Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Harriet Deltubbo Hoping for positive publicity, a tobacco company offers $25 million to any American town that quits smoking for 30 days. Amidst a media frenzy, Eagle Rock, Iowa accepts the challenge while the company's PR man tries to sabotage the effort. In this film the women are not natural at all. On the other hand, the women held it together with excellent acting. There are some films with great potential that somehow go horribly wrong. This is one of them. This cast interacts with absolute precision, whether walking around a room or interrupting each others' wisecracks. The script and direction meld into a strong movie. What's best is that not one character ever withdraws tongue from cheek.

mark.waltz Its no wonder that so many sitcom stars of the 60's, 70's and 80's are in this Norman Lear farce with overtones of a 1947 Robert Riskin/William Wellman disappointment called "Magic Town". In that James Stewart/Jane Wyman film, a small community is thrust into the spotlight when it is named as the perfect All-American town which makes its residents cocky and brings on a tourist explosion that ruins the quaintness of it. "Cold Turkey" adds on the idea that if they can stop smoking for 30 days, they will get $25 million, enough to turn this dying community around. The people get greedy, fighting over how to spend the money EVEN before they have it, go bonkers from lack of a puff, over-eating (Jean Stapleton), having too much sex (Dick Van Dyke and Pippa Scott) or accusing everybody passing through of being communists (Judith Lowry). Sounds funny, right? Well, it isn't as funny as all that. Lowry, of course, was more famous than the Little Old Lady from Pasadena in the 70's, making cursing seniors a favorite gag. SHE is funny and adorable, the grandmother we'd all like to have. Over all, the movie is not, and to star such a gifted clown like Dick Van Dyke, that is a major disappointment.The problem is that most of these townspeople are not likable at all; I wouldn't want Barnard Hughes as my doctor, while Jean Stapleton simply coughing and sneezing all over husband Vincent Gardenia and Van Dyke really seems to have no point. I love all of the sitcoms these people have appeared in, a treasure trove of Lear and Carl Reiner classics that show what drivel we have on TV today. In addition to those I mention, there's Tom Poston (as the town drunk who simply decides to leave so he can continue his binge while everybody else suffers), Bob Newhart (as the evil cigarette company executive responsible for the contest) and Paul Benedict in a freaky performance as a Zen Buddhist. The strangest performance, though, is that lovable character actor Edward Everett Horton, looking as if he just swallowed an entire lemon whole, who doesn't say a word. Yes, there are some laughs and more minor TV actors whose faces you know and names you don't that you can shake a cigar at. This will never be a threat to the memory of all of the classic 70's comedies of Mel Brooks and Blake Edwards. The conclusion with political and environmental overtones comes out of left field and is just bizarre.

sailrusako I saw this movie on HBO. It gives a dated look at smoking, which is interesting. It's interesting that even back in '71, big tobacco is the enemy. I'd be interested to see what they would do with this premise in a modern movie.While it's cute in some areas (the rev. and the wife dealing with nicotine withdrawal by "engaging in the act of physical love" constantly), I left feeling a little let down. The ending seems rushed and I'm not really sure what the moral is. The town quits smoking, but then ends up in a greed-infested society. And in the end, they get a missile plant that causes more pollution than a town of smokers couldn't possibly compete with. So is this a movie that we should quit smoking? Cuz it seems that the town got only more problems when it did that.But on the other hand, the scenes with the town coping with nicotine withdrawal are some of the most humorous I've seen in an old movie. My guess is that this movie opened the door on attacking smoking, but didn't have the gumption to take it all the way. It's interesting to note that big tobacco is already fingered in taking some of the blame in the smoking epidemic - I didn't realize that so early on they were already seen as a culprit.I give this movie a 7 because for the majority of it, I enjoyed myself. I am surprised that I haven't heard more about it around, but I'm not surprised that it's not on DVD. I'd recommend it if you're in the mood for something cutesy, dated, and not too deep.

mico-1 I saw 'Cold Turkey' on TV back in 1978 or 1979 when I was eleven. Twenty-five years later I can still remember Bob Newhart's portrayal of the evil, wily tobacco executive and his motto "I believe in Wren." Even better was the little old lady in the pro-tobacco group who compared the organizers of the tobacco boycott to the troops who invaded Czechoslovskis in 1968. Dick Van Dyke was brilliant as the befuddled minister who had to put up with the everyone from larger-than-life TV anchormen and pot smoking hippies to evil tobacco executives. Norman Lear was way ahead of his time by using Randy Newman to write the soundtrack and I hope there are still copies of the movie on VHS or DVD.