The Bonfire of the Vanities

Me, an idiot: oh wow this opening long take is fantastic, I'm sure the rest of the film is going to be at least passable!

Beginning with an awesome De Palma long take, I was feeling pretty generous despite its broad social exaggerations. Then we're in the late ‘80's south Bronx. Oh no. ... About an hour later, after seeing Mister Rogers explore Melanie Griffith's neighborhood with both hands and F. Murray Abraham voluntarily call himself a n-er I start to realize the film is, in fact, its subjects: materialistic, fantastically ignorant, and condescending at all times. I swear I mean that as a compliment.

Satire with a capital-S, in the sense that every scene has a blinking Satire sign at the bottom of the screen. Every character just says the obvious, without any subtlety. Morgan Freeman lectures the courtroom, and the audience, at the end of the film in case you missed the message. I assume they cast Tom Hanks to play against type, but he's still too likeable. It also feels weird to see him feeling up Griffith. That's not the Hanks I love :(.

Boring movie about somebody accidentally killing someone who deserved it.

De Palma's look-at-me-direction and the satirical comedy are a mismatch made in hell.

Pretty good, although it obviously misses some subtleties of the book. Tom Hanks surely isn't the right person to play the "aristocratic" Sherman McCoy.

It was a well-filmed, well-edited movie with good actors, but the story kept trying to tell the audience something but what and who cares? Wherever it was was too early-90s comedyish to make any real point.

Not that bad.

Not nearly as bad as Wolfe fanboys make it out to be, it actually has some pretty hilarious parts in it. Its not subtle but its definitely not one of the worst mainstream movies ever made.

40.000

How the fuck is it, that De Palma surprises me with his awesome comedy weirdness over and over again? You've got some not so cool dubbing going on, especially at the beginning. But that's about the movie's only "flaw". I mean, what great cast. With some awesome fucking performances. One of my Tom Hanks favorites, actually. And it's so full of hilarious quotes. And why does Melanie Griffith remind me so much of Marilyn Monroe in this one? :D

Really not that bad. I don't understand the intense hatred.

Woeful social satire bludgeons the viewer over the head with so many irritating, over-drawn caricatures that any potential message or point to the lugubrious story is lost. Hanks at least has a few good moments, but the otherwise impressive cast is completely wasted, and even De Palma's usually unerring directorial hand is completely missing, resulting in an ugly, ungainly mess which has no impact, no structure and no sense of flow or pacing.

31.750

A brilliantly observational and probing film, and great fun! :)

DECENCY!

"De Palma's characterizations may not have the subtle tongue-in-cheek wit of Tom Wolfe, but his version of the story is both more comic and angrier for it." - Paul Schrodt

The only book-to-film adaptation worse than this was the movie (can't recall it's title) based on John Irving's "A Prayer for Owen Meany".

Bogen er fed - filmen er miscastet og kedelig

I tend to forget bad movies pretty quickly, and with so much junk produced for the mainstream audience its difficult to discriminate, however this is the worst movie that i have ever seen. If you have read the excellent novel, and seen the impressive cast list, you might have developed high hopes for this movie. But mark my words, avoid this like the plague, its disasterous movie!

I think this is a good comedy, although I'm one of the very few who does. Maybe it's because I've never read the book

gradevole

My distant memory is of enjoying this more than its reputation would suggest is likely.

Pretty good movie, but it comes off as too hammy, and well, it has Melanie Griffith, so it was sort of doomed from the start.

Pretty good.