jotix100
Bob Rafelson is a puzzling director. After his big successes with "Fiver Easy Pieces" and "The King of Marvin Gardens", Mr. Rafelson doesn't seem to come out with a film project that will take him back to his past glory. This is evident with the disastrous "Man Trouble" shown on cable recently.The film is a mess. Jack Nicholson, an actor who has worked with the director before with better results, plays the main role of Harry Bliss a trainer of dogs without any redeeming qualities. Harry is married to an Oriental woman and is working his marital problems with a counselor. Harry gets involved with Ellen Barkin, who is being stalked. The solution is to get a German Shephard dog to protect her. She has moved to her sister's swanky home where probably the only funny scene happens. We watch Ms. Barkin working with the dog and all her commands have to be in German, otherwise the dog doesn't respond! The others in the cast are totally wasted. Beverly D'Angelo has some good moments. Michael McKean, Saul Rubineck, Henry Dean Stanton, are seen in supporting roles.See if there is something else to watch, but don't make the same mistake we made.
walrus29
I found this movie in the $5.50 bin of Wal-Mart and only got it because it had Jack Nicholson in it. I had extremely low expectations, which is probably why I got such a surprise--This movie is hilarious. It has a very dry line of sarcasm running all the way through it, particularly in the off-the-wall arguments between Nicholson's character and the wife.Taking everything literally will not help you understand the humor. You have to view every line as some sort of comeback to a previous one, and that's when you see the laughable irony in the film. It really did surprise me; I enjoyed it!And the acting is stellar. The characters really are portrayed well. They're all very comical characters, full of flaws, which just makes them more realistic in a rather ridiculous plot which honestly could have been thrown out the window.Personally, I would have loved to just see a film about the marriage counseling, which is only glimpsed at, between Nicholson and his wife. Some of the funniest moments are in that part of the film, but, like I said, it's dry.Enjoy!
julesrules
Despite the fact that this movie has Jack Nicholson, it isn't saved by it. How much I would like to love everything Mr Nicholson does, I just cannot get used to his more "dumb" roles, like in this one, like in Prizzi's Honor and The Fortune. I think I read somewhere that Mr Nicholson is good in comedies in which the situation is funny, not the character he's playing, and I have to say I quite agree with that. I mean, As Good As It Gets is rated a comedy but, oh my god, what a difference with this one.About the film: it's weak. As I said, Mr Nicholson doesn't save it and Ms Barkin is a non-interesting person and completely miscasted for this one: she's not funny, but irritating. Anyway, the plot is weak, the "jokes" are weak and the acting is weak. I cannot even say something about the directing, because I'm not sure whether there was one...I cannot live with myself to rate a movie with Mr Nicholson less than 5 out of 10, so I gave it 5. Without him, it would probably have been 4.
honesty
How Nicholson could let himself be talked into this loser is beyond me. I hope that the producer lost whatever he had on Jack 'cause I don't want to see another wreck like this for quite a while.
AD
