I'm watching Roxanne on Starz right now for the first time since the 80s. Back then, I had a perception of this movie as being kind of a sophisticated comedy. Right now, though, it's playing as a very dated, badly edited 80s movie.
Is there anyone else who's recently returned to this after a nearly 30 year separation?
Name a "sophisticated comedy" that is really funny and re watchable that does not have other types of humor like slapstick, blue humor, blunder, crude, etc. Roxanne is not dated or badly edited, it is not just some nose in the air high brow "sophisticated comedy" though it is much more adult oriented then 80's comedies like Vacation, Caddyshack, Naked Gun, Three Amigo's, etc. Not sure why you would have even expected a purely "sophisticated comedy" as Steve Martin does not do those types of comedies. Even a "sophisticated comedy" drama like "Sideways" has slapstick humor like a guy running fully naked into a car, guy pouring spitting wine all over himself, goofy friend, etc. Watch "Four Weddings and a Funeral" or "Sabrina" if you want your not funny "sophisticated comedy".
shareI'd argue that "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles", while containing slapstick, blue humor, and blundering, is very much a sophisticated comedy.
shareWhen the fuck did Vacation and Caddyshack become comedies for a mature audience? They are fratboy comedies. Anything ever done by the National Lampoon is a Fratboy vomit puddle.
shareI'm watch it now on MoviePlex after a span of 20 years. It's the same romantic comedy I remember as before. The only difference now is I am more mature and sophisticated and more appreciative of Steve Martin's work in this film.
shareI find I like Roxanne just as much now as I did back in the 80s. Incidently, The Jerk is an example of a movie that I thought was a comedic masterpiece back in the 80s, but to see it now, it's painfully bad.
shareIt still holds up well, except for that screechy sax music that polluted so many '80s movies.
I'm not crying, you fool, I'm laughing!
Hewwo.
It sounds like you were a kid when you saw it back in '87 (12 - 16 yrs old?), and as you got older you gravitated to more cerebral type of comedies by film makers like Hal Hartley, Whit Stillman, and Noah Baumbach. Of course I'm being presumptuous, but it's the only reason I can see why you would perceive the change in your reaction over the years.
shareThis is probably a bit too much of a sophisticated comedy for my tastes. Even the presence of Steve Martin doesn't give enough zaniness to this movie.
shareIt still holds up well, except for that screechy sax music that polluted so many '80s movies.
I agree about the saxophone and the 80s. I like the sax, don't get me wrong, but the 80s movies that have a sax in them fell flat. A few movies that featured a sax player come to mind...St. Elmo's fire, Rob Lowe for example. They really wanted the viewers to see him as sexy. And to me, he absolutely was not. And also the band that was playing on the boardwalk in The Lost Boys was pretty comical....ridiculously comical. This was supposed to be a hard core rock band. And the guy playing was trying so hard to dance and gyrate his hips when he played. I don't know what they were going for, but it was awful.
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