Town & Country

An all-star cast--Warren Beatty, Goldie Hawn, Gary Shandling, Andie MacDowell, etc.--head up this fin-de-millennium bedroom farce which New Line reps curiously suggest "bring[s] into question the whole idea of love, marriage and commitment." (?!) Beatty plays over-the-hill New York architect Porter Stoddard, who, on the eve of his 25th wedding anniversary to Keaton, embarks on a philandering spree that would make, well, even Warren Beatty proud, that is, until his sexually unsettled (and equally unfaithful) best buddy Shandling and a polar bear costume bring him to his senses. One of the worst film flops in history--four years in the making, with a budget that ballooned to $80 million--"T&A" (excuse me, "T&C") pulled in only $7 mil before the studio pulled in the prints. During that brief release window generous critics fell over themselves with left-handed compliments ("It's by no means a good film, but Battlefield Earth it ain't"), so the question now arises, "Does it play any better on video?" No. Eighty mil in Hollywood can buy you a mess-o'-stars and dozens of re-shoots, but apparently not a decent comedy writer, for this stale pastiche of Love American Style skits is as humorless as its bottom line. Our advice? Skip "Town." (S. C. Sickles)