That's the one thing I remembered about this Neil Simon comedy, Maggie Smith saying "That's not funny, that's bizarre" I had never heard the word "bizarre" like that. Bee-zaaaarr, or something like that but Maggie Smith uses it brilliantly as an irresistible comic tool. I remember being kind of put off because Maggie won an Oscar for this over Meryl Streep for The Deer Hunter but, watching it now. I understand. Maggie Smith is fantastic and her marital banter with Michael Caine is a total delight. The movie, as a movie is a whole other story. Flimsy and dated with a musical score that may remind you of some of most generic TV movie. Jane Fonda is great, Elaine May and Walter Matthau, hilarious but it also has Bill Cosby, hard to watch now and a hilarious Richard Pryor. Herbert Ross directs respectfully but without any cinematic ambitions. Maggie Smith and Michael Caine however make the whole thing worth it.
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alanbenfieldjr15 December 2017
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sol-29 June 2005An ensemble cast that dreams are made of is present in this film, and all deliver quite well, even Walter Matthau who goes a bit over-the-top. Smith deservedly won an Oscar for her role as a screen actress loses her first Oscar nomination in a very long career. As her husband, Caine is also good, but the next two best performances come from Fonda and Alda as a bickering divorced couple. Those four performers, however, only cover two out of four tales in this film, and the other two are not as well as acted and neither are they filled with the same quality of witty dialogue. It is bit weird to watch the overall film, as it becomes fragmented by the transitions between each of the stories, and towards the end the lesser interesting tales dominate. With just the Fonda/Alda and Smith/Caine stories, this is excellent, very well written stuff. With all four put together, it is still quite interesting stuff, but nothing too great.
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I think the movie contains funny parts, but some scenes are not that interesting, for example Alan Alda talking way too much stuff. So I think it's only about average. I must say, though, that Michael Caine and Maggie Smith did great work. They are a nice couple and really fit together very well. In my opinion their scenes are the best of the movie. I love their funny and sarcastic conversations - it's entertaining and one of the reasons I actually watched the movie until the end. I'm just a little disappointed that they don't show up as often as I'd like. It would've been more interesting that way. Of course there are lots of other big names in that movie, e.g. Walter Matthau, Alan Alda and Jane Fonda, but I must really underline Maggie Smith's and Michael Caine's good performances.
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callanvass13 January 2014This movie is mildly enjoyable, thanks to the amazing cast alone. With a cast like this, it should have been a lot better than it was. Anyway, Michael Caine & Maggie Smith play a rather disjointed couple coming from New York to attend The Oscars. Jane Fonda & Alan Alda are no longer together, argue constantly about custody of their daughter. Bill Cosby & Richard Pryor's wives come to play tennis and chill, but chaos ensues when they find out there is only one room vacant. Walter Matthau has too much to drink and sleeps with a prostitute. The stories are all interesting enough, but none of them are all that dynamic. Matthau has some great comic sequences, but i'd have to say Cosby & Pryor were the least interesting. It wasn't all that funny. The best is a tie between Caine & Smith's and Fonda & Alda. If it wasn't for a cast, this would have been very mediocre.
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sreed9934221 June 2004I've always liked this movie, ever since I saw it in the theater as a 12-year-old. (With my church youth group, no less -- what were they thinking??) It's flawed, but generally fun, and I like the sun-soaked, palm-fringed atmosphere.
Maggie Smith is the undisputed standout. Her portrayal is brilliant and she and Michael Caine fling one-liners at each other with biting abandon. I've always liked both Jane Fonda and Alan Alda, so I enjoy their storyline too, though their exchanges seem forced and a little too clever. I'm a Cosby fan, but his scenes with Richard Pryor are uncomfortable -- it's troubling that the film's only black characters are relegated to brute physical comedy. Walter Matthau and Elaine May do a great job, but I never liked the hooker skit -- not sure why.
I buy very few films, but I do own this one, and over the years I've watched it so many times I know all the lines... -
Isaac58558 December 2005California SUITE is the 1978 film adaptation of Neil Simons' quartet of one-acts set at swank Los Angeles hotel. Out of the four stories, the strongest is "Visitors from London" which stars Maggie Smith as an actress in town for the Academy Awards after receiving her first nomination, in deep denial about her in-name only marriage to a closeted antique dealer (Michael Caine). Smith delivers a flawless comedy performance that ironically won her her second Oscar, this time for Best Supporting Actress. Caiine is just as effective in this bittersweet tale. "Visitors from New York" stars Jane Fonda as a workaholic New Yorker who has flown to California to retrieve her daughter (Dana Plato) who flew away from home to move in with Fonda's ex (Alan Alda). Fonda's character is a little on the unsympathetic side but she and Alda make their scenes work. "Visitors from Philadelphia" stars Walter Matthau as a man in town for a convention who tries to conceal from his visiting wife (Elaine May) that there's a passed out hooker in his bed. This episode is pure slapstick with little substance but Matthau makes it bearable. The other episode "Visitors from Chicago" stars Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Sheila Frazier, and Gloria Gifford as two couples vacationing together who get involved in some silly travel situations. This is definitely the weakest of the four playlets and looks like it should be in another movie of its own. A well-mounted, but spotty effort at best, California SUITE is worth the rental for the glorious performance of Maggie Smith alone.
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"California Suite" was written by Neil Simon and, as with most films for which he acted as scriptwriter, it is based on one of his stage plays. The main idea is similar to that in his earlier "Plaza Suite", namely that of following the adventures of different guests staying in the same hotel, in this case in Los Angeles. It is a "portmanteau film" with four separate stories and the hotel providing the one point of contact between them. (An earlier film with a similar premise was "The VIPs", based around several groups of travellers passing through Heathrow Airport).
Hannah, a New Yorker, has flown out to California to meet her former husband Bill and to discuss the future of their teenage daughter. Diana Barrie, a British actress, and her husband Sidney are in town because she has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Two doctors from Chicago (with the unlikely names of Dr. Chauncey Gump and Dr. Willis Panama) are on vacation with their wives. And Marvin, a Jewish businessman from Philadelphia, and his wife Millie have come out for their nephew's Bar Mitzvah.
The "Visitors from Chicago" story, by far the weakest of the four, is little more than a not-very-amusing slapstick comedy based around the idea that the four characters, especially the two men, cannot move a hand or a foot without breaking something or injuring themselves. I wondered if the American Medical Association were considering suing Simon for the libellous insinuation that they would grant a licence to practise medicine to two such idiots. The Marvin story is a farce based around Marvin's increasingly desperate attempts to hide from his wife that there is another woman in his hotel room, with whom he spent the previous night. (They were unable to travel together and she flew out a night later to join him). Farce can often be desperately unfunny on screen; the cinema version of "No Sex Please, We're British", for example, gives little hint that it was based on one of the most successful West End stage plays of the seventies. Walter Matthau, however, plays Marvin so well (with good support from Elaine May as his wife) that this segment becomes highly entertaining.
Simon, of course, is from New York and most of his plays are set in his home city, but here he makes a rare foray to the West Coast. As his fellow New Yorker Woody Allen had done in "Annie Hall" the previous year, Simon takes the opportunity for some comments on the culture wars between America's Atlantic and Pacific seaboards. Hannah and Bill can be taken as representing the East and West Coast respectively. She is a driven, sharp-tongued, neurotic and workaholic New Yorker, he is a gentler, more laid-back Californian (although possibly an adopted rather than a native son of the Golden State). Jane Fonda (looking even more stunning at the age of 40 than she had done ten years earlier in "Barbarella", especially when she gets to frolic on the beach in a bikini) and Alan Alda both play their parts to perfection; she in particular gets to deliver some of Simon's most barbed lines, like "I don't have a lifestyle. I have a life." and "You're the sort of person who'd solve the world hunger problem by having them all eat out. Preferably in a good Chinese restaurant!" I could certainly imagine Allen writing lines like that.
The fourth story is a bit more serious. Maggie Smith won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Diana, thus going one better than her character, who loses out, and I must say it was well deserved, although she might have faced some stiff competition had Fonda been nominated. (This was the year when Fonda won "Best Actress" for "Coming Home", so I don't suppose she minded too much). This is the most serious of the four stories. Sidney is gay, and he and Diana are in a "lavender marriage", possibly a more daring plot line in 1978 than it would be today. Although they love one another in a non- sexual way, Diana has entered into this arrangement because her image as a happily married woman is good for public relations, but Sidney's indiscreet behaviour, however, has started to put this image at risk. Even though she has had a successful stage career, Diana's failure to win the Oscar is a blow to her rather fragile self-esteem, and despite her curious relationship with Sidney she finds herself relying on him for emotional support. Given his normal screen image as a red-blooded ladies' man, Michael Caine might seem an odd choice to play Sidney, but in fact he is very good.
Simon's plays can vary in quality when transferred to the screen. For example, "Barefoot in the Park" (which also starred Fonda, not nearly as good as she is here) today comes across as horribly mannered and dated. "California Suite", however, is one of the better ones. One of the weaknesses of the portmanteau form is that it does not allow for the depth of plot and character development which is possible in a film based around a single story. It also has its strengths, however, one of which is its ability to combine various moods in a single film. "California Suite" is normally categorised as a comedy, and for three- quarters of the time it is, although the tone of the comedy varies from slapstick to farce to verbal wit. In the fourth story, however, it becomes a more serious character study. It enables director Herbert Ross to demonstrate several contrasting styles of film-making, featuring contrasting styles of acting, without the contrasts ever seeming jarring. 7/10, which would have been higher had the "Visitors from Chicago" story been of similar quality to the others. -
dglink6 May 2007Despite a talented all-star cast, "California Suite," which was based on a hit Neil Simon play, is a wildly uneven film. The episodic story traces several unrelated couples from across the U.S. that check into a Beverly Hills hotel. Like a comedic "Grand Hotel," the film cuts between the stories, although the editing makes no comments, ironic or otherwise, between the episodes. Actually, the often foolish, self-centered characters make "California Suite" more a "Ship of Fools" in the sunshine than a "Grand Hotel" under the palms. The original play was a follow-up to the more successful "Plaza Suite" and demonstrated Simon's shakier take on the West Coast than on the East. For the most part, the hotel guests speak and behave like the transplanted or visiting New Yorkers that they are.
Jane Fonda portrays the ultimate New York snob, and her bitchy banter with ex-husband Alan Alda only underscores her arrogance and intolerance of anything that exists west of the Hudson. Alda is a New Yorker's stereotype of a Californian with pastel sweaters and perpetual tan. While a few amusing lines pass between the terminally mismatched couple, Fonda and Alda's episode is more grating than funny. However, the New York couple display Noel-Coward wit in comparison to the wasted talents and misfires in the scenes that involve Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby as vacationing doctors. The premise of two couples that arrive to find a reservation for only one has promise. However, director Herbert Ross should have studied Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd before he devised the broad, unfunny physical stunts that will leave viewers grateful that both Pryor and Cosby survived the mess and moved on to better material.
However, the film does have some fine moments between comedic experts Walter Matthau and Elaine May. When Matthau arrives in LA a day early, his brother surprises him with a prostitute, who passes out from too much tequila and cannot be awakened in the morning. Of course, Matthau's wife, the always-delicious Elaine May, arrives, and the comedy moves into high gear. The best episode in the film, however, involves an English actress, Maggie Smith, and her bisexual husband, Michael Caine. The couple arrives to attend the Academy Awards, because Smith is a Best Actress nominee. While Smith has some of the best-written lines in the film, her role also has a depth and poignancy that goes far beyond the cardboard characters in the other episodes. Although Caine is equally fine, Smith's role is showier, and she won a deserved Academy Award for the part. The film's special irony is that the part of an Oscar-losing-actress won an Oscar for the actress who played her.
"California Suite" is one of those films in which a few superior scenes make it worthy entertainment, and the Smith-Caine episode pulls the film several notches higher than it otherwise deserves. Add the sparkling Matthau-May scenes, and there is at least one-half of a good movie. Although the Fonda-Alda episode is bearable and occasionally amusing, the Pryor-Cosby scenes are often labored and unfunny. However, with a strong finger on the fast-forward button, there is a good hour of comedy and fine performances to be had in this inconsistent film. -
ODDBear13 August 2005Four stories, courtesy of Neil Simon, concerning the ongoings of several people staying at a nice hotel in sunny California.
Walter Matthau's segment provides the film's only real laughs. Desperately trying to cover up his infidelity, Matthau is a riot in his attempts.
Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor try their best as doctor friends who are having an awful time on their vacation with their wives. It's just not that funny, despite them both being extremely likable.
Alan Alda and Jane Fonda do well in their dramatic story of separated couple meeting after nine years to discuss their child. Their segment is too short to really have an impact, might have worked well as a feature film. It's not all that involving.
Michael Caine and Maggie Smith are both excellent in their little segment, with Smith portraying an actress who's up for the academy award. Caine plays her show off gay husband. The two stars really shine in an otherwise average story, not all that interesting.
I feel that California Suite should have been much better, it had such potential. It's just plain average. -
blanche-27 December 2009Neil Simon's 1978 film, California Suite, is four vignettes of couples descending upon Los Angeles at Oscar time: one couple (Maggie Smith and Michael Caine) for the Oscar ceremonies, two couples for vacation (Richard Pryor, Gloria Gifford, Bill Cosby, Sheila Frazer) one couple for a bar mitzvah (Walter Matthau and Elaine May), and one divorced couple (Alan Alda and Jane Fonda) to discuss their daughter.
The film is a mix of comedy, slapstick, and drama, with the Fonda-Alda segment witty but serious, the Matthau-May segment hilarious, the Cosby-Pryor segment slapstick, and the Smith-Caine segment a classic. Their conversation in the hotel suite before the Oscar ceremony is one of the best acted, best written scenes ever written. "I'm a dark horse," Smith says of her Oscar nomination, entering the room in a gown. "They must have seen the dress," Caine concludes. This is probably the most fully fleshed-out story, with the truth behind their marriage emerging as Smith descends into drunkenness later on. That and the Matthau-May vignettes are the best, with the Alda-Fonda scene coming off as somewhat dated today. The weakest is the Pryor-Crosby.
Entertaining - if you don't feel like watching the whole thing, just watch the Caine-Smith and Matthau-May.
Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor try their best as doctor friends who are having an awful time on their vacation with their wives. It's just not that funny, despite them both being extremely likable.
Alan Alda and Jane Fonda do well in their dramatic story of separated couple meeting after nine years to discuss their child. Their segment is too short to really have an impact, might have worked well as a feature film. It's not all that involving.
Michael Caine and Maggie Smith are both excellent in their little segment, with Smith portraying an actress who's up for the academy award. Caine plays her show off gay husband. The two stars really shine in an otherwise average story, not all that interesting. -
Don't get confused! Maggie Smith, an actress Oscar-nominated for a stupid little comedy, and husband Michael Caine travel from England to California for the Oscar ceremony.
Walter Matthau (married to Elaine May) arrives in California for a wedding and gets in a compromising situation with another woman.
Alan Alda and Jane Fonda are exes and discuss sharing custody of 17-year-old daughter and how Jane is afraid of losing her once she leaves home.
Richard Pryor and wife and Bill Cosby and wife go to California for a relaxing vacation.
All this in one movie. You think it sounds interesting, or you think it's a riot. To say this is a complete success in entertainment would be stretching a bit...almost a lot.
Right off the bat, Alda and Fonda start in going back and forth on the past and Fonda is so antagonistic, it's almost unbearable to even get through their skit. It lasts over 10 minutes.
Walter Matthau's skit gets a little old as he tries to hide the body of a passed out hooker from his wife, who's he's expecting any minute. (He overslept, of course.) But, Elaine May is good in a memorable role.
Cosby and Pryor's story actually starts with interest but tires with their constant griping and by the end of the movie, all of their fun ideas have turned into broken bones, bruises and casts. You get the feeling that black viewers would be offended by the way these characters are portrayed.
The only saving grace is Caine and Smith, who ironically was so good in this otherwise blah movie, she not only received an Oscar nomination, but she won. But, she is great in everything; so is Caine. They should have scrapped the rest of the footage and made a short film of just these great actors. Those who watch this for them, especially Maggie, will enjoy their performances. But, will otherwise be bored stiff.
Those who watch this for Matthau will be minimally pleased. Those who watch this for Cosby and Pryor will be insulted or just plain disappointed of the waste of their talents or BOTH. Those who watch this Fonda or Alda will be talked to death.
Nevertheless, I have to give Caine and Smith two thumbs up or two stars each. Therefore, it gets a 4 out of 10 from me.
But, if you're in a town where there's a California Suite, run don't walk to an Economy Lodge. -
edwagreen17 September 2007Neil Simon focuses his attention on a variety of people at a hotel in this 1978 comedy hit.
Walter Matthau certainly has a penchant as a hotel guest. Remember him with Maureen Stapleton and several other ladies in another hotel farce comedy-drama?
Matthau, as always, is hilarious when he attempts to hide a hooker from his wife. It seems that Elaine May is always the naive victim in films. Remember her in 1972's "The Heartbreak Kid?"
The real acting kudos here goes to Maggie Smith for a gem of a supporting Oscar-winning performance in this film. Smith plays an actress at the hotel who has been nominated for an Oscar. A win would mean a tremendous comeback for her. Naturally, she loses. How many people have won Oscars for playing an Oscar loser in a film? Judy Garland accomplished the opposite in 1954 in "A Star is Born." In the film she is an actress who wins the academy award but in real-life competition lost it to Grace Kelly for "The Country Girl." Only the lord knows why.
Smith is just grand as she prances around the room delivering memorable one-liners. This is just a gem of a film. -
moonspinner5531 March 2007Neil Simon received an Oscar nomination for adapting his own hit play to the screen, though his writing seems to be caught in a perpetual time-warp. No subject discussed seems fresh, and all his one-liners and tiresome penchant for name-dropping would fall flat without the help of some talented actors to keep things afloat. Hotel in Beverly Hills houses Jane Fonda and Alan Alda as bickering ex-marrieds; Walter Matthau as a husband trying to hide a hooker from wife Elaine May; Michael Caine as the put-upon husband of Oscar-nominated actress Maggie Smith (who really did win an Oscar); and Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor as accident-prone husbands vacationing with their wives. Aside from the acidic verbal jousting from Caine and Smith (in the film's best episode), this comedy directed by Herbert Ross pretty much congeals midway through. Matthau's exaggerated angst is funny, but this seems rote material for the actor (though he and Elaine May are well-matched as ever). Fonda easily upstages Alda after changing into her bikini (her figure is so fabulous, one gets the feeling the actress may have accepted her dim role for the sole excuse to show it off). The Cosby-Pryor segment is a slapstick torpedo. Overall, there's too much physical shtick and not enough humanity in "California Suite" to make it the sophisticated laugh-fest Simon buffs were touting it as. **1/2 from ****
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Many IMDb reviewers have expressed fondness for this movie, most with a few caveats. It's not surprising to me that others like it and I don't. What's surprising is that those who do like it seem to care about the same things I do - script, acting, story, emotional impact - yet come to the exact opposite conclusion that I do in evaluating each element.
I didn't see this movie when it came out, and that may be a key point. I'm old enough to remember still loving Alan Alda and everything he did at the time California Suite was made. Maybe if I had seen it then, I would have been impressed by the verbal back-and-forth between Alda and Jane Fonda, or by the inclusion of Cosby and Pryor as unexpected African American professionals, or maybe even by the near coming-to-grips with queer politics in the Maggie Smith/Michael Caine scenes. At the age I was then, I also found Walter Matthau almost irresistibly funny.
But here's the thing. I'm also old enough to remember when I began to find Alan Alda characters, both as they were written and as he played them, excruciatingly self-indulgent, insufferably self-righteous, and generally in love with the sound of their own voice, with the net effect that they couldn't genuinely connect with anyone around them and didn't seem to care. Where could you find the quintessential, I'm-so-sensitive Alan Alda character of the 70's and 80's? Staking out the moral high ground, while snidely pointing out how no one else was joining him.
That's the case here. He chews through Neil Simon's contrived and repetitive dialog with an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink smugness as if he's actually rendering astute, bullet point observations about Jane Fonda's character, or about the mature life choices he's made, and the epiphanies he's had. He's not. And neither is anyone else in this movie.
Nevertheless, Jane picks up her flint, sharpens the edge and away we go, because that's what you do in a Neil Simon comedy. Except that no one goes anywhere. The script is so lacking in insight that waiting for these two to finish a scene, put down their tools, and go collect their checks takes a numbing eternity. With so many salvos fired, there should be some colorful bursts, but every one is a dud.
Neither actor manages to pitch their lines with a single, convincing feeling, let alone build toward an emotional climax. The script simply doesn't provide one. So jarring in fact, is the why-not-here/how-about-there raising of their voices, that it brings to mind wartime speeches read aloud by captives. A few awkward cadences and over-emphasized words lets the home folks know they don't mean it. A rich irony indeed for Jane Fonda.
Walter Matthau, I'm sorry to say, is just irritating. Even he can't redeem a trite, horrifying attempt at sexual comedy, without the sex, that would have been unworthy of a two-minute sketch on the Carole Burnett show. He deserved better. The late seventies were his salad days, when his gruff, call-my-bluff-if-you-dare persona usually generated laughs. Yet here is, downsized to a cloying, simpering imitation of someone funny that 1978 audiences no doubt expected to hit it out of the park. He tries everything but registering a complaint. I would have forgiven him for saying look, I'm usually good at this stuff, you know I am, but I got nothing to work with here.
And don't get me started on Cosby and Pryor. From an inspired decision to write them as doctors, to a miserable, when-will-it-end insult to the audience, these two wasted talents are reduced to stumbling around in a dance macabre that the Three Stooges would have lent more dignity. It's as if the audience is being asked to laugh at a nasty, open secret: see, we let them play against race as urban sophisticates, but it's obvious what they're best at. Except it's not.
Smith and Caine? Maggie manages what no one else does in this film, which is to draw us in, swinging deftly between rage and vulnerability. She occupies the only breathing space in the whole film. She's given little to do really, but succeeds well enough to be awarded that Hollywood staple, the make-up Oscar for having been ignored in the Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Michael Caine plays her bored, gay husband with as much restraint as possible, but even he can't overcome the cluttered, too-clever-by-half lines Simon has written.
All in all, California Suite is an obnoxious experience, fatally lacking in wit. Bloated scene after bloated scene simply collapses under too many lines with too little substance. Almost everyone involved should have known better, and has done much better on other projects. For Neil Simon, it's as if he knew none of it was sticking, so he just kept throwing more spaghetti at the wall. -
mikemoto3 July 2000I know that this film does not get much acclaim, and it is indeed a rather inconsistent affair, but the fourth segment featuring the late great Walter Matthau (whom we unfortunately lost last Saturday)is absolutely hilarious and is by far and away the best in the film. Matthau is able to pull off the "hide the hooker" from my wife skit so convincingly that one could almost view this as actually happening in real life. I know of few comic actors who would not overplay this scene, and it is a great testament to the man himself.
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giffey-125 August 2006I have seen this movie several times, as I am a fan of Neil Simon. In my opinion, this is half a good movie. When Jane Fonda, Alan Alda, Maggie Smith, or Michael Caine are on the screen, the film is magical for me. Jane gives a really good performance as an Ice Queen, and I understand Alan more and more as their scenes progress. Maggie Smith and Michael Caine are the real stars in this movie. If the producers thought they had a better chance of getting Maggie an Oscar by making her a supporting actress, they got what they wanted, but I really believe it was a leading performance. I did my first spit take ever when Maggie and Michael were discussing the guacamole he was eating. When she asked what the disgusting green slime he was eating I started drinking a soda and when he answered, "I'm not sure, but it tastes like they ran the front lawn through a blender" I lost it. And yet, at the end of their story, when Maggie Smith asks Michael to not close his eyes, to "let it be me", I was truly touched. I found out several years later that that line was the inspiration for one of my favorite Country songs, "Don't Close Your Eyes" sung by Keith Whitley. The other two stories in the film I didn't care for, The Walter Matthau story, was too much like a Sixties leering sex farce, and the Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby story was actually embarrassing to me. I really felt like I was watching an scene out of a film from the 1930's where African-Americans took roles beneath them as it was a way to make a living. That is just one man's opinion and I am not trying to offend anyone. So the title of this review is the was I really feel.
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Four separate stories (all written by Neil Simon)that take place at the Beverly Hills Hotel. There's brittle sarcastic Hannah Warren (Jane Fonda) meeting with her divorced husband Bill (Alan Alda) over custody of their child Jenny (a very young Dana Plato). As with most Simon scripts the one-liners fly fast and furious. Some of it is funny but Fonda's character is far too mean and Alda is obviously uneasy with the dialogue for it to work.
Then there's Oscar-nominated actress Diana Barrie (Maggie Smith) and her bisexual husband Sidney Cochran (Michael Caine). She's agonizing over attending the Academy Awards and he tries to calm her. These two are very at ease with the comedy and drama and their story is easily the best in the film.
Then there's Marvin Michael (Walter Matthau) there for a bar mitzvah. He arrives the night before his wife Millie (Elaine May) shows up. His brother sends a prostitute to his room--and she passes out and can't wake up before his wife arrives. Matthau is fun but May seems uneasy.
The worst story is of two couples--Dr. Willis Panama (Bill Cosby) and his wife Bettina (Sheila Frazer) with Dr. Chauncey (Richard Pryor) with his wife Lola (Gloria Gifford). There story is basically non-stop unfunny and violent slapstick. Seeing two talented comedians like Pryor and Cosby fighting and biting each other isn't funny--just embarrassing. Even worse their wives are totally ignored! A real mixed bag here. The best joke comes from what happened after the movie. Smith won an Oscar for her acting here and her character in the movie didn't get the Oscar! Also why Smith got the award is beyond me. She's good but this is hardly an Oscar worthy performance. So, all in all, it's OK. I give it a 7. -
lee_eisenberg30 September 2005According to what I've heard, Neil Simon's work is usually so-so, but "California Suite" provides a fair share of laughs. This look at four groups of people staying in an LA hotel is likely to give anyone a love-hate relationship with California.
Anyway, here's the lowdown: Hannah Warren (Jane Fonda) and ex-husband Bill (Alan Alda) are meeting for the first time in nine years; that segment was pretty low-key, barely a comedy. Diana Barrie (Maggie Smith) is a stuffy British actress who takes everything out on husband Sidney Cochran (Michael Caine); Smith and Caine have a great time with the material. Marvin Michaels (Walter Matthau) has a hell of a time trying to hide his shenanigans from wife Millie (Elaine May); that segment really gives you an "Oh no...oh yes" feeling. Finally, Drs. Chauncey Gump (Richard Pryor) and Willis Panama (Bill Cosby) really begin to get on each other's nerves; Pryor makes some great faces.
Just one thing: I wish that Richard Pryor and Maggie Smith could have shared a scene; that would have made for some great dialogue. -
triple814 March 2005I first saw this when I was a kid. It is very appealing and being someone who likes multiple story type movies that did and does appeal to me.
All the characters in California Suite were interesting and fun to watch. I think had the movie been about just one of these stories it would have been terribly boring as none would be good encompassing that long a time period on their own. As it is however, though the feel of the movie is pretty sunny, you get introduced to many different people all unique with unique things going on. Although, Suite does drag a tiny bit, for the most part it is relatively fun to watch.
I like that the setting is at the hotel. I was interested in each story and thought it was overall a fun movie to watch. -
piste-cruiser18 October 2020I kind of enjoyed this when I first saw it in the early 1980s but it hasn't stood the test of time.
The Richard Prior / Bill Cosby bickering storyline is painfully unfunny. Who laughs at stepping over broken glass and other physical accidents these days? These two make even the Mr. Bean movies look like masterpieces.
The Walter Matthau plot where he wakes up with a comatose call girl in bed was just dull and painful.
Maggie Smith, (looking particularly young), flying to LA for the Oscars with her bisexual hubby Michael Caine is the only plot worth watching. The Alan Alda character is also quite likeable. Hence the three stars for those three characters. -
FrankStanko4 November 2007I'm biased - I'm a Neil Simon fan who loves the concept of the "Suite" plays (on stage, each act is a one-act play using the same set, with the actors playing different roles each act). Obviously, because the stories are intertwined in the film, they couldn't do that (they didn't do in "London Suite" either).
But, here's my complaint: the intertwining is sloppy. We'll sometimes spend twenty or so minutes with a plot, then get a quick cutaway with another (Walter Matthau's plot doesn't really kick in until an hour's passed; Alan Alda disappears after forty-five minutes).
Despite this balancing flaw, there are goodies to be found:
Visitors From New York: Alda and Jane Fonda have great chemistry (and, of course, she looks great!): one can really believe they were a couple. That being said, he's pretty weak, letting her get in a lot of bitchy lines, and barely sticking up for himself. Three stars.
Visitors From London: A lot of people think this is the best segment, and I'm one of them. Once again, Maggie Smith and Michael Caine give excellent performances (but there's a touch of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" throughout the whole scenario) - she deserved her Oscar (and I love that they filmed at an actual Oscars ceremony). Four stars.
Visitors From Philadelphia: First of all, Elaine May was reminding me so much of Louise Lasser. That being said, I could totally buy her and Matthau together, and I love how calm she was upon her discovery (she gets a great line regarding what she's gonna do). Three and a half stars.
Visitors From Chicago: Unfairly criticized. Sure, it's slapstick in the extreme (it gives us an idea how "The Out of Towners" may have looked if confined to "Plaza Suite," which it was intended for), but there's something quite cool about two very different masters of stand up, Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby, going up against one another ("clean" vs. "dirty"?). And, you just know that a few weeks later, the characters got together and had a good laugh about it. Three and a quarter stars.
Throw in a nice credit sequence, with David Hockney paintings, and you have a fine way to spend two hours. -
keyhole11 January 2007Nary a chuckle to be found in the whole excruciating 103 minutes. The film starts out okay with Fonda and Alda playing a divorced couple fighting over custody of their teenage daughter. There are some semi-amusing lines about the cultural differences between the East Coast and California. The Maggie Smith/Michael Caine plot line is vaguely interesting for a behind- the-scenes feel of the movie star life. But the Walter Matthau caught-with-a-hooker-in-the-hotel-room-bed shtick is clichéd and poorly played, while the Cosby-Pryor pairing as bickering vacationers is truly awful. "California Suite" is a total waste of a great cast, particularly Cosby & Pryor.
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The great writing talent of Neil Simon, has little doubt achieved a stunning success. There are many shinning examples of his genius and this is one case in point. The film is called " California Suite " and has an impressive cast to make the movie work. Four couples from across the country arrive at this sunny resort for various reasons. First off are Mr. and Mrs Warren (Alan Alda and Jane Fonda) who arrive at the famous hotel to discuss their teen-age daughter and her decision to either return to New York or stay with her father in California. Although adult in their decision making, they nevertheless duel childishly with words over their different approaches. From across the Atlantic ocean arrive Mr. & Mrs Sidney Cochran (Michael Caine & Maggie Smith). He is there to give support to his wife, despite her misgivings about a nominated award. Walter Matthau stars as Marvin Michaels, from Philadelphia who's sex crazed brother (Harry Michaels) has set him up with a high priced hooker, prior to his wife's arrival. Finally there's Chauncey Gump (Richard Prior) and Willis Panama (Bill Cosby), two Dr.'s and their wives who arrive from Chicago and immediately start bickering over accommodations. Alda and Fonda are great as former married partners. Neil Simon gave them extremely good lines of dialog and it makes for a firm Tatate conversation. From Simon also came the rapid rapier exchange between Maggi Smith and Michael Caine. The playwright also created a superb character in Walter Mattau as he portrays a helpless husband, before his accusing wife. It is with laughter that Prior and Cosby are able to create such antics as to leave the hotel with a promise of revenge on their in-laws. As a result, the movie is as entertaining as a gifted playwright and superb actors can make it. A Classic result is the by-product for all audiences. ****
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Loulou-815 July 1999As always, Neil Simon's work is hilarious and true to life.
The best stories for me were the ones involving Alan Alda and Jane Fonda as a divorced couple coming to an agreement over their daughter (the late Dana Plato) and, Maggie Smith as an English actress and Michael Caine as her husband.
The scenes featuring Walter Matthau and Elaine May and the story revolving around Richard Pryor's and Bill Cosby's characters have more of a slapstick element to them. -
graham-harvey17 July 2015This is one of those classic films labelled by some as amazing. I find the film indulgent, slow & tedious & incredibly annoying. All that whining and complaining and nasty back & forward sparring. If you can't find enough of that in the world already, then watch the movie. But if you are looking for a movie that will lift your spirits and not stress you out, avoid at all costs. I can say that comedy has evolved a lot since this period. Another reviewer criticised the portrayal of African Americans- valid point. But basically it just has this juvenile quality about it, a bunch of spoilt western prats who should know better. Towards the last half hour I found myself using the fast forward button