Lost in America (1985)

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

A husband (the obnoxious Albert Brooks) and wife (the charming Julie Hagerty) in their 30s decide to quit their jobs, live as free spirits and cruise America in a Winnebago.Although this film is praised by critics and the AFI, I found it to just be so-so. Brooks originally did not want to direct himself and had wanted Bill Murray for the part of David Howard, and I think this would have made for a far more satisfying -- and humorous -- film. Brooks, for whatever reason, just does not appeal to me as a lead.Some scenes are amusing, and I like the recurring references to "Easy Rider", but this is not the sort of movie I could see myself watching a second or third time.

I will not read reviews anymore. For me this movie is not funny as some people said, nor gave me anything. I didn't laugh at any scene...Two idiot persons.. Albert Brook has been talking too much and made me bored... What I concluded reading IMDb reviews and looking at the grades is that American like American films, Indian like Indian films and grades get high accordingly. of course there are films getting high grades and positive comments from all over the world; I like that kind of movies. The reason of I don't like this film might be because our pleasure has been changed from 30 years. So I decided not to watch the movies from 80's :)

Lost in America shows that Albert Brooks is a unique individual, who can tell a realistic story with dialogue and structure that are just as quirky as his character, David Howard. We start with what is clearly an unhappy couple having a tense discussion about how their life will play out in the next few days. David will get a promotion, the two of them will move to a new house, and everything will be fine. It is when David does not get the promotion he expects that everything changes, and the couple has to learn to live spontaneously.Wait though, because this can't just happen – the characters have to learn/make mistakes in order to change their outlook on life. David is still very methodical, planning to use a specific amount of money for one thing and carefully spend the rest on luxuries after the two are remarried. Unfortunately, the film resides to making a dumb character out of his wife Linda, who loses all of their money (except $820) on an entire night of playing roulette. Because God forbid we have a thoughtful female for the protagonist's wife in this film about finding the self.To me, the pacing of this film seems a little off – it is quick and funny at some parts, but these parts are cut between some scenes that are overly long with few cuts and tons of dialogue to preach the message of the film to the viewer, the message being when times are tough it is important not to lose the sense of self.The second half of the film is not as predictable as the first half, particularly the delightful turn at the conclusion of the film. With the tone of the film set, I knew this film would have a happy ending, but what I was expecting did not involve David getting his previous job back, because it kind of goes against the themes presented in the middle of the film. I enjoyed the nice surprise though, and things were clear to me when David asked if he should "eat s***" in New York – it made the scene where he examines a dream car passing by a lot more relevant than I had taken that scene to be. While most of the film force feeds the importance of living life by your own terms (especially with too many references to Easy Rider) David getting his "executive" job back at the end shows that, as I have read somewhere before, financial stability can equal emotional stability at times.

I notice from the IMDb ratings that his film only gets a 6.9 rating overall. Ridiculous. Somebody once called Albert Brooks the funniest man in America. To be honest, i second that emotion. This film, which I always delight in when I get the chance to watch it. ( Which is very, very rarely) packs more genuine laughter into a single word- "nest egg")- than a hundred gr5oss-out comedies and a thosuand dirty words, put together. I rarely agreed with the critic John Simon, but he put it well. Watching this exquisite film, you laugh so hard you cry. And what happens when you laugh and cry all at once? You see rainbows. Moral of the film. The next time you have a large amount of money and decide to drive across America in a Winnebago, drive through Utah, not Nevada.