The Four Seasons

I used to really like this when it showed again and again on HBO when I was about 11. Which is pretty strange now that I think of it.

It was the first time I heard the phrase "Are we having fun yet?"

I got some four seasons for you right here - in northeast philly!

God, Carol Burnett was especially bad in it, with Alan Alda a close second.

Burnett was so ashamed she publicly told the studio not to promote her for an Oscar as they were prepared to do.

It's a pretentious middle-age angst movie about boring and unlikable heteros.

For a good movie on that theme, see The Ice Storm.

A belated happy birthday to Frankie Valli!

May 3rd. 87 years old.

Yummy!

Wasn't there a handful of those types of movies around the early eighties R3? The Big Chill was a few years later too.

I saw this in the theater as a gayling with my parents and thought it was the height of urbane sophistication, full of zesty quips and witty repartee.

What goes up must come down!

I certainly felt for the younger wife. I've been the younger partner in a group of old friends and it is no fun.

It's definitely the most underrated movie of the 1980s. It's brilliant and the entire cast is sublime.

I can't decide which season from the movie is my favorite because they were all so compelling, but my least favorite would have to be Fall on the college campus.

How soon you forget me OP!

Summer on the boat was great. Claustrophobia and jealousy simmering. First film I've liked Carol Burnett in--I know, don't kill me.

I always hated this movie.

It was awful and not really in the same genre as "Big Chill" or the much better "Return of the Secaucus Seven" which were about a different generation. It's closer to in tone and sensibility to "Same Time, Next Year" which also stars Alan Alda at his most grating.

The Four Seasons was basically a tv movie with a big budget. Burnett wasn't horrible but she wasn't great, either---basically the non-wacky neighbor from a sitcom. Alda was very annoying and even though his character was meant to be that way, it was grating. The unsympathetic Len Cariou was better but Jack Weston was wasted--he was good at heavies and comic relief, but really doesn't have much to do here. Sandy Dennis played her usual twitch as an acting style role, but at least it was appropriate here.

There were no Afro-Latinex people in this film! Literal violence! Rita Moreno should be ashamed!

Okay. Not really. I enjoyed it when it first came out. Strong cast and some funny dialogue.

I get this mixed-up with "A Change Of Seasons" (1980), another mid-life crisis movie. The one where Bo Derek said after she started work on the movie, they decided she should do a topless shower scene. And she felt exploited and tricked.

I remember Rex Reed giving it a rave review.

WHET Bess Armstrong?

Had she already agreed to the nude topless hottub scene (also part of R16's link)? I always got the impression that she was the dumbest of John Derek's wives.

Carol should have been more ashamed of "Pete 'n' Tillie".

^R3

Favorite of mine as a teen and now when it was on cable a zillion times. The cast is great with wonderful chemistry. You really feel like they could be friends. I love the fact that all the actors have serious actor pedigrees from tv, film and Broadway. Dennis is especially a standout as the cheated on and tossed aside wife. I love me some Sandy. Fun fact - Rita watches it every New Years Eve.

I loved this movie. I keep picturing Jack Weston screaming "My Mercedes!".

Written and directed by Alda, who also cast his homely daughters. It even had a short-lived (thankfully) tv spinoff.

I thought the title said Four More Seasons.

I agree, r16… I get this mixed up with A CHANGE OF SEASONS (1980)

And they’re both movies you kind of didn’t want to watch unless there was absolutely nothing else on.

It was a hit: made $50 million on a $6.5 million budget. Hence the TV spinoff. It was a swamp of a sub-Neil Simon slop.

Any love for Same Time, Next Year?

Unwatchable because of Alda's hammy acting. It's also very stagey (it was a play, after all). Probably not bad as a play with a decent cast.

It wasn't a play.

i just liked the premise because i am in a similar situation with someone.

I have to disagree with the OP, Sandy Dennis is heartbreaking in this and that one scene in the third Season, is a Master Class of Dennis Acting.

The second season on the boat with Bess Armstrong is really grating.

I love my friends, but none of them so much that I want to vacation with them four(!) times per year.

Saw it when it came out years ago and have no desire to rewatch.

Was bored with it at the time and have since acquired a low tolerance for Alan Alda.

R30: Was referring to "Same Time, Last Year" which was a play, a sortof upmarket, thoughtful if obvious version of Neil Simon.

Why did I alway think this was Neil Simon. DL fixes a poorly formed misconception!

[quote]Was referring to "Same Time, Last Year" which was a play, a sortof upmarket, thoughtful if obvious version of Neil Simon.

Same Time, NEXT Year.