(Review originally written at 28 September 2007)
The concept of a movie within a movie is greatly and fun executed in this movie and it blends perfectly in with the plot of the movie. The movie is filled with some great and impressive stunts. This is really a stunt men movie! I feel that this movie is a great homage to all the stunt people out there. There isn't too much to the rest of the story but that's sort of OK. It's the sort of story that put its emphasize on the slow development of the plot and character. It isn't until halfway through the movie that the story takes to take form and becomes more personal and layered. It even in part manages to become effective and powerful. The screenplay even received an Oscar nomination.
Above all the movie is still a comedy. It's a movie with a realistic directing approach. It's not the sort of movie with forced comedy moments in it but more a movie with a constantly present fun and light atmosphere, with also some great subtle fun dialog in it and other subtle comedy elements.
It's an '80's movie but yet the movie still totally feels and look like a '70's movie and that is of course a big plus. This is of course due to the fact that this movie actually shot in 1978 but not released until 1980 by Fox.
The movie features some great camera-work and some good fast editing, that keeps the movie flowing and the pace high. Also the nice musical score by Dominic Frontiere suits the movie well and makes it fun in parts and perfectly serious in others. It's a good balance between the comedy and drama, as is the entire movie as a whole.
Peter O'Toole is totally great and convincing in this movie as a director. He's such a wonderful actor! He also received an Oscar nominations for his role in this movie. Also the other actors in this movie are just fine, which is also thanks to the good directing approach of the movie. No big surprises to me that director Richard Rush was also nominated for an Oscar for this movie. He's a great actor director.
A great and fun movie to watch!
8/10
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