I was anxious to see this, mainly because of the 60s TV icons in it - especially Dick Van Dyke whom I loved as a child in The Dick Van Dyke Show and still do to this day watching reruns of it. Also because I was practically a chain smoker for 40+ years so the theme was of interest to me.
It was so horribly bad that it was almost impossible to get through - just a silly juvenile toilet humor farce that I wish I had skipped. Nothing real or good or well done about it. So many times I almost quit it before it was over, like when Jean Stapleton (who I loved in All in the Family) was sneezing continuously all over Van Dyke and her husband in their kitchen...what was that about? A 5-year-old child might have found it funny but I just muted the sound until the scene finally changed.
The chain smoking hardcore nicotine addict doctor, finally reduced to sucking on a pacifier at the end.......the pastor's wife making the bed late in the afternoon (why would she wait til so late to make it?) and seeing her husband coming home knowing he would be wanting sex so she quickly unmade it again - like everything else in this movie, too obviously painfully contrived and not funny in the least. Just a never-ending eye-rolling torturous hour and forty six minutes, which is why it was so astounding that the comic genius Norman Lear was responsible for it, and that such comedy icons as Van Dyke and Bob Newhart were in it. Most of the main characters got on my last nerve with their ridiculous farcical antics and I hated and dreaded the unnecessary WAY too close close-ups.
Huge crashing disappointment, to say the least. I had to stop reading all the positive reviews here praising it to death since my opinion was the exact opposite. Couldn't wait to delete it off the DVR. I'll never understand what others here loved so much about it. Ugh!
1 out of 10 / Grade F
It was so horribly bad that it was almost impossible to get through - just a silly juvenile toilet humor farce that I wish I had skipped. Nothing real or good or well done about it. So many times I almost quit it before it was over, like when Jean Stapleton (who I loved in All in the Family) was sneezing continuously all over Van Dyke and her husband in their kitchen...what was that about? A 5-year-old child might have found it funny but I just muted the sound until the scene finally changed.
The chain smoking hardcore nicotine addict doctor, finally reduced to sucking on a pacifier at the end.......the pastor's wife making the bed late in the afternoon (why would she wait til so late to make it?) and seeing her husband coming home knowing he would be wanting sex so she quickly unmade it again - like everything else in this movie, too obviously painfully contrived and not funny in the least. Just a never-ending eye-rolling torturous hour and forty six minutes, which is why it was so astounding that the comic genius Norman Lear was responsible for it, and that such comedy icons as Van Dyke and Bob Newhart were in it. Most of the main characters got on my last nerve with their ridiculous farcical antics and I hated and dreaded the unnecessary WAY too close close-ups.
Huge crashing disappointment, to say the least. I had to stop reading all the positive reviews here praising it to death since my opinion was the exact opposite. Couldn't wait to delete it off the DVR. I'll never understand what others here loved so much about it. Ugh!
1 out of 10 / Grade F