Elliot Gould is a fine actor and want to know why this is a much revered movie. Does it warrant repeat viewings?
shareIf I just answered "yes", would that be more helpful to you than reading some of the 88 user comments and 58 external reviews posted for this movie at IMDB? It's entirely possible that you and I don't like the same kind of movies.
I know I'm shouting, I like to shout.
This movie to a large part is a tongue-in-cheek updating of Raymond Chandler's famous 1940's Phillip Marlowe character, updated for the early 1970's - which decade is now already long behind us. I think this movie had much more impact on moviegoers of the early 70's, because they could "get" the attempted humor of a hip, edgy early 70's Marlowe juxtoposed with a much darker, film noirish early 1940's Marlowe.
But things change, time moves on... The attempt at hipness and edginess, not to mention the downright caricaturization of Marlowe (e.g. the constant cigarette smoking), rooted in an early 1970's spirit and mentality, has probably lived past its "pull date," if you get my drift. It's possible that if you hadn't lived through the early 1970's, this film, and what it's trying to do, will just fall flat.
As to whether it warrants repeat viewings, that depends on how much it clicks with you the first time. It's definitely a "curiosity" of a movie, quirky and odd enough to watch at least once, perhaps twice. Heck, most movies I watch twice nowadays, just to make sure I saw what I actually saw. lol