Fluffy Yet Fun
Added 9/11/2009
THE SECRET OF MY SUCCESS literally reeks of the Eighties, from the fashions to the hair to the syrupy soundtrack. Yet this light-as-a-feather Michael J. Fox comedy is still worth a gander, if only for the ribald humor dripping with double entendres--and some slapstick thrown in for good measure. Fox pulls all of it off without breaking a sweat, and he's the motor that makes this comedy go.
Playing a Kansas hayseed wanting to make a name for himself in the Big Apple, Fox's character gets hired by his egomaniacal uncle (Richard Jordan) to work in the mailroom of uncle's Fortune 500 corporation--a corporation fighting off a hostile takeover. Dissatisfied with his lowly mailroom status, Fox takes up residence in a deserted office and pretends to be an executive (a "suit"), causing a sensation in the upper echelons of the corporate hierarchy, and garnering the affections of a certain young female executive (Helen Slater)--who also happens to be having an affair with the uncle. There are several other layers to the plot, but suffice it to say there is a bedroom-swapping "Gotcha!" moment, followed by an over-the-top feel good ending. And the limo rides off into the sunset.
Again, Fox is at his forte here, but this movie really gels because of its supporting cast, including a hysterical Margaret Whitton playing Fox's man-hungry aunt, Jordan himself, and Gerry Bamman as a brown-nosing "yes" man. Unfortunately, Slater is the weak link, but Fred Gwynne makes a strong cameo as a ruthless corporate raider. It may be lame Eighties through and through, yet THE SECRET OF MY SUCCESS is still comedy gold.
--D. Mikels, Author, The Reckoning
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A Comedy With A Conscience!
Added 8/19/2009
The Secret Of My Success shows what someone with a backbone could accomplish under the most difficult of circumstances. What the Mathew J. Fox character tries to prevent in the film actually happened in real life to my father's multi-billion dollar corporation back in the 1980's! As a result, he, and tens of thousands of other people lost their jobs! Too bad they didn't have someone like the Michael J. Fox character attending their boardroom meetings! It might of saved a lot of people much grief!
Beside the interesting story, the chemistry between the actors is fantastic! The soundtrack was one of the very few that's memorable. The sexual situations were plentiful and quite humorous! Parts of Connecticut look exactly like they were portrayed in the film! (Yes, there is a lot of mind-boggling wealth hidden down secluded country roads!) The Secret Of My Success is definitely a home run, and one of my all-time favorite comedies!
See: Hostile Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government--And How We Take It Back and Knights, Raiders, and Targets: The Impact of the Hostile Takeover
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Your secret is safe with me
Added 4/9/2009
I remember when this movie came out in the late 1980's. Michael J. Fox was one of the iconic actors of that decade, famous for his portrayals as the stuffy but endearing Alex P. Keaton on TV's "Family Ties", as well as the in-over-his-head teen caught up in a time-travelling nightmare in "Back to the Future". It's safe to say that just about anything Michael J. Fox touched in this era was all but guaranteed gold. And there's nothing wrong with that. The kid always came across as a genuine article likeable guy, all-American, with a real penchant for bringing out belly laughs. And I think this is what made "The Secret of My Success" so "successful" during it's theatrical run, because viewed two decades later with all of this in it's proper context, the movie is cute but long in the tooth and really just not *that* funny. Spoilers ahead! Consider yourself warned!
Fox portrays Brantley Foster, an idealistic small town college graduate from Kansas determined to move to NY City and make it big in the business world. Upon finding himself in the Big Apple the job he had lined up has been suddenly and unexpectedly axed, leading Foster into unemployment. He runs through the motions of trying to find another job until, desperate, he eventually goes to his distant uncle, Howard Prescott (played by the ever fantastic Richard Jordan), who just so happens to be CEO of a major company in NYC, for a job. After an impassioned speech to Prescott, Foster is given a job in the mailroom, where he befriends coworker Fred (John Pankow from "To Live and Die in LA") and comes under immediate suspicion from the mailroom boss. Pankow shows him the ropes and eventually Foster sees Christy Wills (played by "Supergirl" Helen Slater) in one of the most ridiculous water-fountain drinking sequences I have ever been subjected to. I know it's the whole "love at first sight thing", but really folks...it's just a water fountain! *rolls eyes*
The plot thickens when Foster ends up doing a one day limo service for an executive's wife, Vera (Margaret Whitton from "Major League"), and after some awkward back and forth, she seduces him and, as the Bible puts it, he "knows" her. He discovers five minutes afterwards that it turns out Vera is Prescott's wife, making her Foster's aunt. Follow all that? :)
Bear in mind we haven't even really touched upon the main theme of the film, namely what makes the "Secret" so "Successful", which basically involves Foster getting uppity and hijacking an empty office space for himself and taking on the role of an executive without anyone knowing it's all a sham.
The movie has some truly funny moments (Foster's constant costume changing in the elevator is hilarious) but even Fox's charisma can't carry this film all the way through and after a while it turns into a series of mediocre slapstick moments tacked on to each other. The "room switching" scene in Prescott's mansion towards the end of the film exemplifies the problem. Here's a scene in which all the principals are trying to sneak off to various rooms to get their thing on with the other principals while simultaneously trying to not be seen en route there. It was a scene that was rife with comedic potential and it was squandered by poor pacing, lousy camera angles, unfunny slapstick, and very extended overuse of "Oh Yeah" by Yello (made famous by "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". Oh Yeaaaah *bow bow chick...chicka chicka*), a song which is cool in small amounts but gratingly annoying when one is forced to endure it for several minutes at a time.
On a personal note I found it rather hypocritical of Foster to go around accusing Prescott of cheating on his wife when Foster was "knowing" her himself. He goes to Prescott at the beginning of the movie, who gives him a chance in his company when he didn't *have* to (this is key), and yet Foster ultimately pays him back by getting him fired? I would say that capitalism works out its own bugs without interference from outside forces but this just came across as a little to "personal" to me, and I felt that Foster simply did not have the proper motives for such animosity towards his benefactor (although Vera admittedly did). In fact, considering that Foster's "success" was based entirely upon fraud I would think that there should have been at least *some* minor penalty for him. Instead he gets the CEO job, the girl, and does it all pretty dishonestly. Perhaps I make too much of it, but it deeply bothered me that I had seen it happen and with no consequence. I know...I know...it's just a movie. :P
"Secret" was, to me, a fairly mediocre movie, filled with 80's synthesizer music (and a whole pile of "Oh Yeah" by Yello), occasionally funny moments, and the ever likeable Michael J. Fox. It's certainly worth of a rental but this is not one that I'll be rushing forward to put in my DVD collection anytime soon. It feels overlong for what it is and probably could have been condensed into a much shorter movie with much better effect.
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Michael J. Fox shines in this timeless comedy
Added 2/20/2009
I was born in 1984 so when this movie came out (1987) I wasn't really the target demographic; fast forward to 2009 and it's actually one of the favorites in my collection. I've always been a Michael J. Fox fan, from the Back to the Future trilogy to Doc Hollywood to Family Ties. If you're an MJF fan, this movie is right up your alley!
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Great movie!
Added 1/29/2009
This movie is so great! A true 80's classic comedy with Michael J. Fox. The soundtrack to the movie is also awesome!
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Master Of The Rare Laserdiscs Movies.
Added 7/10/2005
I have TEEN WOLF on LASERDISC...A Must See :P
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Wish I was a teen growing up in the 1980's
Added 1/26/2003
1985: The days when Back to the Future and Breakfast Club were hitting the big time, When Katrina and the Waves hit it big with 'Walking on Sunshine and David Lee Roth left Van Halen for a solo career, this was also when those Toyota 4x4's were hitting the big time.
Anyways, this movie is about Scott Howard, your basic average high school teen. Anyways, Scott also plays basketball on the basketball team, but the team isn't doing very well, well things are about to change when Scott turns into a werewolf, since I'm not going to tell you more about this movie because I don't want to give out the information right away and if you're in the mood for a classic 80's teen flick, I would recommend Teen Wolf and the movie is clean compared to those other teen flicks.
Plus the music on this movie is a big plus, I just wish that they would have the soundtrack to this movie, anybody know where I can find it?
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Scott is a teen maybe beyond that....
Added 12/9/2002
16 year old Scott Calvin is not a happy teen he doesn't love his school or his job. So he thinks nothing else could happen well it turns out something did Scott one day noticed that his hands were hairy and than at the liquor store his eyes turned glowing red. Soon at the party it worsens while making out Scott is badly shaken when he and his girlfriend Boof come out he notices that with his nails he ripped half of her shirt off. Scott rushed home than notices with fangs, crazy hairy hair, and ears of an elf that he is a teen wolf! Scott at school tries too fight his sweating and his signs of turning into the horrid creature that looks like a beast. Scott one day realize's even with a great of problem comes the greaetst of things he soon becomes the star of the basketball team and the werewolf curse is broken! The cast is perfect espicellay Michael J.Fox who once again delivers his magic in his 80 films . So this one heck of a movie so I attend one day too see all copies gone and sold!
1 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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