Product Description

MISADVENTURES OF FOUR GROUPS OF GUESTS AT THE BEVERLY HILLS HOTEL.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14942 in DVD
• Brand: SONY PICTURES HOME ENT
• Released on: 2002-01-02
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Cantonese, Chinese, English, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 103 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
The West Coast answer to Neil Simon's Plaza Suite, this film (written by Simon and directed by Herbert Ross) has a high Hollywood gloss. Instead of the omnibus form of the film of the New York version, this film (set at the Beverly Hills Hotel) intertwines the stories (à la Grand Hotel) of several different sets of guests, including Alan Alda and Jane Fonda and Walter Matthau and Elaine May, on one particularly eventful weekend. The story that works best involves Maggie Smith and Michael Caine as an Oscar-nominated actress and her straying, gay husband who come to an understanding (Smith won the Oscar for this film). The least effective is a slapsticky battle between well-to-do but competitive doctors played by Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews

One of the best adaptations of a Neil Simon play.
Clever direction means that this doesn't seem too play-like and the hotel rooms never seem claustrophobic. A very strong cast is assembled here, with Caine cast against type as a closet case preparing to receive an Oscar with his bitter and scathing wife Maggie Smith. Alan Alda turns in a moving performance as Billy, and Pryor and Cosby, both usually associated with other actors, show us what a good double-act they could have been. It seems to be four plays in one, with the tone of the comedy varying from piece to piece. Alda's section is touching comedy, Walter Matthau's is farce, Caine's is wry observation while Cosby's is farce again. The brevity of the individual pieces means that the film moves along at a cracking pace, leaving you wanting more. If you do want more, I suggest Neil Simon's Plaza Suite.

fantastic!
It's worth a look just for the cast (Prior, Cosby, Alda, Fonda, Smith, Caine, Matthau, etc.), but trust me, you won't be disappointed. Prior & Crosby had me in tears. It does get a bit dramatic towards the end, so I'd probably give this 4.5 stars, but I laughed so hard at points, it gets rounded up to 5 stars.

FUNNY!!
This is a funny movie...different people with different issues!! Could have had a little more Alan Alda, but it wasn't just about him...all characters had fair air time. Good movie.