Clue The Movie

So we definitely live in a world where weird movies are made every year. This very year alone there was a movie called The Emoji Movie. I had absolutely no interest in seeing that movie but it's kind of amazing how a movie like that was made. I used to think that we were just in a time where Hollywood was just making movies for the hell of it and anything could be made into a movie. Apparently, that has been a thing since 1985 at the earliest.

Clue, based off the board game follows the story of six strangers who are led to a mysterious mansion. Each one of them has a secret and are tied to the host Mr. Boddy (played by Lee Ving) in one way or another. Mr. Boddy's butler, Wadsworth (played by Tim Curry) welcomes them all and a night of murder and deception continues. Think of the board game Clue or a murder mystery party or dinner theater, everyone is a suspect and everyone has the motive. The movie is a pretty self aware comedic mystery and overall a pretty good time.

I was actually a little bit surprised on how entertaining this movie was because it was really a split decision. I wasn't feeling well and all I wanted to watch was something random and something to take my mind off the headache I had.

Instead I got this classic mystery comedy that really kind of came out of no where and nobody really seems to talk about. I've heard some people mention that it's an underrated classic film but I guess I never really figured it was that good.

Now I won't jump on the cult classic train too quickly because the reality is, I will probably forget about this movie very quickly. It's a fun movie while you're watching it but I can't really think of a reason I would want to watch it again or what about it is really that memorable.

The cast is really what makes this movie work.

The really funny part is that with the exception of Christopher Lloyd playing Professor Plum, and Tim Curry, not a lot of these actors are really well known today. Maybe they were in 1985, but as someone who wasn't born around that time I don't know any of these people besides Martin Mull who played Colonel Mustard who was Gene Parmesan from Arrested Development.

Apparently Carrie Fisher was originally going to play Miss Scarlet but the role went to Lesley Ann Warren when Fisher had to go into rehab. While I think Warren does a good job I can only dream about Carrie Fisher playing the owner of an escort service...

Michael McKean played Mr. Green, Eileen Brennan played Mrs. Peacock, and Madeline Kahn played Mrs. White. Those are the big players. There are a couple of others in the film including the sexy maid Yvette (played by Colleen Camp) but overall those are the people with the most focus in the film.

It's kind of hard to describe this movie exactly because it's not totally a satire and its not totally a straight comedy either. There is a lot of absurd humor in the film but it kind of jumps around with the kind of humor and how exactly self aware the film is.

The other interesting part of the film is that it is written like a pretty straight forward murder mystery. If you've ever gone to a murder mystery dinner theater, you've probably seen set ups like this and they're full of red herrings, suspicion and of course, Clues.

But the downside of that is that as well written as those murder mysteries are written, they still are not very memorable. I would say its because its been done before but I'm not totally sure that that is true.

I think what works best for this film is the writing and the cast and how they use that script. The one thing I can recommend about this film is the humor. It is definitely a unique movie going experience. Especially the ending(s).

I'm guessing that not too many movies have done endings like that but even if it was a trend setter, I've seen endings like this done better and even with the multiple endings, once the mystery has been solved, besides the humor I can't really think of why this is a movie I would ever revisit.

But what do you think? Does this movie get better every time you watch it? Should I check it out when I'm sick again? When did you first see this movie because I really only heard about it a couple years ago. Send me your thoughts in the comment below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. I don't remember ever really playing Clue and I really don't remember the rules... Well here's some Private Investigators playing it. Enjoy!