Long synopsis: An eccentric weatherman falls in love in crazy Los Angeles. Add filler material.
I rented LA STORY because it seemed to undergo a critical reappraisal ten years after dying on initial release. Unfortunately it hasn't aged into a good film. It just appears so in comparison with SGT BILKO.
There is no doubting LA STORY is a labour of love for its writer and star, Steve Martin. He obviously has great affection for the city and that is half the problem. There is a romantic gloss he paints over the Hard Rock café and trendy Hollywood restaurants which doesn't hold true. Having never been to LA (or the Hard Rock for that matter), I'll reserve judgement. But the Beverly Hills of this picture is shallow and boring, and the movie feels that way too.
Romantic comedies don't have to be inspired but LA STORY is insipid. Why up the ante with highbrow humour when you can't even deliver likeable characters? Rick Moranis turns up to embarrassing effect in a spoof of the comical gravedigger scene from HAMLET. In the hands of this comic titan the timeless words of Shakespeare play like an outtake from The Martin Short Show.
`They took a desert and turned it into a land of dreams'. `Love can blossom in the heart of crazy Los Angeles'. LA STORY is choc-a-bloc with such pearls of poetry. The film would be pretentious but Martin doesn't aspire to create art, just lightweight, immediately forgettable comedy like this.
I rented LA STORY because it seemed to undergo a critical reappraisal ten years after dying on initial release. Unfortunately it hasn't aged into a good film. It just appears so in comparison with SGT BILKO.
There is no doubting LA STORY is a labour of love for its writer and star, Steve Martin. He obviously has great affection for the city and that is half the problem. There is a romantic gloss he paints over the Hard Rock café and trendy Hollywood restaurants which doesn't hold true. Having never been to LA (or the Hard Rock for that matter), I'll reserve judgement. But the Beverly Hills of this picture is shallow and boring, and the movie feels that way too.
Romantic comedies don't have to be inspired but LA STORY is insipid. Why up the ante with highbrow humour when you can't even deliver likeable characters? Rick Moranis turns up to embarrassing effect in a spoof of the comical gravedigger scene from HAMLET. In the hands of this comic titan the timeless words of Shakespeare play like an outtake from The Martin Short Show.
`They took a desert and turned it into a land of dreams'. `Love can blossom in the heart of crazy Los Angeles'. LA STORY is choc-a-bloc with such pearls of poetry. The film would be pretentious but Martin doesn't aspire to create art, just lightweight, immediately forgettable comedy like this.