Review of Clue (1985) by Johnny T — 20 Nov 2012

Mostly successful and entirely strange... a comic [mystery] that doubles as a parody and triples as an ironic deconstruction of the form. Clue is campy, high-styled escapism. In a short 87 minutes that just zip by, the well-known board game's one-dimensional card figures like Professor Plum and others become multi-dimensional personalities with enough wit, neuroses and motives to intrigue even the most adept whodunnit solver. There's a movie here, and there's a gimmick. The gimmick undermines the movie and the gimmick is attached to the wrong part of the movie. Other than that, Clue offers a few big laughs early on followed by a lot of characters running around on a treadmill to nowhere. The unlikely assemblage of characters is mostly portrayed by well-known actors and comedians of which Lesley Ann Warren's Miss Scarlet, Martin Mull's Colonel Mustard and Eileen Brennan's Mrs Peacock performances stand out.

VERDICT: "High-Quality Stuff" - [Positive Reaction] This is a rating to a movie I view as very entertaining and well made, and definitely worth paying the full price at a theatre to see or own on DVD. It is not perfect, but it is definitely excellent. (Films that are rated 3.5 or 4 stars).