The Man In The Moon

I just watched 'The Man in the Moon' (1991) without really knowing anything about it. Infact, I first heard about it after looking for 'Man On The Moon' just a few days ago. But anyway, I watched the trailer & well, that pretty much gives you a good idea of the whole story. It's basically a love story between 2 cousins (Dani Trant, 14, & Court Foster, 17) set out in the rural country in 1957, which ends up becoming a love triangle with Dani's older sister Marie (17/18, age isn't given in the movie but is suggested) when she too falls for Court. But then just as Dani finds out about the relationship between Marie & Court there's a big plot point. I won't reveal it, but if you watch the trailer (& even if you don't) you can pretty much tell what it's gonna be. Nonetheless, it had a solid story which was somewhat ruined by the too-revealing trailer but was a little predictable anyway. Though, to be fair, there were a few times when I didn't know what was going to happen next.

I'd say the movie definitely had some solid acting. "Dani" is played by a very young Reese Witherspoon; she would have been 14/15 at the time of release & so during recording of the film chances were she was 12-14 I guess. It was actually, according to IMDB, her first movie & for someone's first movie it definitely wasn't a bad movie to be apart of. The movie also starred Sam Waterson (better known to many now as D.A. Jack McCoy in the Law & Order universe) as the father of the Trant household, "Matthew Trant";Tess Harper as "Abigail Trant", the mother; Gail Strickland as "Marie Foster", Dani's older sister; & Jason London as "Court Foster", the love interest of the two sisters. Overall I thought the acting was pretty good, especially from "Dani", "Court" & "Matthew". 

So yeah, overall a pretty decent movie. It's nothing spectacular, or anything I'd say "GO OUT & BUY THIS NOW!!!" but it's an enjoyable film, & one that I definitely wouldn't say to not watch; definitely watch it if you can.

Ratings wise, I'd probably give this a B-, though it probably would've been a B or a B+ had the trailer not revealed so much about the movie because after watching that, you pretty much know what's gonna happen throughout the movie. I mean, don't get me wonrg, there are plenty of other things that happen just that most of them aren't really too signicifant (though, Reese Witherspoon (or "Dani") does go skinny-dipping near to the beginning of the movie. ;) ...but she's underage during this film so :p).

Man On The Moon

I don't normally do this, but after watching this film I just thought I had to do it.

Wow, I just finished watching 'Man On the Moon' & what a truely great film it was. I should say now that prior to the film I've seen very very little of any of Kaufman's stuff, or even knew very little of him. This film actually taught me quite a bit about him. Now I realize that his life wasn't exactly as the film portrayed (after all, he does warn the audience of that at the beginning of the movie) but from what I've quickly just found out it's meant to be pretty close to his actual life.

The reason I watched this film is actually because I was watching an episode of Legends Of Wrestling onn WWE 24/7 & I can't remember if they were discussing Jerry Lawler's career or if Jerry Lawler was on the panel, but whichever way it was one of the panelists mentioned the film & said how great Carey played the character/role of Andy Kaufman. I don't really know why it made me watch the film, but it did. 

As I said, I didn't really know what Kaufman was like during the time he was alive but you can tell that all of the actor/actresses had done thier research & really nailed each of thier roles. Especially Jim Carey. I actually can't think of anybody else who could've played the role better than him. I gotta say I was pretty surprised by the number of quality-name actors in the movie - "Hilga" from Sabrina The Teenage Witch (I don't know her real name, I just remember that character name from when I used to watch the show years ago), Richard Belzer, Courtney Love (I didn't actually realize it was her until I read the character listings on Wiki), a young "Chloe O'Brian" from 24 (I don't know her real name either), & a bunch of others that popped up. I also gotta admit, I marked out when I saw JR for the first time; I did not expect him to be in there. Heck, I didn't expect Lawler to be either, & I kinda marked for him. Though it surprises me that if Lawler was in the movie, that they didn't use the Memphis Wrestling promotion stuff & instead used a fake "Global Wrestling Federation" promotion. 

One thing I did have to learn to understand was Kaufman's bizarre, or well, different, sense of humor which infact he shared with Bob Zmuda. There was a little bit which I found humorous, but there was also much of it I personally didn't find humrous. Though I don't feel as though the aim of the movie was to try & get gags, it was moreso about informing the audience of the truely intersting life of Andy Kaufman. It's a rollercoaster ride from his childhood, to his struggles trying to make it in showbusiness, to making it, to wrestling, to trying to go back to showbusiness, to get cancer, to unfortunately dieing & everything inbetween. 

I will admit that during that second-to-last scene where it's Kaufman's funeral I did almost shead a tear, & then got even closer during the final performance of Tony Clifton. Which does bring me onto the ambigious ending. After watching the movie I've found that it's beleived by some that he didn't actually, & that Kaufman faked his death. Now while watching the film I was kinda expecting for it to be revealed that he didn't have cancer but for him to then die of something more sudden like a heart attack, but I guess that added to the sadness - the one time he was being completely serious, people didn't want to listen. I guess it comes back to the old story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. But yeah I was expecting it to be Zmuda playing the character of Tony Clifton, but in one of the last shots you see him at the side of the room smiling on. Which leaves the audience pondering the question at the end, as fans have been for 25 years, did Andy Kaufman actually die? As in real life, the movie gave out the message that most people beleive he is deceased but there are those select few who beleive he might still be alive. 

In conclusion, for me, I found it to be a truely great film with great acting, & I want to say 'great story' but it obviously it wasn't a "story", it was biopic of Andy's life. Nonetheless it was still a great film in my estimation, & if y'all have not checked it out I HIGHLY suggest that you do. I don't normally like grading movies, but if I was to do so, I'd probably give it an A or an A+; it really would go up there with some of all-time most enjoyable movies.

Now I know I should've kinda finished this post, but I just wanted to say one more thing... I had NO IDEA that the feud between Andy Kaufman & Jerry Lawler was completely fake. I mean, being the wrestling fan that I am I probably should've figured out that wasn't 100% real, but I dunno, I'd always thought it was. So it kinda blew me away a little when the movie revealed that to me.