Man on the Moon (1999)-"R"

Run Time:118 minutes

2 & 1/2 stars out of 4

Man on the Moon was the real-life biography of former "Taxi" and "Saturday Night Live" comedian, or self-described "entertainer", the late Andy Kaufman (Played by Jim Carrey) and was directed by Milos Forman. The film begins with him struggling as an extremely revolutionary comedian in front of an unintelligent audience, until he is scouted by an agent, George Shapiro (Danny DeVito). With the help of Shapiro and his writer, Bob Zmuda (Paul Giamatti), Andy hits the big-time, with appearences of "Saturday Night Live" and a steady stop on the ABC sitcom, "Taxi". Andy does not settle into a normal routine now though, he does the opposite, doing more and more bizarre and outrageous stunts, in order to draw a reaction from his audience. As the film progressed, I realized that there was no "real" Andy on stage ever, in fact, the "real" Andy is only exposed at the end as just an entertainer set on drawing a reaction from his audience, no matter what the price, leaving nothing sacred. After wrestling and winning against women, he moved on to staging fights on national television, swearing on live tv, and pissing off just about the whole South with his "bar of soap" and "toilet paper" gags he pulled off in Memphis. He then hits a low when "Taxi" is cancelled, and a distressed NBC holds a viewer poll, with which the outcome is him being voted off of "Saturday Night Live". He then goes back to live comedy, including a spot at Carnegie Hall, and a live reading of "The Great Gatsby" to a bunch of asleep college students. Andy doesn't realize when to stop and it takes a toll on himself and his friends, fans, and family. I figure that this isn't giving away the movie, seeing as how it really happened 16 years ago, so here goes: Andy ends up dying of lung cancer, although many people have trouble believing him because of all of his other pranks. It clear after the film that he is dead, however, there is an appearance by Tony Clifton (Andy's offensive alter-ego) that happens after his death, and where the only other person that played Clifton, Bob Zmuda, is apparent in the audience. I'm not sure if this was inserted by Forman to invoke a doubt in the viewer's mind as to whether or not Andy faked his death, because after showing Clifton there is a neon portrait of Kaufman glowing on the wall, so it gives you the impression that he's dead. The troubling factors for me in this film were the lack of clarity at the end, although I'm not sure if that was intended or not, and the appearence of Courtney Love as her usual, stick-through-it-all girlfriend character (i.e. The People vs. Larry Flynt). The film had it high points though, like Jim Carrey as Andy. He really got into the role and morphed it himself a bit, and I really can't think of an actor who could have pulled it off better than he did, it's some of his finest work.

MPAA reasons for rating:

Rated R for language and brief sexuality/nudity.

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