The Secret of My Success (1987)

Why so much hype?

Good movie but grossly overrated

Did you people see the same film I saw?

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Eighties comedies seem dated today in terms of the color palette, the building architecture and the way females wear provoking negligees on camera while males for often no reason in the storyboard change on camera to and from underpants. The brilliantly crafted heavily physical comic storyline expresses eighties ideals of how rurals once emigrated to the big city for jobs and dates. Other than Michael J Fox shining in one of his best written and blocked comedy roles the only names in the cast today generally recognizable are former television comedy second banana John Pankow this time doing better playing it straight and movie personality Mercedes Ruehl in a supporting role. This visual, the dialogue, the editing and the blocking seem so perfect in every way the only reason I score it an eight is it seems today so dated it might not appeal to the general movie fan expressing no particular interest in eighties comedies.

I've been a fan of Roger Ebert's movie reviews, and how he's used the term "idiot plot" to describe a situation where the problem in the movie would be immediately solved if the characters weren't total idiots. "Secret of my success" has an "idiot plot" but there's also a lot of good amusing fun in the movie too. And some good 80s music. Not everyone likes 80s styles and music. I like it because the 80s were where a lot of my young memories are from. Anyway, Brantly (Michael J. Fox) has come to New York with what he thought was a secure job position waiting for him, but he gets there being abruptly sent away by the big business company owner telling him "hostile takeover, 75% employees got the ax, including you!" Brantly is left stranded, so he goes from company to company being dismissed again and again. We get a good look at fast, impatient, unsympathetic New York attitudes. Brantly then gets a job at his very distant uncle's firm. By very distant, I meant that Prescott, his so called uncle didn't even know he existed until he walked into his office begging for a job. Prescott reluctantly gives him a job. In the mailroom. Brantley is told "you can't even get paroled out of the mailroom", and " never interact with the suits" by his fellow mailroom co worker. A suit, by their definition, is a higher up, white collar, office and desk, more comfortable lifestyle job position that seems forever hopelessly out of reach for the mailboy. A suit is a job where you will be able to afford a nice NY apartment that's not tiny, squalid, full of rats and roaches, and in a high crime building. A suit is a job where you'll be able to dine in NY's good restaurants and not continuously live off NY hotdog stands or other cheap holes in the wall. A suit is a job where you are not looked down on and will get respect. From people that matter. A suit at a Wall street company is a life not obtainable unless you already have at least several years of white collar business work experience, preferably from somewhere else in New York City. I remember reading once that to get a white collar job at a major New York company, you need to first spend some time working a white collar job at a less major New York company, and then get a glowing reference from the less major company in order for any chance at the white collar position at the major company, otherwise known as a suit. Not only did Brantly not have any white collar experience at a less good company, but he had no work experience period. Just college. All Brantly could get was blue collar mail room. He did not have the time or patience to start climbing up all those rungs. There was only one thing for him to do, he finds his way to fake his way to appear that he is a suit.Brantly gives himself a phony name (Whitfield), and sets up the works to where all of the suits thinks that Brantly is Whitfield. He manages to get himself a secretary and an office with his name (Whitfield) on the door. He starts going to the boardmeetings with the "other" suits and BS ing his way through them. He starts hooking up with pretty female suit (Helen Slater) who would've never given him the time of day as mailboy. He must keep constantly hiding from Prescott though, who knows that Brantly is Brantly, who would obviously blow his cover. And he must keep dodging his jerk mailroom boss, who for obvious reasons cannot see Brantly in action pulling his charade with the suits. If all of this sounds a little unbelievable, it's that it is. It's the idiot plot that Roger Ebert has talked about. In real life, anyone with half a brain would've figured out what's really going on long before the people in this movie do. Real life NY office building "suits" would've seen through Brantley's game right away. This movie did give a realistic glimpse of NY office workers until Brantly started his charade. Then, they became about 100 miles off. A total fantasy world. And what was the deal with "Aunt" Vera having the hots for Brantly? I guess that she wasn't really his aunt since "uncle" Prescott didn't even know Brantly until his arrival in NY.But in spite of those few issues, this movie had some nice fun moments too. I sorta liked the addition of that miserable, sour balding guy with the noticeable circles under his eyes who played Uncle Frank in the "Home Alone" movies, who was here as one of the leading suits. I rate this movie about a 6.5. Its not good enough to be a 7.0, but better than a 6.0, but I had to round it off. And like I said, I liked the 80s styles and energy, so I'll give it a 7.

It'll make you dizzy in part as half the time in this film we see Fox's character juggling 2 different office identities in the same company (which is far-fetched but since this is a comedy, I digress), however it is also a crisp and sharp piece that examines big business and its effects on the common working man. Ross wasn't trying to wax philosophic on his viewers though--- this is meant to be a fun film, and it truly is. It is very funny in parts, and basically mildly funny at all other times. There's no real lull in this movie that seems boring but you'll only laugh out loud three of four times throughout the course of the film, even if you are a big Fox fan. To be honest, an episode of "Spin City" probably has twice as many laughs packed inside of a twenty-two minute episode than this whole movie had. Fox makes this film work though, and generally whenever there's a laugh to be had, it's a line or action Fox was responsible for. The supporting cast is quite good, though Fred Gwynne is sorely underused and when he is introduced in the final moments of the film, he is given absolutely no funny material to work with. That was probably the major disappointment of this movie for me, but other than that, it's pretty sharply-written, directed, the music is first-rate and you truly root for Fox throughout. 8 out of 10 stars.

Except maybe the red lamp on Michael J. Fox's table at his New York appartement: it's totally Seventies.This movie is a very light, very enjoyable, a veritable document of the upbeat economic spirit that created the cesspool we're currently swimming through. College boy from Kansas arrives at the big city, loses his job before starting it, and still makes it big whilst shagging the boss's wife while he's at it. Great use of Yello's Oh Yeah track. Simply astounding cinematography.And lots of Texas big hair.Overall, a flashy, light, entertaining movie. Nuff said.