Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Peter Riegert | ... |
Jason Cooper ("Growing Yourself")
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Diane Lane | ... |
Liza ("Growing Yourself")
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Candy Clark | ... |
Susan Cooper ("Growing Yourself")
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Teresa Ganzel | ... |
Diana ("Growing Yourself")
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Schnootie Neff | ... |
Jennifer Cooper - 'Growing Yourself'
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Andy Shakman | ... |
Josh Cooper - 'Growing Yourself'
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Tamar Howard | ... |
Judy Cooper - 'Growing Yourself'
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Ian Fried | ... |
Jeffrey Cooper - 'Growing Yourself'
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Barry Michlin | ... |
Fireman - 'Growing Yourself'
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Trinidad Silva | ... |
Carlos - 'Growing Yourself'
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John Lawlor | ... |
Mr. Haggis - 'Growing Yourself'
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Susan Krebs | ... |
Lady Who Beats Her Plants - 'Growing Yourself'
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Nedra Volz | ... |
Old Lady - 'Growing Yourself'
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Stanley Lawrence | ... |
Sanitation Man - 'Growing Yourself'
(as Stan Lawrence)
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Ann Dusenberry | ... |
Dominique Corsaire ("Success Wanters")
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A National Lampoon anthology of three shorts spoofing everything from personal growth films, glossy soap operas, and police stories. In the first story "Growing Yourself", stars Peter Riegert as a confused family man who throws his wife out of the house in order for him to "grow" a new path in life and raise his four children on his own. In "Success Wanters", Ann Dusenberry stars as Dominique Corsaire, a young college graduate determined to succeed in life in which in a few days time lands a job as a stripper, then the mistress to a margarine company, inherits it when the owner croaks, and is then romanced by a Greek shipping tycoon, and ultimately the US president. In "Municipalians", Robby Benson stars alongside Richard Widmark as a naive rookie Los Angeles policeman paired with a cynical veteran of the force to catch an inept serial killer (Christopher Lloyd). Written by Anonymous
I chuckled a few times during this movie. I laughed out loud during the notarizing of the margarine company handover (pun intended).
There are three segments in this movie. The first one is supposed to be a spoof of "woman 'grows up' and launches career" movies. The Tampax® box was the funniest thing in this segment. Most of the cast members aren't listed here on IMDb. They are the lucky ones. Few other people will be able to connect this thing to the ruin of their acting careers.
The second segment is a spoof of "sharkish woman sleeps her way to the top and seizes control of huge industry" movies. Robert Culp has several funny moments, all physical humor, including the aforementioned handover. After his character dies the segment sinks lower and lower as Dominique Corsaire rises higher and higher. By the time she becomes First Lady I wanted to rip the cable out of the TV and watch "snow." I switched to Pakistani music videos instead. I don't understand Urdu, or whatever language the videos were in. It was still better than listening to the dialogue in this painfully dull "story."
Then came "Municipalians" with the *big* stars, half of them on screen for less than a minute: Elisha Cook, Jr., Christopher Lloyd, Rhea Perlman, Henny Youngman, Julie Kavner, Richard Widmark and ... *Robby Benson.* It's supposed to be a spoof of "young cop teams with hardened, substance abusing older cop who needs retirement *badly*" movies. The horizontal flash bar on the police car is very impressive. It was interesting seeing old RTD buses, and a Shell gas station sign, and an American Savings sign -- none of them are around anymore. Nagurski's "Never stop anywhere you might have to get out the car" made me smile momentarily. Then they discuss how boring the young cop is. A lot. Back and forth about how boring he is. That was as boring as this description of how boring it is. Nagurski's Law Number Four, "Never go into a music store that's been cut into with an acetylene torch," made me think that the music store is a real business at the actual location the dispatcher gave. Thinking about that was more interesting than the set-up for the gag which followed. Young Falcone (Benson) gets shot. A lot. He becomes a hardened cop like Nagurski. The segment keeps going. On and on. And on. It won't stop. It rolls relentlessly onward no matter how many times you wish he'd just *die* already so this thing will end. It doesn't. It goes on and on and on.... Then a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" episode which I've seen four times already comes on. Thank God! This abysmal movie ended while I went to get the mail.