Clue: The Movie (1985)

Clue is Paramount Pictures' comedic film rendering of the classic Parker Brothers board game of the same name. But don't let that dissuade you from seeing this one. Although you'll recognize the chromatic character names, unlikely murder weapons, and Victorian mansion settings, tracking down the murderer in the movie version of Clue requires a good deal more than a deck of cards and a notepad. (It's a lot more fun this way, too.)

Involving the talents of seven of Hollywood's funniest funny people, including Madeline Kahn as Mrs. White, Christopher Lloyd as Professor Plum, and Tim Curry as Wadsworth, the requisite butler, the film is guaranteed to keep you laughing. The script is packed with sparklingly witty exchanges, such as this one between Wadsworth and an angry Colonel Mustard (Martin Mull):

Mustard: Are you trying to make me look stupid in front of the other guests?

Wadsworth: You don't need any help from me.

Mustard: That's right!

Later in the picture, as the by-now-blasé guests glance down at the most recent victim, Mr. Green (Michael McKean) updates the count to "Six murders." Wadsworth's grave response? "This is getting serious." And Wadsworth's explanation of "who killed whom where and with what" at the end of the picture is packed with the impersonations, facial expressions, and things not-quite-British that rank Tim Curry among the funniest Britons ever to defect to Hollywood.

Madeline Kahn, too, liberally sprinkles commentaries, both vocal and facial, into any and all situations, the sheer spontaneity of which make one wonder whether or not they're actually in the script. The line in the show which had me laughing the hardest, anyway, was not really a line at all, but rather a high-pitched, yodeling scream from Mrs. White. (You'll know it when you hear it.) And her operatic descant over the guests' chorus of "For She's a Jolly Good Fellow" had me rolling in the aisle.

Another facet of the movie, disguised by the humor, but every bit as important to one's enjoyment of the film, is the maze of leads, lies, and leaps of logic which ultimately culminates in not one, but three possible answers as to "Whodunnit." And here's the amazing part: each of the three endings (I checked) stands up to close scrutiny of the clues provided earlier in the film. From the time Wadsworth verifies Yvette's mysterious "instructions" until the last pull of the trigger, each minute detail is essential to the plot. A word of warning to the dedicated popcorn-munching detective: the guests at this dinner party are all experts at using comedy to distract. While you're busy laughing at Miss Scarlet in the ballroom, a desperate dinner guest wielding a monkey wrench is hurrying through the secret passage to the study, trying to silence that unfortunate motorist before he says too much....

The film isn't perfect-the physical humor becomes strained at times, and there are a very few lines whose comedic and textual value I question. Still, the film bears enough good comedy and old-fashioned mystery, garnished with a sound track that adds just the right spice to the flavor of both humor and suspense, to earn a "five-star comedy" rating from me.

This is one of my favorite films of all time. It's loaded with outragous, silly slapstick humor and the entire cast is superb! You'll be amazed at how many of the lines and gags get stuck in your head. I'll never be able to forget the flusterd looks of Mrs. Peacock, the wit and charm of Wadsworth or the subtle facial expressions of Mrs. White. Thankfully I'll be able to see all this and more as Clue is finally presented in anamorphic widescreen! The picture is the best yet of this film since it's initial release, but there are moments when the image appears too soft and the entire presentation leans to the dark side (no Star Wars pun intended). The darkness though, does help to heighten the mystery/suspense aspect of Clue. From a purists point of view it's good that the soundtrack is kept in it's original mono, still I'd greatly enjoy hearing a stero or, even better, a surround sound version in the future. Unfortunately there are only 13 chapter stopsincluded on the DVD. Any film requires at least double this amount to be really effective.

Without a doubt the best feature of this DVD is the multiple endings feature. After you select "play" you will be asked if you would lilke the player to randomly choose one of the three endings for you, or see all three of them at the end. Whoever thought of this feature deserves a raise as it greatly enhances the longevity of the disc and brings the film closer to it's board game roots. Now you have the option of really not knowing who did it until the final scenes play bringing suprise into the untold repeat viewings that are sure to occur.

The technical imperfections mentioned before are slight and I believe are primarilly due to original production decisions and the films age. To make a long review short (too late), this is a must own for any fan of one of the numerous stars, comedy or film firsts. You won't be disappointed.

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Almost everybody has played the game Clue. We all have heard of Mr.Green, Professor Plum, Miss Scarlett, Col.Mustard, Mrs.White, and Mrs.Peacock. Now we actually get to see the game on screen.

The story to Clue is a great mystery. Six individuals Mr.Green(McKean), Mrs.Peacock(Brannen),Col.Mustard(Mull),Mrs.White(Kahn), Miss Scarlet(Warren), and Pro. Plum(Lloyd) have all received invitations to a mysterious house. They all have been invited to dinner and have no idea while they are there. When they reach the house they discover that the master is not there, but his butler Wadsworth(Curry) and Maid Yvette(Camp) are the only poeple there. The guests are informed that they are there by the invitation of Mr.Boddy. Mr.Boddy is blackmailing them all and thats the only thing in common the six people have. Then people start dying in the home and now it's up to the whole group to see who is doing it and to see if they can get out alive.

This really was a great cast. It had a bunch of big stars from that day. All have pretty good performances in there roles as the character from the game.

Tim Curry gives the best performance of the movie. Curry is a very talented actor. He's been quite underrated in Hollywood. He really takes the role as Wadsworth the Butler and runs with it. He is such a weasal and nobody plays a character like Curry can.

The other actors in the movie really do give good performances in the movie.

The movie is quite funny and has a bunch of slapstick in it. Mull as Col.Mustard is the funniest out of the six characters because he sets himself up to be made fun of so well. The dialogue is also quite funny and when the characters start ranting it gets quite good. John Landis(Blues Brother, Animal House) wrote the story with Johnathan Lynn writing the screenplay. They've combined for a fantastic written movie.

It's a great mystery and the three different endings are fun. You get all three of them on the DVD and all are enjoyable though some are better than others. You really are kept quite clueless as to who has killed who and that again is credited to the writing skills of Landis and Lynn.

Thi is a funny movie. If you like to play Clue the game then you will definetly enjoy this movie. If you like slapstick comedies you will definetly enjoy the movie as well. This is a funny movie that can be watched by the whole family. So go get Clue and be prepared to laugh and have a good time.

Read Best Reviews of Clue: The Movie (1985) Here

Of all the `80s comedies to apparently generate some kind of cult following, you wouldn't have imagined Paramount's holiday `85 offering "Clue: The Movie" to be one of them yet this box-office disappointment arrives on Blu-Ray this month, in a solid presentation from Paramount that suffers from the same primary issue as its DVD predecessor.

Originally a John Landis vehicle (he's still listed as an executive producer and receives co-story credit), director Jonathan Lynn's "Clue" is a fast-paced, wacky whoduneit with all the principal characters from the famous Parker Brothers board game assembled for a night of murder and mystery. The cast tries their hardest to make the frantic shenanigans of Lynn's script come to life (Tim Curry is terrific as the Butler, while Martin Mull and Michael McKean provide some laughs as iconic characters from the game), but the problem with the movie is that it often tries too hard to be funny leaving you exhausted by the time the outcome is revealed.

"Clue" was shot with three different endings (A, B, and C) and was originally released that way to theaters, with multiplexes advertising the specific version of the movie they were showing. On its initial video releases, all three endings were clumsily assembled to create a disjointed finale that didn't really work too well.

For the Blu-Ray much like the DVD Paramount has taken the three endings and presented them in a frustrating manner: you can either choose to watch the movie with all three finales (as it was released on video), OR you can choose to watch the film with a random ending selected from all three conclusions. Good idea, right? Well, not if you've seen the movie once, played one random ending, and then viewed the same finale again the next time out! A better idea would've had the viewer select which ending they'd like to see, but alas, once again that didn't happen.

One area, at least, where the Blu-Ray improves upon its predecessor outside of its generally pleasing, AVC encoded transfer which hasn't been doused with DNR is that all of the different endings (including the home video "trilogy" compilation) are available to view separate from the film in the supplemental section, along with the theatrical trailer (in HD). The DTS MA mono audio is fine for what it is (I haven't looked it up but you'd imagine this was one of the last big studio releases to be released in mono), with John Morris' score working as hard as the ensemble cast.

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Clue: The Movie [Blu-ray]

I have to say this is really disappointing.

I have the DVD which is pretty good quality for a DVD, and perfectly watchable on an HD system. However, I have seen the HD broadcast transfer and while it looks pretty good, it doesn't really appear to be worth the money for a minor bump in video quality.

Paramount really missed the boat here as far as extras are concerned. Clue has definitely achieved cult status And as such is deserving of equal treatment.

At a bare minimum, Paramount should have pulled from their vaults and given us the legendary 4th ending in which Wadsworth kills everybody (and made it in for several late cuts of the movie, so prints exist suggesting little effort to add it). This ending has been talked about since the movie was first released, and is included in both the novelization, and storybook released simultaneously with the film. Even some shots used in the trailer and publicity stills were taken from it.

But there was so much more they could have done for this little cult gem in their catalogue, and justified the cost of constomers spending the money to upgrade to BluRay on a movie which plays on DVD pretty well. For instance, LaLaLand Records released the full score of John Morris' music last year, and on that release were two cues that had been cut from the film -the introduction of Miss Scarlet, and the match cutting scene. Even including these two scenes with the alternate soundtrack would have been terrific. And of course, so many interviews that could have been included from Landis and Lynn about how this film came about, with first hand details about how the film was to originally to be set in Flordia ...

And while I appreciate that the original mono track sounds great, honestly isn't that all this movie really had going for it in terms of new technology, considering the quality of the original DVD transfer? The constant rain in the surrounds for instance, thunderclaps, rich orchestral underscore fleshing out the restored picture, effects and dialogue coming from proper perspectives? Remastering the audio track alone would have breathed so much new life into this movie. Surely the original elements still exist ...

Personally I can't imagine any reason to buy the Blu Ray disk unless I just want another case sitting around my shelves collecting dust. the 1080p HD transfer from this BluRay has been available at iTunes now for a while, so I'm thinking this is one for the digital library, especially for the $20 price tag ...

I just don't see the purpose in dumping releases out simply to get them on BluRay, but offering nothing else. Maybe one day Paramount will get it.

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