Stars & Bars (1988)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Don't listen to the negative reviews

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This fish out of water film has Daniel Day Lewis, uptight Englishman, thrown into a dysfunctional family of Southern hillbillies lead by Harry Dean Stanton. Not unlike Stanton's similar misfire movie "Twister", the story is slight, but not as stretched as "Twister". Both movies have offbeat characters on parade. "Stars and Bars" begins with a rather unflattering view of New York City, and then relies on Georgia backwoods stereotypes for both dark and slapstick humor. This film would certainly have to be classified as an acquired taste, and there are plenty of dead spots throughout. Nevertheless, the quirky characters, played by some good character actors, is enough to recommend for admirers of the strange. - MERK

Oh, how I would love to own this on DVD! A marvelous job by Daniel Day Lewis, Harry Dean Stanton, Joan Cusack and Glann Headley. In my opinion it is a deep South tour-de-farce. I guess you have to have lived there to appreciate the humorous poke at what lies behind the moss-covered trees that line the backroads of the South. It reminds me of Out on a Limb, a similar Southern dark comedy with Matthew Broderick. Both are hysterical weekends with people whose family trees "don't branch!!" You'll never see Lewis doing this whimsy again, except perhaps as the pansy boyfriend in "Room with a View" which he did at about the same time. Both characters are played with equal artistic integrity he grants all his roles. Kudos and many laughs to all!

The cast includes Daniel Day Lewis and Joan Cusack, who one thinks could turn out stunning performances with the worst scripts. This isn't the case.The main reason I actually wanted to watch this movie twice is because of the in-jokes that only Southerners, and Atlantans especially, would get.In one scene at an Atlanta hotel, the Marriott Marquis was transformed into a parody of another major hotel which once had a "lake" in its lobby, and a long-standing restaurant with an overworked Civil War theme. I highly recommend seeing this movie at least once if you lived in Atlanta in the 80's. It's also good, I would think, if you've had experience with stubborn patriarchs and traveling art buyers, but that's probably a smaller group.

I was switching around channels one day when I happened to catch the beginning fencing scene of the movie on Showtime. I thought it would be good, as Daniel Day Lewis was in it, and when the beginning credits mentioned other members of the cast, it seemed like a diamond in a rough. Well, I was right about the "rough" part, but not about a diamond. Nothing about this movie resembled a gemstone, and it just goes to show that things aren't always what they seem.The movie is a fish-out-of-water look at a self-centered British art expert who takes a trip to southern America so he could pick up a priceless Renoir which somehow surfaced there. Only problem, is that he'll have to get past a group of reckless hillbillies and crazies in the process. The film was poorly written, and some parts didn't seem scripted at all. Day Lewis' character is so unappealing, that the only thing left to root for in the movie is hopes that this painting will come away undamaged. I tried to channel surf to see if something else was on, just to get away from watching this horrible wreck.I haven't talked to very many people about this film, but those I've had said they have never seen it or heard of it. It figures.