Python Hyena
For Richer or Poorer (1997): Dir: Bryan Spicer / Cast: Tim Allen, Kirstie Alley, Jay O'Sanders, Larry Miller, Wayne Knight: Rich in terms of message yet poor in everything else. Title suggests our little regard for what little we have particularly within relationships. Tim Allen and Kirstie Alley play a bickering couple on the run after their accountant commits fraud. Their marriage is on the rocks but they must put their difference aside and hideout. They find refuge in an Amish community where Allen is put to work training Big John the horse and Alley tries to convince them to wear color. Plot has appeal but the screenplay wears thin with formula structure and predictable happy ending. An improvement for Bryan Spicer who previously directed the wretched McHale's Navy, also the same year. Allen and Alley are a superb comic pairing who rise above the clichés and formula storytelling although no one should be surprised at the outcome. Flat supporting roles with Jay O'Sanders as an Amish citizen whom they deceive but eventually must confess to. Larry Miller plays a brainless cop with good comic potential despite cardboard role. Wayne Knight plays the scoundrel accountant in a cardboard appearance. Strong marriage theme, which is a plus considering the industry's lust for the forbidden, however it is within a screenplay that is more poor than rich. Score: 6 / 10
sddavis63
Tim Allen and Kirstie Alley star in this as Brad and Caroline Sexton, an unhappy but high-rolling couple who suddenly find themselves in trouble with the IRS and flee to an Amish community to hide out in by posing as their distant relatives and being accepted into the fold. If that sounds vaguely familiar, it's because it is. This is basically a comedy remake of 1985's "Witness," in which Harrison Ford hid out in an Amish community to escape the corrupt cops pursuing him.The comedy was mixed. There was what I would consider to be some pretty typical farm humour (things like Brad being dragged on the ground behind a plow horse) but there was nothing outrageously funny. The film did a good job of portraying the change that the Amish community begins to make in the Sextons' life as they begin to rediscover their love for each other and as they start to buy into the Amish version of morality - simplicity, hard work and honesty. The Amish community really didn't come across to me as especially authentic. Mind you, it also wasn't a parody. There was no disrespect for the Amish; it just seemed to lack a degree of authenticity, at least to me.Allen and Alley did a good job of portraying the Sextons' change of heart, but they had no real spark with each other in my opinion. The movie is nothing to write home about, and in a handful of places - especially some of the early scenes between Brad and Caroline - it's a bit crude. It's passable - but nothing more to be honest. (4/10)
shannasman9
I think this is the best movies of the 90's. Great humor from Tim Allen and Kirstie Alley. Who knew? Also, the comedy great Tim Allen used his line from Toy Story "I come in peace." Has anyone noticed that yet? This is the best Tim Allen performance I've seen so far. Thanks and also I'd like to say that they should do a sequel of this movie somehow. I first watched this movie about 2 years ago and fell in love with it immediately. Kirstie Alley always does her best to keep herself looking so good in movies I think. I definitely would recommend this movie to my friends and to anyone who hasn't seen it yet. Keep up the good work Tim Allen.
gavin6942
"For Richer or Poorer" was something I dreaded, even more than girls dread Shannon Hamilton. How could Tim Allen and that waste-of-flesh Kirstie Alley make a good film? Well, I was shocked and awed. Should you run out and buy this movie? No. But don't go running away from it either. You'll find a film that is generally heart-warming, sincerely funny, and underneath its comedy exterior a good moral tale. Allen and Alley assume the roles of two Amish folk to escape the IRS. As their lawyer fights to get them acquitted, they find a whole new world they had been missing while enjoying caviar and martinis. You might not be able to get the modern world into the Amish, but maybe you'll find a little bit of Amish in us modern folk. While not something you "must see", recommended if you're stuck home and you see it listed on Comedy Central. You could do worse.
AD
