penelopedanger
Joined Aug 2002
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Reviews23
penelopedanger's rating
Given its stellar cast and pedigree, you could be forgiven for expecting "Mixed Nuts" to be really, really funny. Make no mistake--it's not. This movie is bad on a biblical scale--it's the cinematic equivalent of an Old Testament plague.
Steve Martin heads a suicide prevention hotline on Christmas. This weak premise gives Nora Ephron an opportunity to roll out every cruel, mean-spirited and painfully unfunny stereotype in the bad movie book, from the mannish transvestite to the forced-zany suicidal loon to the ever-popular Recurring Dead Body. One wonders why Martin and his staff run a suicide prevention hotline if they hate the mentally ill. As a Christmas movie this cynical, nasty exercise makes "Bad Santa" look like "Miracle On 34th St." The script is an incomprehensible mess, even veteran comic actors like Martin, Garry Shandling and Madeline Kahn seem lost, and Ephron's direction is so sloppy and hamhanded that the film plays like cutting-room debris stitched randomly together. If you're a Steve Martin completist you may feel compelled to see "Mixed Nuts", but do yourself a favor and don't. This movie is physically painful to watch. Everyone involved with this film should be embarrassed.
Steve Martin heads a suicide prevention hotline on Christmas. This weak premise gives Nora Ephron an opportunity to roll out every cruel, mean-spirited and painfully unfunny stereotype in the bad movie book, from the mannish transvestite to the forced-zany suicidal loon to the ever-popular Recurring Dead Body. One wonders why Martin and his staff run a suicide prevention hotline if they hate the mentally ill. As a Christmas movie this cynical, nasty exercise makes "Bad Santa" look like "Miracle On 34th St." The script is an incomprehensible mess, even veteran comic actors like Martin, Garry Shandling and Madeline Kahn seem lost, and Ephron's direction is so sloppy and hamhanded that the film plays like cutting-room debris stitched randomly together. If you're a Steve Martin completist you may feel compelled to see "Mixed Nuts", but do yourself a favor and don't. This movie is physically painful to watch. Everyone involved with this film should be embarrassed.
