Riot’s Recommendations: Clue: The Movie
The drastic expansion of movies and television has made it difficult at times to keep up with all the various news, rumors, and upcoming projects. One particularly exciting rumor came to my attention for the first time the other day: Ryan Reynolds’ production company is working on a remake of Clue: The Movie. I’ve written in the past of my distaste for Hollywood’s recent obsession with remakes and while it isn’t a particularly new phenomena, they’ve quickly devolved in quality while exponentially increasing in quantity. This is not to say I don’t trust Reynolds with the project but when you take into consideration the rumor started back in 2018 and is only now currently regaining steam, I would argue that isn’t a great sign. Nevertheless, the point is to mention a wonderfully quirky and overlooked film that should never be forgotten and hey, if the remake is exceptionally bad, it’ll likely just draw more attention to how great the first film was.
First of all, one of the big “stars” of the show is the ominous mansion that serves as the set for the film, turning a negative from its source material into one of its strengths. The setting for Clue the board game is a little difficult to swallow. How does a single mansion have two separate secret passages that would seemingly need to intersect at some point? There’s a staircase but a secondary floor isn’t utilized in any way during gameplay? (I also, to date, have no clue what the heck a conservatory is or what its’ intended purpose is). Clue: The Movie actually makes full use of the house it’s set in and each room is an incredible piece of set design. Unfortunately, it doesn’t help answer the structural concept issues of the secret passages, but their locations in the film are both fun and imaginative. And the characters actually use sets of stairs to enter the second floor, attic, and cellar of the house. All in all, the set designers made proper use of an obscure rule point the board game had.
Second, this film had a truly amazing cast: Eileen Brennan, Madeline Kahn, Lesley Ann Warren, Michael McKean(who I hear is killing it on a little show called Better Call Saul), Tim Curry, Martin Mull, Colleen Camp, and last but not least, Christopher Lloyd (Doc Brown!!!)). Everything about the film is lighthearted and silly, providing a great contrast to the dark premise of a murder mystery. All of the actors/actresses play off each other well and while the characters are all supposed to be strangers, the chemistry between each member of the group created a familiarity that still feels believable, helping to draw the audience into the continually alternating/shifting forms of comedy. Slap-stick humor and pratfalls make way for dry wittiness while interspersed silly antics catch you off guard in all the right moments. Meanwhile, the dialogue is so incredibly dense that there is little to no downtime in the entirety of the film but it is saturated in wonderfully awkward comedic bits that’ll have you laughing at every turn.
Finally, it’s worth reserving an entire section just for the performance of Tim Curry. He embodies the “Chef’s Kiss” for his performance as Wadsworth. It may seem like an exaggeration, but I’d venture a good 60% of the film is entirely his dialogue. It would be impressive enough of a feat for an actor just to simply remember and deliver that many lines, but Curry’s performance (as incredible as it is on its own) is elevated further by the other members of the cast. He truly shines in the second half of the film as we sit back and watch as he breaks down the events of the evening, ultimately leading to the three alternate versions of answering “whodunnit.” I’ve read that audiences in the theater initially did not know what ending they were going to get but lucky for us, all three are included in the DVD (I would hope they did the same for streaming as well (Hulu and Prime from what I could see)). My own version of the film gives you the option to have the ending randomized, or to view all three subsequently. Check out some more interesting tidbits about this classic here.
The negatives of the film, I think, are few. Released in 1985, Clue: The Movie is a very old film and it shows. The video/production quality is pretty rough, but to say we are extremely spoiled with video and audio quality these days would be a massive understatement. Nevertheless, I am no stranger to re-watching classics, it’s actually a household tradition to have Holiday Inn and White Christmas playing while we wrap Christmas presents and decorate the tree. The film also has more than a few editing and continuity errors. You can easily pick up a number of places where audio was clearly added in post, much like one of my all-time favorite adjustments. Admittedly, the plot holes (particularly involving the various weapons of the game) and bad post production adjustments irk me to this day, but when I’m inundated with classic scenes like this one, my belly laughs help me overlook the negatives. Coupled with a unique soundtrack that will be stuck in your head for days, be sure to not miss out on this classic comedy.
Comentarios