Man Trouble

1992's "Man Trouble" clearly just doesn't hold much interest or provide much intrigue for a view really somewhat of a letdown from director Bob Rafelson as a complex plot and lack of seriousness weigh the film down. Even though Jack's role seems out of place as clearly the romantic comedy genre has never been his cup of tea. Still Nicholson gives a bold and well done direct performance as Harry Bliss who's a wisecracking womanizer(certainly something Jack can relate to in real life)who runs a guard dog agency of all things! When a woman named Joan(Ellen Barkin)who's a lonely opera singer has her home broken into and robbed she seeks his aid and service. Then Joan moves into the mansion house of her free spirited and eccentric sister Andy(Beverly D' Angelo), yet trouble follows her and Harry as they always seem at the mercy and the target of hit men. The film then takes a wild chase of schemes involving shady characters and hit men that's blended in with the out of control canines and some romance between Harry and Joan. Overall this film is nothing great it moves pretty well yet the plot is so boring and dull with the humor being very offbeat while the romance is impossible for the key characters to obtain. Still it's worth a watch if your a Nicholson fan as Jack always delivers even in bad films, plus Beverly and Ellen both provide a sense of spice and sugar sex appeal to a film that went to the dogs.

If it were not for great acting skillings by Ellen Barkin and Beverly D'Angelo, this film would never have been produced, they held up the leading male actor and the dog stole the show from everyone.

This had to be the worst film of 1992, no laughs for me at all.

I saw this movie on a second-class channel this Sunday, and I have to say that I liked it. It's just a romantic comedy, and if you keep that in mind, you will also like it. Of course, maybe Jack Nicholson is overcasted, but it proves how capable is he of doing any kind of character, in any kind of movie. It doesn't worth buying, but I think it worth the rental fee.

I found this movie in the $5.50 bin of Wal-Mart and only got it because it had Jack Nicholson in it. I had extremely low expectations, which is probably why I got such a surprise--This movie is hilarious.

It has a very dry line of sarcasm running all the way through it, particularly in the off-the-wall arguments between Nicholson's character and the wife.

Taking everything literally will not help you understand the humor. You have to view every line as some sort of comeback to a previous one, and that's when you see the laughable irony in the film. It really did surprise me; I enjoyed it!

And the acting is stellar. The characters really are portrayed well. They're all very comical characters, full of flaws, which just makes them more realistic in a rather ridiculous plot which honestly could have been thrown out the window.

Personally, I would have loved to just see a film about the marriage counseling, which is only glimpsed at, between Nicholson and his wife. Some of the funniest moments are in that part of the film, but, like I said, it's dry.

Enjoy!

I love Ellen Barkin, 'deed I do, but even she cannot make the romance with Jack Nicholson believable here. Even back in 1992, Nicholson was TOO OLD to play a romantic lead with a woman seventeen years his junior.

I was getting the creeps watching this in the fall of 2008, and suddenly I realized why. The pairing reminds me of John McCain and his trophy wife, Cindy. McCain: born 1936. Nicholson: born 1937. Cindy and Barkin: both born 1954.

It's obnoxious, the way Hollywood continues to indulge Nicholson (and, presumably, equally elderly male producers and writers) with this assumption that an audience can believe gorgeous young women will fall all over him. Oh, spare me. And start giving actresses Nicholson's own age parts like the plums HE gets, or at least, parts playing his love interest.

I like dogs, I like Ellen Barkin, and that's why I was able to endure the movie at all, though I was embarrassed for her being stuck with such a ludicrous part - and one which, in a movie meant to be funny, failed to take full advantage of her talent for comedy, especially her considerable physical comedy chops.

Also loved Lauren Tom as the Nicholson's wife! Again, the age difference is severe - Tom was born in 1961, making her fully 24 years younger than Nicholson and his character - but Tom's put-on accent (she was born in Chicago) and Nicholson's overall sleaziness suggest that she's a mail-order bride struggling to make the best of a groom who calls her "Iwo Jima." Tom, like Barkin, deserves better writing than this.

One star for Barkin, one star for Tom, and one star for the dog. Zero stars for the rest of it, particularly casting Nicholson and for the overly-complex plot lines.