Movies-TV

Pillorying the Puritan Ethos

Wellville is a scream. I can only assume the critics who hated it had some bad reaction to all the shibboleth busting. The film is flat-out hilarious, and for that reason it's also an insightful satire on the supposed virtues of American society. If laughter is a form of sedition, this film succeeds brilliantly. Religion, capitalism, and aceticism all come under a vigorous attack. The sexual overtones of the film are delightful. My favorite scenes are those where supressed human nature explodes through the veneer of ascetic regimen, the false consciousness of a clean and healthy body deriving from a clean mind. For those not killed off by the therapies devised at the "San," all the enemas, the spartan diets, the shock treaments do nothing but drive Kellogg's adherents into a dizzying sexual vertigo. All the self-denying and self-flagellation lead to outrageous bursts of erotic release. It's absolutely wonderfully seditious and insanely funny. Five stars!

The Road to IIls-ville

... because that's what this movie made me. It deserves negative stars. Did any of the principles actually read the script before they signed on to do this project? You know you're in for a laugh riot when one of the first scenes is Anthony Hopkins expounding on the "bowels", which actually could be funny except that it most certainly wasn't. Nor was seeing Dana Carvey throw feces on people, or Bridget Fonda getting a "womb manipulation", or the many,many sufferings of Matthew Broderick that he endured for not a day, not a week, but unbelieveably for months, and ... oh well, I guess you get the idea by now. I'm a big fan of all the individual players in this movie, so it's dissapointing to see them in such a mess.

Uneven, not for anyone, and not good

A friend I really respect showed me this film. I can see how a bright person may like the film: it is a look at a semi-interesting topic, the wellness cults of Kellog's day, and in the right hands could have been an interesting commentary on health nazis of today. Instead the film becomes a scatological nightmare, with incredibly uneven pacing and confused plot(s) that end in a very dissapointing ending. The performances range from mildly interesting (Hopkins as Kellog) to pathetic (Dana Carvey as Kellogs adopted ne'er do well son). If you like endless poop jokes, the film is for you. If you think fanantics are wacky you'll like it too. Then again, even if you fit in the above categories you probably still will not like this flop.

Blah. Not necessarily awful, just blah.

The Road to Wellville (Alan Parker, 1994)

I have thought for years that the novel upon which The Road to Wellville was based was written by the loathsome Garrison Keillor. Well, my copy showed up in the mail the other day, and I found out the novel was written by the far more easily-digested T. Coraghessan Boyle, so I decided I wouldn't exile the wife to the living room to watch this alone as I had planned.

What a horrible mistake.

The Road to Wellville chronicles, supposedly, the doings of a number of folks in the late nineteenth-century, all presided over by cornflake inventor John Harvey Kellogg (Anthony Hopkins). The story centers, if there can be said to be a center, around the Lightbodies, Eleanor (Bridget Fonda) and Will (Matthew Broderick), who come to Kellogg's sanitarium in order to recover from an unspecified disease of Will's (his wife confides in someone later what it is, and it's something of a major plot point). Also weaving through the tale is that of Charles Ossining (John Cusack), who gets involved with Kellogg's outcast adopted son George (Dana Carvey) and a crook named Bender (Michael Lerner, the "lost another loan to Ditech!" guy). And we haven't even begun to cover the principal actors yet, much less the cameos.

You may already be able to see where I'm going with this. If so, feel free to skip to the end of the review.

I've always considered Alan Parker an inconsistent director, but while mulling this travesty of a film over, I realized why. The movies he made early in his career that worked so very well (Midnight Express, Fame, The Wall, etc.) are movies where a lot of stuff is going on, and the viewer is being bombarded by stuff from every direction at all times. That's how the movies are written, and they succeed very well.

The movies he's made since then have had scripts that are more focused (or, in the case of The Road to Wellville, were in desperate need of more focus), but Parker is still using the same technique. And we're still getting bombarded when we require focus. Simply put, there's too much going on in any two hours of Alan Parker celluloid, and whether or not it works has to do with the material rather than the director or the actors. After all, Parker has a history of getting fantastic actors to work on his films (perhaps another thing; in every movie Parker made until Birdy, he was working with a cast of unknowns. Starting with Mississippi Burning, he started getting the A-list) and do things that could very well destroy their careers. I'm amazed that, after this mess, Hopkins, Broderick, Cusack, and a number of others survived with their careers intact.

Yes, this is a mess. Provides a few good one-liners here and there, but is basically the grown-up version of the unfunny teen sex comedy (and I can never say that without saying "American Pie and its sequels are not funny, and if you think they are, you're wrong"). Will probably be enjoyed by those who thought Scary Movie was a laff riot. Everyone else can safely stay away without feeling like they've missed anything. **

Masterwork of Situational Absurdity, Grossly Underrated

Amazon's reviews are usually reliable enough to live by, even when it means bucking a misguided critical trend, but they really dropped the ball on this one.

The otherwise not-so-remarkable Alan Parker will almost certainly never top this rollicking masterpiece of situational absurdity. It is a particular variety of humor, to be sure, but to dismiss it as "scatological" is just blunder.

While consistently outrageous throughout, and potentially difficult to follow at times, owing to the dizzying number of parallel story lines and fast pace, the movie is an elaborate, blatant mockery of health/wellness zealotry, and especially vegetarianism.

Cusack is particularly excellent, and gives his funniest performance ever (yes, better than Better Off Dead), as do Carvey and Hopkins. There are so many precious scenes that no one who sees the movie will ever be able to forget, least of all Cusack's side-splitting anti-vegetarian tirade towards the movie's conclusion, the all-too-glib Englishman with a preference for electrified bathwater, or the Kellogg family's fiery, yogurt-covered reconciliation.

Simply put, the funniest movie of the 90s. A must see.

A regular commedy

This movie is a commedy.Even using a good cast, this movie misses the target, many times.Using a real caracter - Dr. John H. Kellogg- as a source to a fiction, this movie is a regular commedy, but fat from amomg the best commedies available, to see.This movie was made, following a book with the same name.I didn't read the book, but this movie is just regular.

MNovie is great, but BEWARE OF ASPECT RATIO!

I gave a 5 star rating because the movie is that good, but this is the FULL SCREEN version of the film, not the widescreen version. Amazon really need to start labelling their movies a bit clearer. I'm no big movie buff, but I am quite into movies and when I saw the "1:33:1" aspect ratio, I assumed it was a widescreen version of the movie since I've always know the aspect ratio for full screen to be 4:3. It's not hard to put "The Road To Wellville (Full Screen Edition)" in the header of their movies. I feel pretty ripped off as this movie was 18 bucks, pretty expensive for a standard full screen DVD. What's odd is the movie doesn't seem to be released in the U.S. on DVD in widescreen. Really odd since they too the time to remaster the video.

Also, a note to movie companies... full screen versions of movies are outdated, have been for a while, and will be more and more outdated as time goes on. There's no reason at all to release a DVD ONLY in full screen format.

Hilarious, but where's the big picture?

Quite simply, this movie is hysterically funny. Well written, evenly paced and contains one of the most catchy soundtracks ever recorded. Chances are, if you're looking at this page for the DVD, you've seen the movie. If not, you can read the other reviews for the particulars because I'm going to focus on the technical aspects of the DVD. Besides, this is my second-favorite movie of all time, so any attempt to review the plot would be extremely biased and I know this movie isn't everyone's cup of tea.

First of all, the movie itself looks beautiful. They did a great job on the digital transfer... the compression isn't all that noticeable and everything is crisp and clear. Audio is par for the course. Nothing too special here, but nothing lacking.

However, one question begs to be asked: why, in these days of "Enhanced for 16:9 televisions," is a DVD being released containing ONLY a full screen version? The fact that they have "Full Screen Presentation" bulleted as a special feature shows just how far Columbia/Tristar missed the boat. The lack of widescreen is the only reason I've deducted a star from my rating. As for the other special features, don't be fooled by the "Bonus Trailers," which are all for other movies.

Should you get the DVD? Certainly! If you love this movie, you'll enjoy watching it with a clean digital picture (especially if you've had the tape for years and it's getting worn out.) But if you've been waiting all these years for a widescreen version, you're going to have to keep waiting. This DVD can only be described as a visual and audio upgrade from the videotape, but not a definitive version of the film.

A Rorschach test

Given the reviews here, 'Wellville' may be one of the most effective psychological tests available. In this way only, it's like Monty Python's 'Life of Brian' or Kubrick's 'A Clockwork Orange' ...

MY opinion? Within cinema over the past 100 years, this movie rates much higher than the book does among english novels. Boyle isn't terrible, he just isn't memorable. It's much harder to forget this movie. I loved it, perhaps because I'm a vegetarian who tries not to take himself too

seriously. This is a refreshingly playful film.

How's your health?

Once again Anthony Hopkins takes his character over the top and into a hilarious trip into Battle Creek Michigan as the infamous Dr. John Kellog. Who cares if the story doesn't stick to the novel's, its simply non-stop comical sequences, peppering the eyes. You'll either shriek in delight or be appalled or embarrassed by the goings on. It's the health spa we would've all saved up for and visited if we were around at the time, even if the trip were made to just watch instead of take part. Not for the immature.

An Evil Movie

Giving people unnecessary enemas is nothing more than object sodomy. This form of rape is not funny.

WaaHoo!

Well, here it is, one of the most delightful and whacky movies you'll ever see. A great ensemble cast, and a really funny look at Kellogg, who brought us the corn flake, and the problem of his "son", along with all the delightfully hilarious goings-on in Wellville. You'll laugh yourself to tears. The only reason I did not give this 5 stars is that it is pan and scan instead of letterboxed--what a shame when they go to the expense to master these things they opt for pan and scan and, thus, rob of us of 1/3 the image of the original movie. (Oops! Somehow I DID give this 5 stars, when I intended to give it 4; and I am unable to edit the star rating section, so I guess it has to stand as "5"--however, my rating is really a 4.)

A One Ounce Serving Has Over a Hundred Laughs

This adult comedy centers around three sub plots: the buck-toothed Dr. Kellogg played by Anthony Hopkins, Will and Eleanor Lightbody played by Matthew Broderick and Bridget Fonda respectively, and John Cusack as a shady but naive entrepreneur. The plots all take place during the turn of the last century at Dr. Kellogg's health sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan.


My favorites in this movie were the good doctor who is a product of his time believing that only procreational sex is good, and any loss of bodily fluids by other means saps the body of strength. I was in lust at first sight with the character of Ms. Munse. She is one of the reasons this comedy is for adults only; The facial expressions of the young and grown-up character of George Kellogg Jr. and pigs refusing to eat the experimental cereal "Perfo" kept me laughing constantly. I also enjoyed the music score which ranged from classical to delightfully silly. (I keep replaying the "Laughing Song" in my head.)

Amazon's product review is less kind than mine, proving that you really have to decide for yourself. But for me, this movie is a keeper. It can be played throughout the year, or just savored during the holidays.

I thought the movie was perfo.

Give us a cuddle Daddy?

This movie is genius. Anyone who says otherwise just doesn't get it.

An Overacted Mess of a Movie That Could've Been So Good

I'd love to give this movie a great review, I really would. I read Boyle's book and looked forward to comparing it to the movie. The differences couldn't have been more striking. So many of the subplots were mishandled and sparsely explained in the movie, I was glad to have read the book beforehand just so I knew what they were talking about!

With the exception of Anthony Hopkins and Bridget Fonda, the acting was abyssmal. Everytime John Cusack went bouncing across the screen, shrieking over-animatedly about this and that, the impact of his words was throughly lost on me. I didn't feel the essence of any of the characters. I do realize that the movie is not supposed to be a deep exploration of the inner psyche, but it would have been nice to actually be able to believe anything these characters were saying or feeling.

All in all, great story, great concept, great effort, I'm sure, but "road to Wellville" hits so far off the mark, it's a wonder Cusack or Broderick ever worked again. Read the book instead.

DVD

Good DVD although it did stick toward the end of the movie. Not a real problem.

Awful~ I'd Give it less if I could

I saw this at a video rental store and said, "Wow, look at all these great people in it this must be good." I was wrong. The people in this movie are amazing, and the story isn't bad, but its not a comedy. It's not a drama either. It really is just nothing. The cast strives to do as much with the film as possible, but its not worth it. And how can you put Dana Carvey in a role that isn't even funny?

Uh-yeah........

I watched this movie hoping that the bad reviews attributed to it were the result of people who did not know what they were talking about, but even I became nauseated watching the film.

Sure, we can applaud Kellog for daring to suggest sexual happiness was essential to mental health at a time when societal norms still was extremely uptight about such matters, but does anybody believe it was taken to this level. Honestly, I may never look at breakfast cereals the sameway again.

I want to stress that it is not the company's fault, but hollywood's overindulgence and bad script writing. Throughout the movie, it seems there are moments where naked people are thrown in for the sake of having them naked instead of contributing to something actually worthwhile.

What could have been a tounge-in-cheek comedy turned into a horrible waste of time and money. That it did not ruin the careers of any of the actors involved with it says much more about their pre-Wellvile aclaim rather than the movie itself.

A Little Disappointed

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to rag on this motion picture. In fact, I liked it. The problem I have is with the extras.

Presiding over the renowned Battle Creek Sanitarium in 1907 is the visionary corn flake (under line the word flake) inventor and health craze huckster Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. This man had the same treatment for all ailments. Enemas! Got a headache? You need an enema. Ingrown toenail? Need an enema. Toothache? Yes, an enema.

I first discovered this movie on Showtime. I enjoyed it thoroughly! Good acting, good story. Everything you want in a movie. You even get to see Traci Lind (Nurse Irene Graves) naked.

What I miss on this DVD is the Making Of Road To Wellville. When this movie was shown on Showtime, there was a documentary. Clearly the documentary was made at the same time the movie was being filmed. It ran about 20 minutes and was fascinating! I bought the DVD hoping that the documentary was on there. But it wasn't. Why?

Its clear to me that no thought was put into this DVD. Someone got lazy and did the least they could do. It could have been so much better...

Don't read the book first...

I made the unfortunate mistake of reading The Road to Wellville before watching the movie. I think it would be less forgiving if I had watched the movie first, then read the book, but the inconsistencies in the movie vs. the text are so blaring that I just lost all interest in the movie.

The screenwriter took many liberties with the text to make this movie a more "adult" film, and I found this really disheartening since this is not what T.C. Boyle intended it to be. I'm not against "adult" movies (i.e. nudity), but there a few things that occur in the movie that do not occur in the book at all.

The ending of the movie was to most "let's tie this up real quick-like" ending I've seen in awhile, and in fact, the ending (where all the main characters meet to watch the "san" burn down and then slowly walk away) didn't even happen like that.

I know, I know.... it's like comparing apples to bananas to pineapples, but I just want others to know that if you've read the book, don't bother with the movie. If you haven't read the book, then you'll probably get a bit of a kick out of the really quirky movie. Laura Flynn Boyle plays an excellent patient with "green sickness" (this was before she became unusually thin). There is a great cast of actors involved as well. Nice to see them play characters outside of what they normally do.