The Real Howard Spitz

1998
PG
1h 42m

IMDb RATING

5.6/10

332

YOUR RATING

Comedy Family

Howard Spitz is a cranky, has-been detective novelist out of money and out of luck - until he meets eight-year-old Samantha, who convinces him he has what it takes to write children's books.Howard Spitz is a cranky, has-been detective novelist out of money and out of luck - until he meets eight-year-old Samantha, who convinces him he has what it takes to write children's books.Howard Spitz is a cranky, has-been detective novelist out of money and out of luck - until he meets eight-year-old Samantha, who convinces him he has what it takes to write children's books.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.6/10

332

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Photos4

User reviews14

5.6332

Featured reviews

7Mark Price

B movie but above average

Well I like Kelsey Grammar so I decide to watch this last night. Now I know he is not box office and my expectations were not built up so I was pleasantly surprised that I not only enjoyed it overall but laughed out loud in parts mostly from the daughter. She had the best lines! Amanda Donohoe, normally glam personified played not quite plain but lacking self esteem very well. Kelsey Grammar plays the usual and that is not knocking him, he does that cynical but soft underneath to perfection. Yes a lot of the plot is predicable but you are hardly going to see something new. The main cast play well of each other and the one-liners are thrown away in a timely fashion.

I can only think the earlier review had jet lag or bad service on his air flight. This is an excellent B movie.

5MovieAddict2016

Very oddball film

I'm not really sure what the point of this was but to be fair it is watchable in a mildly amusing sort of way. Kelsey Grammar is a down-on-his-luck alcoholic who dresses up as a children's TV cow (a la Barney), and in the process begins a friendship with a young girl which he never expected.

I rented this movie years ago and enjoyed it for what it was. It's not totally offensive (although some of the innuendo and not-so-subtle sex jokes involving cows and teets might turn off parents from letting their kids watch it) and Kelsey Grammar is always pretty funny.

However in the long run I felt as though filmmaker Vadim Jean (whom I've had the pleasure of speaking to and is a really nice guy) didn't really know where to go with the script, it's a mix between adult drama and children's comedy and in that regard it's a mixed bag.

Still worth watching if you get a chance, though.

7MarioB

Just OK

Sometimes funny comedy that reminds me of the Shirley Temple pictures of the 1930's. Not great, but quite O.K. for adults, but not really for kids. It's a B movie. But I prefer this kind of B movie than big major Hollywood disgusting pictures with violence, guns and stupidity.

8black_dagger

a great film...

I'd be the first to admit that, at times, this had a preety corny storyline. Some of the jokes are predictable, and some scenes seem longer then they had to be.

But, taking these minor points away, you have a great film.

The acting from the adult cast was acceptable (except from kelsey grammar, who, as in all his roles, played it perfectly). The acting from the child cast was remarkable. I could only name you one GOOD child star (And i'm definitely not talking about Mary Kate or Ashley...) but after watching this, i may have to change my outlook that all child screen actors are hopeless.

This is a great film...there are no explosions, hardly any swearing, and the death scene was strangely cut out...so you can see why this may not have been well received. This isn't a life altering film, but i like it anyway...

dilbert

Kelsey Grammer is a charming curmudgeon

"The Real Howard Spitz" is the story of a detective writer who switches to children's books because he thinks there's more money in it. The only problem is, he doesn't particularly like children. Despite his curmudgeonliness, a little girl befriends him and encourages him to pursue this new career. Kelsey Grammer is utterly believable as the cynical, money-hungry author, and Amanda Donohoe is charming and beautiful as the little girl's mother (and, predictably, Kelsey Grammer's love interest). The film is supposedly set in the US but was actually shot in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

This film is really intended for children but has one minor example of foul language. The children and young adolescents in the audience seemed to be having a good time, and Kelsey Grammer fans will, too. In my experience, there are very few terrible Canadian films, and "The Real Howard Spitz" certainly isn't one of them. Go see it, or rent it, because you certainly won't lose any special effects by seeing it on the small screen.

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
Distributors Metrodome were hugely reluctant to give the film a cinema release in the UK as the film only did average business at the North American box office and, as a small company, they wanted to keep their overheads to a minimum by selling the film to the foreign home rental market and make deals for television broadcast rights. However English director Vadim Jean , whilst understanding the business logic, felt a little short-changed as he made the film for cinema release and wanted to see it given some kind of theatrical release in his home country, not only for the sake of his own conscience but to show off to family and friends. Therefore he struck a deal with Metrodome where if they gave him a period of grace, he would finance a small UK cinema release out of his own pocket. He argued that a small summer release in the UK would be a good time as there was nothing else showing other than big Hollywood blockbusters so there would be some screen availability for a family PG comedy and most of the other small scale independent films deliberately avoided that time of the year to avoid big Hollywood releases. Although they knew the film was never going to set the box office ablaze, Metrodome were struck by his honesty and passion so graciously agreed to his request. Jean paid for four film prints to be struck (at a cost of £1500 each) and the film was indeed given a tiny release in London in the late summer of 1998 and then toured around the country for a couple of months after.