Review of Clue (1985) by Rachel H — 22 Dec 2010

(some light spoilers, nothing too serious).

You'd think a movie about a board game would suck right? Well, this definitely could have. But, they put actual honest-to-god effort into making the movie, and it's definitely better for it. Along with Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Clue is a movie that I could watch for a whole day and never get tired of it. In fact, I often do so when I'm sick. This is one of Tim Curry's great movies and it features a cast of great comedians from the mid-eighties like Eileen Brennan, Madeline Kahn, and Christopher Lloyd.

When I say 'based on the board game' I say it very loosely because they actually add story and proper characters. The silly names like Miss Scarlett and Mr Green are used as aliases for blackmail victims to meet in a safe place to solve their problems and force their blackmailer to confess and go to jail. This, of course, didn't work out, and the blackmailer ends up dead. This leaves them with forty-five minutes to solve the murder before the cops come. They actually keep intrigue going throughout the plot, and the twist ending doesn't seem forced or contrived at all. I also liked the three alternate endings and I went back and watched the movie to see if they were even plausible, and they are.

They are all given dirty little secrets that the blackmailer threatens to expose. Namely, Mr. Green is a gay State Department with fear of being outed, Miss Scarlett runs a brothel and bribes a cop to keep it running, Mrs. White is a black widow who thinks husbands should be like Kleenex. Namely, soft, strong, and disposable. Mrs Peacock is the wife of a senator who's suspected of bribing voting officials, Colonel Mustard is a war profeteer, and Professor Plum is an adulterous doctor who lost his medical license due to fooling around with a patient.

All the characters are fleshed out and well written, and there is another twist ending involving Mr. Green. I'm no going to tell what it is, if you want to see the movie, then you will find out. There are other characters too, like Yvette the Maid, the Motorist, the Cop, and Mrs. Ho (the cook), and they're all pretty cool too, even though Yvette's french accent is incredibly fake.

This film boasts a stellar comedic cast, and every single one of them giving a great performance. Christopher Lloyd is my favourite actor of all time, and this is one of my favourite performances (besides his turn as Judge Doom). Eileen Brennan also gave a fun and crazy performance as Mrs. Peacock. But the rest of the actors definitely stole the show, especially Tim Curry as Wadsworth. This is my favourite Tim Curry movie and definitely for a reason. Nobody can go to the extremes and still maintain a scrap of dignity like he does, and that's why I like him so much.

The movie is also very funny, and it's more of a comedy than it is a suspense movie. Pretty much all the jokes in the movie hit as opposed to miss and it makes this movie one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. They put great effort into the jokes and the movie is much better for it.

All in all, this movie could have been really horrible, but they put real effort into making it and it goes down as one of my favourite comedies ever. It may not be on my favourite movies of all time, but it's definitely in the #21 spot. If you haven't seen this, it's definitely worth a rent. Great cast, great jokes, great movie.