Nickelodeon (1976)

Pretty Good

Fantastic!

Crappy film

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

When this movie was released they had a promotion for the premiere where you could see it for a nickel. So I went to the theater, stood in a very long line, and watched a very funny, entertaining movie that the audience seemed to quite enjoy. The next day I read a review that slammed it, and then another. And I have never understood it.Over 30 years later I took a second look, and while sometimes you can't for the life of you figure out why you liked a movie from the past, I still really liked this one. It's a very funny movie that mixes in Keystone Kops-style slapstick with Howard Hawks-style screwball comedy. There are good performances by Burt Reynolds and Ryan O'Neal, and even better ones from Tatum O'Neal and, best of all, Brian Keith. The strong negative reactions particular surprise me because the film is similar in feel to What's Up Doc (Ryan even plays basically the same character) and yet that movie was much better received.I found this movie funny and likable. Everyone's good in it, including the lead actress, who apparently found film work so dispiriting that she gave up on them altogether and stuck with modeling. The first half is probably stronger than the second half, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

If director Peter Bogdanovich hadn't used such a heavy-handed slapstick treatment of his little epic about early film-making called NICKELODEON, there might have emerged a fond tribute to the pioneering days of silent films in the early part of the 20th Century.But instead, he has filled NICKELODEON with a whole series of non-stop sight gags that become tiresome and repetitious, even more so because none of the characters involved really come to life. As the pretty heroine of the piece, JANE HITCHCOCK has very limited abilities beyond staring wide-eyed into the camera lens for comic effect. BURT REYNOLDS at least does derive several good chuckles from his comedy efforts as a reluctant participant in RYAN O'NEAL's troupe of silent film actors.O'Neal has obviously chosen to play his role as though he has just watched a Harold Lloyd film, wearing spectacles for his first entrance and doing the bumbling sight gags on cue, as hapless a hero as Lloyd was in all his comedies. He's not too bad, but is never as funny as he was in WHAT'S UP DOC?, an earlier Bogdanovich film.Tecbnically, the film is handsomely produced and pleasing to look at in color, but STELLA STEVENS is given little to do in what amounts to a supporting role. JOHN RITTER doesn't have too much opportunity to display his comic gifts. Entirely too much footage is devoted to a rough and tumble fight between Reynolds and O'Neal that takes up too much time with too many slapstick pratfalls to emerge as anything more than filler.The film plods along without the benefit of a tight script or a really compelling story and suffers, mainly, from the heavy-handed approach to comedy.

"Targets": idiotic. "The Last Picture Show": dull, filmed in pretentious black-and-white. (Okay, at least he cast his bimbo girlfriend Cybill Shepherd naked there...) "What's Up, Doc?": as bad as every comedy with Big-Nose.Peter Bogdanovich was probably the most overrated director in the 60s/70s, and this painfully unfunny "comedy" only underlines the ineptitude that this pretentious ex-critic always exhibited. Bogdanovich, whose name very ironically means "God's gift", has stated on numerous occasions his belief that the best movies had already been made by the late 60s - which, of course, couldn't be further from the truth. His almost sexual obsession with dumb black-and-white movies, the so-called "classics" of the 20s/30s/40s, had gotten so bad that he had decided one day to make this quasi-tribute to the "golden comedies" of the Silent Era by making a piece of junk called "Nickelodeon". And what better way to enhance an already awful script than by casting such comedy "giants" as Ryan O'Neal and John Ritter...If you think Bogdanovich's "Noises Off" was a pathetic, embarrassing-to-watch farce, then check out this little stinker: it's quite hard to figure out which is more cretinous or childish. "Nickelodeon" is full of sight gags that the writers of Loony Toons would reject on the basis that they are too stupid. This inept comedy can only be enjoyed by two types of people: 1) those who find circus clowns funny, and 2) those who have forced themselves to believe - despite the glaring contradicting, abundant evidence - that Bogdanovich must be a great director, simply because he is the critics' darling. And as we all know, you can't be a good movie student unless you agree with the film critics...A mystery that is on par with why Madonna has had a long career in music or what drugs you have to be on to enjoy Kanye West's excremental produce is certainly the film-critics' love for Bogdanovich's crap. I have no explanation for it, other than that perhaps it may have something to do with the fact that he used to be a critic himself hence knows all those guys by first name. They probably all drink in the same pub, and weep together whenever they hear Barbra Streisand being played on the radio...

Much of Nickelodeon was shot in the foothills outside of Modesto CA where I lived. Everyone connected with the film stayed at the Holiday Inn which was where I hung out. Modesto is a small town and there wasn't much to do except to go to the Inn and swim and play chess. I meet a few people and the next thing I know I was on set everyday. Most people think of filming as long and tedious but I loved watching it all. The first person I met was Ryan but because he was dressed in costume I didn't recognize him immediate but I must say he was charming. John Ritter was very nice. Mr.Bogdonovitch was very impressive, as was Polly Platt! The one person who impressed me above all others was Tatum. She was a very caring and sweet girl. It didn't take long to learn enough about her history to help me understand the problems she is having in her later years. I wish she could let go of the past pain and really enjoy life in a healthy way. In all, I had a wonderful time and enjoyed the movie probably more than some people just because of the experience I had while it was being made. Just today I found out that Lazlo Kovacs passed away last year, on my birthday, and that I had not heard about it. How sad, he was a great talent and a wonderful person. Meeting him was an honor. When he looked at you it was if he was seeing who you for who you really are, through and through. What a life you have lived, Mr. Lazlo. Thank you for sharing your visions of beauty with us all.