Monday, October 7, 2013

The Secret of My Success [HD]



Fluffy, delightful, fun.
I think a good test of how good or bad a movie is, is by how long it feels. Some 90 m. movies feel like three hours and vice versa. Secret of My Success feels like a half an hour. That's pretty good.

Brantley moves from Kansas to NYC in order to make it in the corporate world. Problem: he gets laid off even before he starts. He's a trooper, though, and doesn't want to run home with his tail between his legs so he goes to his Uncle Howard for a job. It's not exactly what Brantley envisioned as he is stuck in the mailroom. Using corporate bureaucracy against itself, he manages to swing a job as a vice-president. It gets pretty funny from there as Brantley tries to maintain two identities without being found out. The elevator scenes are priceless!

This movie is the definitive eighties comedy. Michael J. Fox gets to showcase his screwball comedy antics and the rest of the cast is equally fine. Helen Slater stands out as a female executive that manages to break through the...

The $ecret$ to this above average 80's comedy.
1. A great lead actor: Michael J. Fox in the prime of his career, really drives this film, and makes it as enjoyable as it could possibly get. I doubt any other actor of the time could have pulled this one off. He plays someone trying to be the yuppie that Alex P. Keaton strived to be in the hit TV show Family Ties.

2. Excellent supporting cast: Robert Jordan and Margaret Whitton as Fox's uncle and aunt by marriage; and a good sidekick: John Pankow (Ira in TV's Mad About You) as Fox's mailroom, lowest on the office totem pole counterpart, who played off Fox very well. I did find Helen Slater to be a little cold.

3. Euro chic cinematography: With Carlo Di Palma (Blow-Up, The Appointment, Hannah & Her Sisters) on board, the look of this film was several notches above other similar films of the timeframe. Just look at some of the interesting shots in the film, including a scene where you see Robert Jordan in the mirror of a restaurant, while he's talking to...

Michael Fox Gives You a Two Hour Smile
1987's 'The Secret of my Success' was looked at by producers and possibly Mike himself as just another way to keep himself busy and broaden his fame while in the 'Family Ties' era. But 'The Secret of My Success' exploded when Michael J. Fox's talent wasnt the sole shining star of the movie..providing a great supporting cast of huge actors like Maggie Whitton, who played Fox's sensuous aunt Vera. Michael J. Fox comes to New York from a small country farm where his parents live, to give a familiar story of determination to succeed in a city that still rings true: "If I Can Make It There....." Fox gets one foot in the door of a major corporation when his jerk uncle Howard Prescott decides to hire him in the mail room. The movie is perfect for Mike, whos' tremendous acting talent lends itself well to a young boy who works his way up the ladder of a multi-national corporation headed by a creep, and on the verge of overturning. I make it sound too dark though...the movie is...

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