California Suite

Starring:Jane Fonda, Alan Alda, Maggie Smith, Michael Caine, Walter Matthau, Elaine May, Herb Edelman, Denise Galik-Furey, Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, Gloria Gifford, Sheila Frazier, David Sheehan, Michael Boyle, Len Lawson, Gino Ardito, Jerry Ziman, Clint Young, David Matthau, James Espinoza
Director: Herbert Ross
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com essential video

The West Coast answer to Neil Simon's Plaza Suite, this film (written by Simon and directed by Herbert Ross) has a high Hollywood gloss. Instead of the omnibus form of the film of the New York version, this film (set at the Beverly Hills Hotel) intertwines the stories (à la Grand Hotel) of several different sets of guests, including Alan Alda and Jane Fonda and Walter Matthau and Elaine May, on one particularly eventful weekend. The story that works best involves Maggie Smith and Michael Caine as an Oscar-nominated actress and her straying, gay husband who come to an understanding (Smith won the Oscar for this film). The least effective is a slapsticky battle between well-to-do but competitive doctors played by Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews:

All Talk And No Action! (Kinda Like My First High School Girlfriend!).......2006-11-11

Believe it or not there was a time in recent Movie History that all the characters were self obsessed, neurotic and thought that "Talk Therapy" was the answer to what ails them and everybody thought that Neil Simon was a genius. This movie shows what Americans do best which is basically talk, talk and then talk some more. Alan Alda plays his usual macho self and Jane Fonda is her usual whining, nervous, nuerotic character which for some reason she plays so well. Walter Matthau wants to start all over again with a new woman (this time without the kids and the big mortgage one must assume) and if you like the cinematic equivalent of "Verbal Diarrhea" then this movie is for you. I give this movie 5 stars because I managed to catch up on some much needd sleep while it was on my TV.

Hilarious 'B' movie.......2006-08-09

I'm not even sure how many people have seen this film but it's one of the Cosby/Pryor great connections. Michael Caine was bi-sexual and married to an Oscar nominated actress; way ahead of its time.

california suite.......2006-02-24

so glad to find a copy of this movie and in such great condition. thank you

fantastic!.......2003-12-24

It's worth a look just for the cast (Prior, Cosby, Alda, Fonda, Smith, Caine, Matthau, etc.), but trust me, you won't be disappointed. Prior & Crosby had me in tears. It does get a bit dramatic towards the end, so I'd probably give this 4.5 stars, but I laughed so hard at points, it gets rounded up to 5 stars.

Tip-Top tragi-comedy par excellence.......2002-08-09

Jane fonder and Alan Alder are hysterical, claws are drawn at dawn as she muses to her one-time hubby about how very 'California' he is, all boyish charms and effervescence, as she...ever the sharp New Yorker...pops another ciggy in her cake-hole and manages the impossible, a verbal tirade while inhaling. (Reminded me of the blood letting dialogue delivered so deftly by Kate Hepburn in 'The Lion in Winter'). Walter Matthau is side splitting as he seeks to cheat on the good wife (Elaine May..she is so sweet most men would cheat with her not on her), of course for Walt it all goes Royally wrong. .
Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor play rich-man poor-man doctors et spouse on the vacation from hell in LA...and take competitiveness to interstellar levels. What totally ices this summer pudding though is Maggie smiths' awesome performance as an Englishwoman coping....just...with not getting the Oscar for which she's been nominated...for not having a clue how to dress in superficial, bitchy, hot LA...for not noticing her husband eyeing up every man under 30 (Michael Cain at sympathetic best), and not lobbing herself out the emergency escape hatch on the flight home..."Oh my God!...tell them I want to get off...darling tell them I want to get off..they're only playing my f-ing film". She did get that Oscar though. What a performance

Average customer rating:

All Talk And No Action! (Kinda Like My First High School Girlfriend!)
Hilarious 'B' movie
california suite
fantastic!
Tip-Top tragi-comedy par excellence

California Suite [Region 2]
Starring: Jane Fonda , Alan Alda , Maggie Smith , Michael Caine , and Walter Matthau
Director: Herbert Ross
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Plaza Suite
The Four Seasons
The Prisoner of Second Avenue
The Sunshine Boys
House Calls

ASIN: B00005Q8UN

Amazon.com essential video

Customer Reviews:

All Talk And No Action! (Kinda Like My First High School Girlfriend!).......2006-11-11

Hilarious 'B' movie.......2006-08-09

I'm not even sure how many people have seen this film but it's one of the Cosby/Pryor great connections. Michael Caine was bi-sexual and married to an Oscar nominated actress; way ahead of its time.

california suite.......2006-02-24

so glad to find a copy of this movie and in such great condition. thank you

fantastic!.......2003-12-24

Tip-Top tragi-comedy par excellence.......2002-08-09

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