesting conception and design, yet unsatisfactory. There are a handful of funny lines and trenchant bits of satire scattered about, and every scene in the drug store is ripe with possibilities which are then left unformed and unrealized. *1/2 from ****

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• 1981's spaced out odyssey

  ptb-82006-02-03

  This small comedy with a galaxy of Jupiter sized personalities became the comedy Armageddon of it's day. Actually quite funny and now a curiosity piece - albeit forgotten, it is even a surprise to Streisand fans that it exists. I saw it on a 'rescue mission' double feature with CONTINENTAL DIVIDE where these two brief comedies that had a brief release mopped up whatever box office was possible as a duo. Sreisand and Belushi together! Well the box office in Australia actually played a happy tune and this double feature became a sleeper hit for a month or so early in 1982. Then video struck, cinemas closed and that was the end of that. As a suburban farce with "ordinary people characters" played by Oscar winners, it was slumming it a bit (like Fred and Ginger in FOLLOW THE FLEET) but odd enough and with a sprinkling of good laughs worked well enough. Like FOR PETE'S SAKE in 1974, seeing Streisand coupled with ungainly love interest, all set in low income apartments and with blue collar jobs, seems strange after the DOLLY and Fanny glamour...but.... ALL NIGHT LONG as 'the other Streisand film you've never seen' does deserve a better profile... and compared to Adam Sandler comedies is positively a masterpiece of hilarity. Actually it's a wonder we don't get the ANL remake with him and Drew Barrymore... stranger things have happened (MR DEEDS anyone? no? funny about that...) Apparently Streisand was paid $8million, upping the budget to $12 million......!! work that production cost out!

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