Man on the Moon is BAD, Here's Why - Nostalgia Critic

[Music] [Music] [Music] hello I'm the Nostalgia Critic guy remember so you don't have to it's time to talk about the biggest letdown second biggest one of the biggest a bad movie man on the moon now you might be saying to yourself what an odd movie to pick on the 1999 biography on entertainer Andy Kaufman may not have been a box office smash but they got decent enough reviews from critics and audiences praising the life of the legendary comedian and the performances that brought it to life with game-changing talents lay Melo's Foreman directing writer Scott Alexander and Larry karaszewski penning the script and one of my favorite childhood idols Jim Carrey bringing a damn good impression to the screen why does this deserve such a bashing years later I'll have you know Andy Kaufman's work you probably saw this movie is okay if you know Andy Kaufman's life you saw this as a huge botched opportunity don't get me wrong I'm aware biographical movies have to take creative license when translating a person's story to the big screen ed wood is one of my favorite movies despite many parts of it being false Bohemian Rhapsody has a ton of [ __ ] in it but I still thought it was okay even annabelle creation the spin off of the spin off of the sequel of the true story that's clearly 90% horse crap I still have enjoyed so indulging in cinematic elements that didn't happen I'm actually okay with it's a movie you gotta make an interesting story crammed in a two-hour running time it's gotta be some changes I suppose you want to talk about my documentary where I act like a raging - no Jim Carrey represented by my bad impression I do not so why did you act like such a douche oh that wasn't me the fun-loving Jim Carrey everybody adores know that was woke okra Carrie welcome correct my enlightened to alter ego that acts like he discovered the meaning of life but is really using his insecurities to judge people and act like he's better than them he's over there actually Critic you know you're not really here but I am pull maybe to your eyes but to my eyeball vision we are nothing but ideas okay whatever oh and don't ever use a gun again in your reviews don't you use guns in a ton of your movies well that's before I became better than you or maybe I'm playing a character right now I'm still complex we call it Russell Brand's intro believe it or not this actually has very little to do with the documentary that came out about the making of this movie Jim and Andy where Jim Carrey Jared Leto - everyone by pestering and even sabotaging the movie set claiming he was possessed by Andy Kaufman that's another can of worms but it will come up briefly later the big issue I have with the movie is that elements of Andy's life were made up when they simply didn't need to be the actual life of Andy Kaufman was really interesting strange heartbreaking and even charming Kaufman was arguably one of the first big troll comedians playing with expectations flip-flopping between making the crowd laugh and annoying the hell out of them but somehow he did it with a surreal yet infuriating logic that somehow made sense even if it was only to him well there were big-budget groups that dabbled in similar comedy this was mostly what Kaufman focused on inspiring many great comedians to create their own style of anti humor so a movie about this man should be both interesting and funny so why in my opinion didn't miss what the spirit of Kaufman was about well let's take a closer look this is man on the moon the film starts off honestly pretty great with Kerry doing Kaufman's for a man character warning you that big chunks of the movie had been made up for dramatic effect I decided to cut out all the baloney in fact he hated it so much they cut it down in fact it's a lot shorter in fact it's over he placed the theme to lassie and the credits roll the theme isn't even very long so he constantly has to start it over as the credits stop with it this is friggin wonderful a routine Kaufman himself when no doubt really enjoy but then this happens he stops in the middle of it we look at a black screen of silence for about 12 seconds and then Kaufman comes out in his normal voice to say it was just a means to get rid of the people who wouldn't understand him actually the movie is really great you know remember when I said I'd go back to that Jim and Andy documentary I can't help but think of one line in particular Jim Carrey said when he was Daniel Duchenne losing everybody how far should I take this how far would Andy take it good question Jim well for starters Andy won have stopped the credits halfway through if anything he would make them go longer he'd have that record continued to skip and slow everything down maybe the record would scratch and break and he has to get a backup and the credits would start all over again but he would play those credits all the way through how far would Andy take it he would have the universal logo shine at the end along with the rating of the film that used to pop up afterwards how far would Andy take it he would tried to head every theater that showed this movie bring up the house lights some would be confused and maybe even leave and he would wait a good two minutes minimum to give them time to exit or leave others to talk about what the hell was going on then then he would peek his head out and the story would begin how far would Andy take it that far that's how far Andy would take it so already from the very start there's kind of an understanding of what Andy is about but it's not being presented don't get me wrong maybe this was an idea and the studio said no saying they could only do the credit bit for a certain amount of time first of all Jamie was so popular at the time you know to get away acting like this but he could have pulled some strings to make this happen or as far as it could plausibly go second it's unlikely they ever planned to go all the way with this bit because the rest of the movie has a half-assed quality to it maybe it's because they didn't know what they were doing maybe it's because the studio got in the way maybe it's because Jim got in the way but it clearly rides throughout the majority of the film take for example starting off in his childhood we see a young Andy performing skits alone in his room which is totally true he didn't play with many kids and liked to pretend there was a camera in the walls which concerned his parents he's told he needs to play with other children so he does the exact same thing just dragging his little sister in played by Kaufman's real granddaughter Britney so anyone that's read and Andy Kaufman biography knows what's next he gets past his shyness by performing at kids birthday parties he gets drafted by the military but fails the psych evaluation gets addicted to drugs and has a child out of wedlock giving her up for adoption and when he was at his most lost addicted to drugs and loneliness he completely turned his life around by discovery Transcendental Meditation balancing out the darkest times of his life allowing him to perform a kid's public access show where he discovers doing the exact same act for children before adults instead can be surprisingly hilarious giving him the inspiration to try comedy which would be a huge defining point in his life or he just goes to stand up yep all of that skit and we just go straight to him being a genius how much of that would have translated so well into a movie failing the military psych test treating concern for him as a trouble to he'll cast getting lost to drugs and showing the struggle of him trying to get his life together having a child and giving her up showing maybe how he could have longed for simpler innocent realities and even the almost accidental ways that longing for a simpler outlook created his act and arguably who he is the essence of where Kaufman's act and Kaufman himself came from explored like any decent biography would do nope just genius now and nobody understands him I don't know Andy I think I have to let you go yeah seems a little ironic because that's Kaufman's actual manager George Shapiro playing the part of the club owner in the film he's confusingly played by Danny DeVito who was on taxi with Kaufman again if this movie actually utilized Kaufman's comedy they would have made a joke about that in fact Danny DeVito playing his character in the show taxi doesn't seem to be anywhere they just kind of act like he doesn't exist why didn't they make sure pure play Danny DeVito on taxi and never address it in fact don't even credit him just say Danny DeVito played himself oh my god that would be hilarious and it would totally keep in Coffman's humor but nope DeVito just plays the manager and they never mentioned or show Danny as the character on taxi how far would Andy take it he totally avoided confusing and joke if he could we see Shapiro witness Kaufman's classic foreign man becoming Elvis routine and he decides to become his manager I've always wanted to play Carnegie Hall you're insane but you might also be brilliant did you quickly notice this is not going to be an honest portrayal of the real struggles and went through rather the forrest gump simple beautiful genius who had everything figured out we just had to catch up to him I want to be the biggest star in the world I want to generate my my own material I don't want to go for cheap laughs it's good old-fashioned entertainment George is so proud some of us at Saturday Night Live think I'm the Kaufman's a comic genius it's fun short they detest you we're a success all the dialogue around him works this way acting like he's the Mary Poppins of comedy being five steps ahead always in control and leaving us shaking our head saying oh how when's it go because I'm gonna do it again and again and again look saying he's ahead of his time is fine I'm a huge fan of his and I thought he was ahead of his time but treating him like a holier-than-thou poet rebel martyr FOP just makes him less relatable we can never be like him or understand him because he was truly perfect no he wasn't if this movie showed any of his faults we not only see that but it make him and this movie more interesting but instead a lot of the movie is just showing his routines almost in their entirety even when it's not needed and yeah I know the irony that I said the opening should have gone all the way with a bit and now I'm saying they should have scaled back on others but these are routines you can see anywhere many fans already know them inside out and even non fans have a general idea of what they were we're watching a Kaufman movie so we can discover what we didn't know about it not what we've already seen a million times and you know what if you're gonna do it show us the stuff we can't see on the Dinah Shore show he supposedly cracked eggs over her head and they got into a fight sure hated this so much that she had the footage burned why not recreate that get it as close as possible so people can not only see how far he pushed it but also give fans a chance to see how it most likely went down when the movie does talk about Kaufman's thoughts on his career they get the basics down he did hate working on a sitcom and would butt heads with higher-ups about what he can do on his own special but once again other things are changed around for seemingly no reason are you Andy Kaufman I get that all the time Andy did work as a busboy twice a week but because he was trying to quit taxi it was how he stayed creatively active pretending to give him fights with friends who acted like they didn't know each other but they acted like they were getting into this big brawl and afterwards they would have a big laugh about it it was keeping himself creatively stimulated in a time where he felt he couldn't do it on air which would have been interesting to see him cope by doing something unconventional while he's forced to do something conventional but here they act like he's just doing it to protest ABC this isn't nearly as fascinating as what actually happened I also don't know how to take him reading The Great Gatsby to a crowd as punishment for them wanting to do his character from taxi he would read the entire book of The Great Gatsby as a common form of entertainment even if the crowd walked out it wasn't a means of revenge he just thought it was funny if anything even when a crowd was so bad to nd he still did the show as planned saying even though he hated the audience he still should act professional as possible and give them the show he promised those people were so rude out there and so anyway I went on and I did what I was gonna do anyway and I went on with the show and I did it for them and I was professional about it but gosh I felt like telling them they were rude the stuff with Andy sleeping around and the Tony Clifton outburst seemed to be represented pretty well and it is nice to see a recreation of him getting kicked off taxi again something I feel like the fans really wanted to see and the movie did deliver on but again we have to get a long drawn-out version of one of his routines that a lot of people seeing the film already know only this time instead of not knowing whether Andy believes what he's saying or not you know he doesn't believe what he's saying here when you see and eat want women to wrestle he's portraying it as a person who really believes what he says where Carrie plays it like he knows he's acting like a jerk which sucks out a fair amount of the comedy now I'm not saying women are mentally inferior to men because when it comes to things like cooking and cleaning washing the potato scrubbing the carrots raising the babies women are superior to men in many ways cooking and cleaning in Washington [Applause] uh-huh but that wasn't me playing Andy that was Andy playing me playing Andy play me playing Andy playing a virtual character who won deep I really like original you better so does my box office [Applause] [Music] hey Doug Walker here letting you know some of the conventions we have coming up from June 7th to 9th is indy popcon in indianapolis and you can get a discount out tickets if you just use the promo code awesome when purchasing them from June 21st to the 23rd we have Planet Punk in Iowa this is our first time at this one insured to be a lot of fun and from July 6 to 7th its Salt City Comic Con at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse New York we have even more conventions this year but these are the ones coming up so go to the sites get the tickets drop on by and say hi would love to see you [Applause] so in the movies 25 minutes section dedicated to Andy wrestling women and is running with Jerry Lawler we do at least get a little something the common person didn't know Andy Kaufman's relationship with his arguably most faithful girlfriend Lin played by Courtney Love who I'm not convinced isn't paralleling Kaufman's life sometimes the scenes are okay but again very short because again a lot of the film has to be dedicated to moments you can see anywhere else you know it's interesting Andy kept sleeping around even though he was in a serious relationship with Lynn Lynn would even go on record saying this was very difficult to live with wouldn't that be interesting cinema diving into a part of Andy's life we didn't know the Oscar that [ __ ] remember when Andy did that remember when Andy did that of course you do cuz you already saw it nobody wants to see anything new in a biography now some of you might be making the argument that this is the point keeping Andy's life a mystery so we never know the full him well there's a right way to do that too in the biography confessions of a dangerous mind Chuck Barris his book blended reality with fiction by revealing some things that really happened to him but then made up a whole bunch of other [ __ ] like he was a professional assassin the movie version treats it like it all really happened making it a very unique film in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas it's legally fiction but most of its based on events that really happened but the film still shoots it like a drug trip where either option fact or fiction could be plausible in the movie Vincent all that is is a great actor reading his diary and showing the places that inspired him to paint even though it didn't give many details it somehow gave me more insight into the person these are films that tried something different and artistic while confusing you what really happened something Kaufman's humor was all about a men on the moon done something like that I totally would have respected it just as much as a straight flora biography helped maybe even more but this is just blue teens he's already done with occasional glimpses into his life which half the time is made up despite the real story being much more interesting take this moment when SNL asked their audience to vote if wanna cost me to stay on or not resulting in him getting voted off this devastates Coffman because in the movie people don't like him isn't that the idea he does stuff so people don't like him how does this make any sense it just comes out of nowhere this is Saturday Night Live the hippest audience of television this is bad well the truth is Kaufman was devastated but not for the reason you think you see it wasn't Lorne Michaels who made the announcement it was producer Dick Ebersol Andy Kaufman is not funny anymore agree with me why does this matter because Eversole made a deal with Kaufman they plan the vote knowing full well that Andy would get voted off much to his delight it's what he wanted but then later Kaufman would surprise people by returning to SNL whether as a hero or a villain is unsure but he was gonna come back to surprise people in some way that's what the act was gonna be Eversole however never invited him back so not only did the TV show that gave him a voice stab him in the back but worse for Kaufman one of his jokes would go unfinished and with his OCD tendencies that even the movie kind of taps on this must have driven him nuts that's something we can see him getting genuinely upset about but here it's because people don't like it well what did he care the whole film they built up that he loved that so this makes no sense so you can't even get down the intent of his comedy half the time know what to make things dumber they have this stupid reveals I don't think you two guys should ever work together again I'm sorry George we just thought it was funny yeah you see the way they edited that like they hold on Danny DeVito for a while trying to make it look like he's talking to Andy and Bob zmuda but really it's Andy and Jerry Lawler they're like oh my god Lawler was in on it longer and andy planned the whole thing it was a honk it's wrestling if there's anything people did need clarification on being a Hulk it was this there's no part that shows them planning it out or putting it together they just want us to believe that this was all really going on I guess like whoa that was all planned sure shocked me oh Jesus Christ I would have to say all these nasty things about women just to get them to come on stage and just to define for the audience that the audience should be booing me here's another completely botched moment Andy is kicked out of his transcendental meditation group which seems to really put him in a bad funk I'm a bad person now as an audience member watching this you'd probably be wondering why is this such a big deal I mean you do see him meditate once or twice he clearly takes it seriously but again he usually doesn't care what people think so why is he wrapped up in bed staring at the ceiling over this well again if they treated this like an actual bio flake you wouldn't know that he saw meditation as the reason he was still alive he said it saved him from the world of drugs and insecurity and brought his life meaning and purpose so yeah he probably would be bummed out being kicked from that but absolutely none of that is represented here whatever big emotional response they could have gotten out of this is completely lost he doesn't even except for very long Lin enters the room and he quickly asked if she wants to move in with him cutter moving in with him sad meditation stuff over so yeah it fails us being both a small deal and a big deal somehow how do you even accomplish that but perhaps the biggest missed opportunity is when Andy Kaufman gets lung cancer they skip the scene of him finding out from the doctor which I guess is supposed to confuse us further and as you'd expect his own friends and family don't believe him plans these things he takes over and hires actors you know personally I think that doctor guy was very convincing I mean these scenes are done okay and they do move his big Carnegie Hall performance to 1983 as opposed to 1979 long before he was diagnosed with anything believe it or not I'm actually okay with this sure didn't happen in this order but it's kind of like having the Queen Live Aid concert after Freddie Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS it adds an extra poetic weight to it it makes the scene better which is expected for a bio flick they change around a few things in the show which again is fine as they're trying to condense it but here's where they dropped the ball on an amazing scene they could have had as a real-life Andy took the entire audience out for milk and cookies in the movie it stops there but in reality the people weren't leaving and Andy needed to tell them playtime's over it's time to go home he shouted up people laughed and applauded and went home the next morning his writer Bob zmuda woke him up wondering if he was gonna go and he said the crowd knew it was a joke and nobody would be there but then he thought about the one or two fans that might have confused what he said for real and show up there all alone so he got dressed went to the Staten Island Ferry and sure enough there were over 300 people there Andy was speechless for the first time ever the audience had pulled one over on him people kind of figured out he didn't really have anything planned but they didn't care if anything it made it better the crowd fooled him for once he bought the people ice cream cone sung a few songs even did a little wrestling but this was the first time he was fooled by an entire crowd not because of spite but because of love love for his comedy love for his work and love for him how epic would that have been in a movie it's pretty much the highlight of the entire flick you can make it even bigger than 3-hundred why not make it the entire crowd that showed up you've lied about other things why not lie about this to make the moment even grander and bigger this could have been the big tear-jerking scene but instead we have a different way he was fooled which also sadly did happen Andy was convinced that a healer scam artist could take the cancer out of him but discovers it's bogus again it's not a bad scene and I kind of like him laughing as in this version he discovers it while he's there but then it just jumps to him being dead this dissolve is so weirdly empty honestly truth be told a lot of the edits in this movie are they don't flow in a natural wave they seem to more stop a scene rather than end it it often looks like it's interrupting a moment in the middle rather than organically transitioning to the next part of the story didn't even have doctor shoes no no no no he's definitely not dying but seriously for the grant touchy-feely tone this movie is trying to go for this Denton Island Ferry Sea would have been such a high mark to go out on you know what's Bruin since you're switching a bunch of other stuff around why did you switch those two around maybe have Kaufman go get the false treatment earlier in his sickness like while he still has hair and everything he finds out he's been fooled in an awful way but then he goes home to do the show where he finds he's been fooled in a loving way imagine you just saw that scene with everyone sharing his arrival to Stan Island he's so touched to see all the people there cheering him they finally fooled him it's come full circle and then you dissolve to him in the casket how much more powerful with that have been what an incredible contrast of both sadness and joy however we get the edit we got and the film ends with Tony Clifton returning one year later singing I Will Survive never revealing who actually played him and okay ending to what could have been an emotional powerhouse of a movie but you have two minutes what Andy would have wanted I know I was him for five seconds just now you know that's another reason I brought up your soul possessing performance if you really cared about representing Andy Kaufman correctly why don't you focus on making his story more interesting rather than making your story more interesting well I'm just an actor I don't have that kind of taller you stop production several times on this flick I'm sure you could have pulled some strengths and said hey maybe we can make this more faithful are you saying I made this movie bad no actually your acting is pretty decent in this oh good as long as I could attention but like a lot of people who made this movie or even saw this movie the focus seems to be in the wrong a man on the moon doesn't help you understand an artist or his art any better if anything it makes you understand it less because they change so much of how he performed his art and the reasons why like I said before I wouldn't mind too much if it made for a better story but Kaufman story was already interesting and the changes made surprisingly make it boring it's like they felt they had to put changes in because that's what bio pigs do despite the changes not being all that needed in this case I guess in hindsight it's not an awful film the acting is still good and there's a few times they start to capture Kaufman spirit but it never comes close to going all the way with it and Kaufman was all about going all the way with a routine no matter how much trouble it got him in if you like the film more power to you if it got you to look up more about Andy Kaufman fair enough like I said before I don't really hate this film as a standalone flick I hate it because of what it could have been what it should have been it's not one of the worst films ever made not by a longshot but it is one of the biggest letdowns which should have been one of the easiest stories to make are grabbing retouching fascinatingly weird or both turns out an underwhelming best of compilation that's not even that great a best of compilation you know maybe I have been trying a little too hard to be deep indeed if there's anything Andy Kaufman has taught us or this movie for that matter it's that the best art comes when you're being honest to yourself no matter how weird you are what do you say we go back to our roots and just try to bring people joy I would like that [Applause] I can see this turning out just follow my god mmm I'm the Nostalgia Critic and I'm afraid we're all gonna remember that they're going to do a redesign yeah hey Doug Walker here hope for the Warriors is this week's charity shout out hope for the warriors provides comprehensive support programs for servicemembers veterans and military families they're focused on transition health and wellness peer engagement and connections to community resources they believe those touched by military service can succeed at home by restoring their sense of self family and hope their core values understand the challenges pride and joy of being a military family they strive to meet the changing needs of those who served and the families who showed support right alongside them because hope for the warriors believes in family united by the shared conviction of honor and sacrifice if you look at their site you can see all the good they accomplished and all the brave men and women who have given up so much so that we can live the lives that we live if you want to show your thanks click on the link and share how much you appreciate all that they have given us [Music] you you

Channel: Channel Awesome

Views: 708,579

Keywords: channel awesome, doug walker, nostalgia critic, man on the moon, man on the moon review, movie, film, man on the moon movie, andy kaufman, andy kaufman movie, andy kaufman biographical movie, movie review, film review, jim carrey, jim carrey movies, danny devito, courtney love, paul giamatti, movie critic, movie editorial, movie editorials, man on the moon is bad, nc, biographical movies, editorials, bad jim carrey movies, movie reviews, man on the moon is bad here's why

Id: B1ObcUcOyxs

Length: 28min 35sec (1715 seconds)

Published: Wed May 22 2019