My Favorite Year (1982)

Very well executed

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

'My Favorite Year' is quite simply, a hilarious film from the early 1980's! Over-The-Top, Crazy & All Heart, this is an underrated comedic gem! And The Late/Great Peter O'Toole is astonishing in the funniest role of his legendary career.'My Favorite Year' Synopsis: When a dissolute matinée idol (Peter O'Toole) is slated to appear on a live TV variety show, chaos ensures. 'My Favorite Year' works because its genuinely funny & the sequences that follow one after the other, result in hilarity. And while it aims for laughs predominantly, the film also has heart in the form of a sub-plot involving O'Toole's daughter, who's away from him. So its not just the laughs that work, but also some genuine emotion.Dennis Palumbo & Norman Steinberg's Screenplay is really funny & arresting. The Writing is consistently brisk & builds the story scene-by-scene. Richard Benjamin's Direction is superb. Cinematography is nicely done. Editing is perfect. Art & Costume Design are fabulous.Performance-Wise: Peter O'Toole is at his best, yet again! In a parody of himself here, The Thespian is a riot all through. I was pleasantly surprised by how funny he is & how he effortlessly carries the film. A Stellar Act! Mark Linn-Baker is wonderfully goofy. Jessica Harper is first-rate. The Late/Great Joseph Bologna also lends excellent support. Bill Macy & Lainie Kazan are superb. Rest lend great support.On the whole, 'My Favorite Year' is a fun watch! Two Thumbs Up!

1954 is Benjy Stone (Mark Linn-Baker)'s favorite year. He is a lowly junior writer on NBC's top rated The King Kaiser Comedy Cavalcade. King Kaiser (Joseph Bologna) is a bombastic tyrant. Sy Benson (Bill Macy) is the head writer who always bows down to Kaiser. Benjy is in unrequited love with production assistant K.C. Downing (Jessica Harper). Legendary actor Alan Swann (Peter O'Toole) is coming to guest star on the show. However he's a hopeless drunk. When he shows up plastered, Kaiser commands to replace him until Benjy pleads for his childhood hero. Kaiser puts Benjy as Swann's handler. Also union boss Karl Rojeck (Cameron Mitchell) is angry at his parody and starts causing trouble with the show.Inspired by Errol Flynn's appearance on 'Your Show of Shows', this is a great insightful period piece on a certain era of television. It has some good laughs. Linn-Baker is good as the young hopeful writer. Joseph Bologna is terrific as essentially Sid Caesar. However this is all about Peter O'Toole and he is amazing. It works even better because he is that legend. He does great drunk acting and with great charisma.

My Favorite Year (1982) **** (out of 4) Washed up actor Alan Swann (Peter O'Toole) is given the chance to appear on a television show and the job of keeping up with him goes to young fan Benjy Stone (Mark Linn-Baker) who soon realizes that the former star and alcohol can lead to problems. I shall admit right at the start that I absolutely loved every single second of this movie. As a comedy this thing is pretty flawless as it keeps you laughing from start to finish thanks to one of the best screenplays from the era and not to mention the wonderful performances by everyone in the cast. The story is quite simple and there are certainly a few areas where the script appears to be talking about the real O'Toole but man, what a tremendous performance he gives. If anyone you know doubts that O'Toole was one of the greatest actors in the history of cinema then they just need to watch this film to see comedy done to perfection. I was really shocked at how wonderful O'Toole was at the humor but his comic timing can match up against the geniuses of the genre and the way he turns on the charm is just pure delight. I really mean it when I say that the performance is flawless and even with the one tender moment at the end, the actor is so terrific that you can't take your eyes off of him. Linn-Baker is also very good in the supporting role and we get strong performances from the entire cast including Joseph Bologna, Bill Macy, Jessica Harper and even Cameron Mitchell. The screenplay just offers up so many terrific lines that it's hard to imagine one film containing so many. I honestly think there were at least thirty quotable lines and all of them just constantly had you laughing. Some of them are quite clever while some of them have O'Toole just winking at you about his own reputation. MY FAVORITE YEAR is without question one of the best comedies of its type and it's also a loving tribute to the live television shows of the 1950's. There's no question that the film is a comic masterpiece but it also has a heart that's hard to match.

Sometimes it's quite surprising to find out about a movie that no one has ever told you off before but turns out to be a real hidden treasure. "My Favorite Year" is a more than great comedy, that is fun, as well as funny to watch.Key to what makes this a great movie to watch, is that it's being a fun one throughout. It's a fast going, snappy comedy, that doesn't necessarily force or exaggerate its comedy, to any extreme forms. It's playing things more subtly and more often relies on its dialog and actors, rather than on any comical situations. It makes the movie very pleasant and likable, also because it manages to maintain its good quick pace throughout its entire running time.The story really doesn't matter all that much for this movie, other than taking the characters from the one place and situation to the other. I'm not saying that it isn't any good but to me it just wasn't important for what this movie was all about and trying to do. Even the weaker moments in this movie and its story still work out well, thanks to its characters and the actors portraying them.Peter O'Toole plays Errol Flynn, even though his character is named differently in the movie. But he is Flynn and even plays some of the sequences out of some classic Errol Flynn movies. This all was great fun to watch and his presence truly adds a lot to this movie as well. He's perfectly classy and often despicable at the same time. But Mark Linn-Baker was also truly great! Whatever went wrong with his career? He was not only a great comedy actor but simply just a great actor in general as well. The movie has a more old fashioned type of comedy vibe to it, like a '40's production, which is also the time period this movie is being set in (well, the '50's but still), so it's no big surprise or a coincidence all. If you are a fan of these type of snappy and screwball like comedies, from the '40's mostly, changes are you will also absolutely love this movie as well!Anyway, this movie is an extremely fun and recommendable one, for everybody!8/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/