The Pickle (1993)

Very disappointing...

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

The Pickle. About a director, and written by a director. Danny Aiello is Harry Stone, about to release "The Pickle", which he fears will be another bomb. A fun supporting cast. Dyan Cannon, Jerry Stiller, Shelley Winters. Stephen Tobolowsky (Ned, from Groundhog Day!) Lots of little sight gags... the film crew is wearing "pickle" T shirts. Stone even has his own stalker, Bernadette. I think this story is a drama with comedy bits thrown in here and there. Unfortunately, the title and the summaries all lead you to think its going to be a comedy with some drama thrown in. It's also a little confusing, since we keep flashing back and forward... sometimes it's back to Stone's childhood, and sometimes it's back to when he was filming the movie. The film within a film is pretty funny, and has some GREAT people in it... Little Richard is the singing President, Isabella Rossellini, and Dudley Moore. Some funny one-liners "Pickle juice is now pressurized." and "Let's get this pickle off the ground!" My personal favorite is: "It's a bird. It's a plane. It's a pickle!" The bible on VCR tape has some funny updates! Shelley Winters is Stone's mom, in some type of nursing home, and still has faith in her son, but calls him out for selling out to pay his bills. That seems to be the point of the film -- coming to terms with himself, kind of a mid-life crisis. People keep telling him how they liked his older films. He also has (or had) big plans for the films that he never made. Stone has a strange relationship with his (much younger) girlfriend; Sometimes they are lovey-dovey, but every now and then he lashes out and yells at her to go back to France. Odd scene in the nightclub where he visits yet ANOTHER one of his ex wives, and she sings Goodbye Heartache. or someone does. Visiting all these ex-es is one of the running gags. Like everyone he meets wishing him good luck on the movie preview when it was supposed to be a big secret. He seems to learn little life-lessons from all the ex wives and friends he bumps into. Has an upbeat ending. Not sure why it got such a low rating. It IS a little offbeat, but some funny stuff in here. Similar to Funny Bones, with Jerry Lewis. another offbeat drama, with lots of humor. If you liked that one, you'll like this one! Written and directed by Paul Mazursky, who was nominated FIVE times, four for writing, one for Best Picture. Dead, you know. but still has two projects in post-production, as of February 2016.

It's hard to decide what to say about this one. It isn't totally, one hundred percent bad. Although the movie-in-a-movie is unspeakably bad, meant to be campy, but missing by a mile. I'm pretty sure that this is intentional, however. Danny Aiello is perfectly adequate here, and more or less nails his pathetic character. Dyan Cannon was good in a small role. Clotilde Courau was impressive as the latest twenty-something girlfriend. And Linda Carlson had a brave topless scene that she pulled off very well.So, it's not totally bad, but I don't believe that this one accomplishes its goals. All in all, it's probably worth passing on.

This is a great off-the-wall romantic comedy about love, work, pandering to the public taste, and midlife crises. The main character is a talented movie director who decides to make a silly PG-13 movie to get himself out of hock with the IRS. It has an excellent cast, a wide range of humor (from deadpan to slapstick), and fine writing. It's also a wry send-up of the movie industry. The metacommentary includes several excellent cuts between reality and the movie that's being made, and in some places the film departs from strict realism. The result is a multi-dimensional masterpiece of wry midlife humor.

It's very interesting to think of how very much this movie could have achieved and didn't. It was supposed to be a look at humanity versus consumerism and art versus marketability. The Pickle is actually three movies in one- we have the story of the director, the movie he has made, and the movie he wants to make. It's a good idea...but something got lost in the transition from idea to film. The story of the director is pretty depressing and largely painful to watch. Aiello's performance is merely adequate, and the relationships he rediscovers with his family and annoying girlfriend seem preachy and cliched. The movie he is about to release, about a giant pickle from outer space, is meant to be amusing high camp, but it's just plain weird. And the movie he dreams of making, based on his childhood, doesn't seem to have a real purpose. THIS moviegoer certainly wouldn't pick it over the space pickle movie.In a nutshell, I don't think I'd pay money to see this film again, though if you bribed me with some of Little Richard's liver-flavored jelly beans I might give it a shot.