The Telephone. A film that was supposedly so horrible that the star Whoopi Goldberg herself tried to stop New World Pictures from releasing it. But I found a copy of it on VHS,and I decided to give it a chance. And I'm glad i did. You see this movie is in a class of it's own. It took a lot of balls to make a movie about basically one person all by herself talking on a telephone. And first time director Rip Torn managed to do commendable job keeping things interesting. Unlike most reviewers i thought it wasn't boring at all. It kept my interest because it was so refreshing,and original. I also look at this film as a showcase of how talented Whoopi Goldberg really is. She delivers a barrage of really cool improvisations,like a chinese waiter,a texas accented cowboy,an irish priest,a british lady,a new yorker,and even a horny black man called Leroy. While none of these characters were laugh out loud funny,they were definitely entertaining. Even Elliot Gould showed up as a Whoopi's sleazy ex-agent. As a whole The Telephone will be most remembered for it's totally unpredictable ending. SPOILER!! The telephone company sends a man over to take Whoopi's telephone(John Heard) but Whoopi is reluctant. So the telephone man tells her that the phone has been disconnected for three months! Which means Whoopi is officialy a grade A nutball. But she still can't believe that the telephone is disconnected, so when the man goes to take her phone away from her, she stabs him in the chest with a kitchen knife! She then calls an imaginary police station afterwards claiming that "She's been a bad,bad girl."
In my opinion,this film is not really a comedy,but more of a psychological study of a woman who is going insane. The ending alone is enough reason for anyone to see this film in my opinion. It's just so out there,and completely unexpected that it stays with you. I actually think that this is one of the most original films i've seen in years, and I believe it gets a bad rap. So if you're looking for something different than your normal movie, then dial up The Telephone.
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Watch The Infamous "Killer" Ending Below...
2 comments:
I enjoyed the movie myself, Whoopi is one of those people who is just watchable, no matter what. She, like Faye Dunaway and Karen Black, just sparkle in any role.
Whoopi's "Eddie" is worse than Telephone. BTW you should SOOOO do a great horror "Telephone" sequence, tribute or something using Telephone Line by ELO. If you don't have it I can send the song. Like, scenes from horror films where people die horribly, before, during or after their calls. It's a tribute I would do :P (Alas I cant seem to get movie footage I have to work in my editing stuff, without a lot of shit put into it.)
It was a very old movie and even horrible too. I didn't like this movie at all and just watched because my friends were forcing me to watch it.
The Telephone 1988
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