How To Get Ahead in Advertising - Criterion Collection

Starring:How to Get Ahead in Adv
Studio: Criterion
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
After the release of Withnail & I, British writer-director Bruce Robinson continued his satirical assault on British culture with this fiendishly funny rant, the title of which can be taken figuratively and literally as an object lesson in the art of consumer manipulation. Nobody dupes consumers better than Dennis Bagley (Richard E. Grant); his genius in crafting seductive ad campaigns has earned him a country estate, countless awards, an admiring boss, a loving wife (Rachel Ward), and, well, a gigantic boil on his shoulder that's like a throbbing zit from hell. Dennis is so tormented by a difficult campaign for pimple cream--and so filled with self-loathing after years of promoting dubious products--that his inner demon, the media-savvy and profiteering side of himself, has manifested itself as a talking pustule with a mind (and a face and a voice) of its own.

Amazon.com

After the release of Withnail & I, British writer-director Bruce Robinson continued his satirical assault on British culture with this fiendishly funny rant, the title of which can be taken figuratively and literally as an object lesson in the art of consumer manipulation. Nobody dupes consumers better than Dennis Bagley (Richard E. Grant); his genius in crafting seductive ad campaigns has earned him a country estate, countless awards, an admiring boss, a loving wife (Rachel Ward), and, well, a gigantic boil on his shoulder that's like a throbbing zit from hell. Dennis is so tormented by a difficult campaign for pimple cream--and so filled with self-loathing after years of promoting dubious products--that his inner demon, the media-savvy and profiteering side of himself, has manifested itself as a talking pustule with a mind (and a face and a voice) of its own.

Description

Richard E. Grant is the endlessly suave Dennis Bagley, a high-strung advertising executive whose shoulder sprouts an evil, talking boil. The boil speaks only to Bagley, is silent to the rest of the world, and seems to be growing. This caustic satire reunites the talented team behind the cult classic Withnail and I to create a tour de force of verbal jousting and physical comedy.

Customer Reviews:

one of the funniest films ever made.......2006-06-13

This movie is a riot. Richard E Grant gives an amazingly intense performance. His entire role seems to consist of nothing but brilliantly scabrous monologues. His acerbic take on everything around him starts at a fever pitch and then giddily topples over into outright inspired lunacy. See this film if for no other reason than to get a glimpse of him naked save for a kitchen apron, gleefully stuffing raw chickens down the toilet drain and all the while explaining, " Everything I do makes sense, everything i do has a reason!"

I prefer this style of over the top attack much more than the drier and more subtle (!) mode employed by both writer-director Bruce Robinson and Richard E. Grant in their first collaboration, WITHNAIL & I.

The heights of comic outlandishness achieved in HOW TO GET AHEAD IN ADVERTISING is something that is rarely achieved by any film and it is doubly commendable that everything done here ( no matter how tastelessly crazy) still never stoops to the childishly vulgar levels that most American comedies regularly splash about in like mental asylum inmates happily playing with their own feces. Yes, despite everything this film attempts ( and achieves) it still retains a sense of sophistication that shows what thuddingly awful garbage ( i am looking directly at you AUSTIN POWERS, SCARY MOVIE, etc, etc) is usually regarded as the height of comedy. This film knocks them all dead.

Important to watch.......2005-08-28

Bill Hicks said "if you're in marketing, do us all a favor and shoot yourself". If you've seen How to get ahead in advertising, you'd know exactly what he meant. This movie is a great take on showing the warped mindset of someone who works in the industry.

Its a talking boil.......2004-12-04

Its a movie about a talking boil....what more do you need to know?

Very funny but also weird........2004-07-31

This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

"How to Get Ahead in Advertising" in one of the most original comedies I have seen. The humor ranges from the shocking, to the surrealistic, to slapstick.

The film is about Dennis Bagley, an advertising agent trying to come up with a slogan for a skin ointment that removes boils.
He is so stressed from time pressure that he grows a boil on his right shoulder. Then one day when he is asleep two talking cartoon birds fly put of his chimney and into his TV set. This marks when fantasy becomes reality. The boil begins growing a face and begins talking! Things get realy bad after this but I do not want to ruin the surprise.

The acting in this film is better and is well-rehearsed. The film does have much strong language earning it an R rating. Watch the movie yourself before deciding to let your teenage children watch it.

The only special feature on the DVD is a theatrical trailer.

It is currently out of print and ususally sells for more than twice it's original retail price. The DVD was taken out of print more recently so more copies were made of this release than other out of print Criterion DVD's. Bootlegs of this are more rare and the film has been re-released on a non-criterion edition by MGM home video.

Hilariously bitter comedy.......2004-05-21

Bruce Robinson, made a hit with with this movie. A pimple will be more than a simple headache of an important executive who falls on disgrace. Slowly this pimple will grow and grow till...
With this film England goes ahead once more with the black comedy, a genre not so cultivated as past decades.
The situations obviously are not under control of this authoritative and methodic manager. The chaos and neuroses will be his fellow friends in this funny tale.
Please, don't miss by any circunstance of watching this film.
To be true, the meaning of life of Monty Phyton, and Brazil of Gilliam were too, another unforgettable films in that decade, but due its own originality, how to get ... deserves a worthy place in the story of the great english black films in any time.

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