
Two friends, an actor and a chef, discover a plot to fix a horse race and try to capitalize on it. But they must also deal with the two men who fixed the race, who are trying to silence them. Then there's the mob boss the two guys work for, who planned the fix, and whose wife is having an affair with the actor.... (Full plot summary below)
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Two friends, an actor and a chef, discover a plot to fix a horse race and try to capitalize on it. But they must also deal with the two men who fixed the race, who are trying to silence them. Then there's the mob boss the two guys work for, who planned the fix, and whose wife is having an affair with the actor.
Leave your thoughts about A Fine Mess.
| Reel Film ReviewsDavid Nusair...a thoroughly ludicrous but strangely enjoyable piece of work. |
| New York TimesWalter GoodmanMr. Edwards, who on happier occasions gave us the Pink Panther movies, piles on the pileups until you may suspect that he is trying to distract the audience from the absence of a diverting story or dialogue. |
| Los Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonIt’s not really a bad movie. In some ways, it’s a better directed farce than the current hits “Back to School” or “Legal Eagles.” But it’s erratic, and often weightless or uncentered; the pieces keep flying apart. |
| Chicago TribuneDave KehrAnd in the leads, Danson and Mandel won't make anyone forget Laurel and Hardy, or Namath and Gifford, for that matter. Not that there's any time for them to develop any chemistry -- Edwards is always revving up the rock 'n' roll and launching into another slapstick car chase. Which makes "A Fine Mess" the best argument yet for the 55 mph speed limit. |
| Chicago ReaderPat GrahamNothing quite works as it should: the rhythms are subtly off, the pace is forced, the comedy overextended . . . and the surfeit of hommages—to the Keystone Kops and Laurel and Hardy and Jerry Lewis and all and sundry—threatens to sink it before it gets out of the starting gate. But there's something to be said for Edwards's insatiable overreaching, and at times the orchestration of pratfalls and comic pairings could hardly be more deft. |
| Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittEdwards's mess isn't so fine. In trying to revive the great tradition of rough-and-tumble farce, he strains so hard for vigorous slapstick and wild gags that he forgets to be funny...In the end, there's something basically askew when a movie gives its heroes a valuable piano to move -- a classic Laurel and Hardy situation -- and then makes it an easy job, without a single teetering bridge to carry it across! Stan and Ollie, where are you when we need you? |
| Miami HeraldRyan MurphyBlake Edward’s obsession with the slapstick comedy genre has produced some all-time comedy classics and some best-forgotten clinkers. A Fine Mess belongs in the latter category. |
| Washington PostPaul Attanasio... relies on shtick that ranges from the familiar ("Three Stooges"-style horseplay) to the prehistoric (as at an auction where Danson and Mandel sniff their armptis and unwittingly enter the bidding). |
| DVDTalk.comScott WeinbergObviously inspired by the 1932 Laurel & Hardy short The Music Box, A Fine Mess represents director Blake Edwards at his most witless and desperate. |
| User ReviewCasey NThis is such an awesome movie for its time, I would strongly recommend to check it out. |