Can a Movie Based on a Game Be Any Good? Here's a "Clue"

Here's what REALLY happened...

The Story:

A group of people arrive at a mansion for a dinner.  Wadsworth (Tim Curry) the Butler greets each of them: Colonel Mustard (Martin Mull), Mrs. Peacock (Eileen Brennan), Mrs. White (Madeline Kahn), Professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd), Miss Scarlett (Lesley Ann Warren) and Mr. Green (Michael McKean).  They are then greeted by Mr. Boddy (Lee Ving), their esteemed host who apparently is blackmailing them all.  Mr. Boddy offers them a chance to get out from under his thumb by killing the butler and forgetting the night had ever happened.  He gives each of them a weapon, turns out the lights...

And then Mr. Boddy turns up dead... and the game is on!

Yes, movies based on board games can be quite good after all.

I had never seen this movie before, heard about it, and the multiple endings that they filmed.

But boy, it was eviscerated by critics back in the day for being unfunny.

Truth be told, the only reason I even watched it for the first time last year (and it almost made the list of best films I saw...) was the fact that Psych is doing an homage episode this season, and I wanted to see if I could spot which jokes they might use.

That they are bringing back half the cast (Martin Mull, Christopher Lloyd, Lesley Ann Warren), and much of the cast that was able to be brought back has already appeared in previous episodes of Psych (Tim Curry, Howard Hesseman), yeah, you could say that this was an inspiration to the cast and crew of that show.

That said, the movie is a riot.

All of the actors do a fabulous job, but Tim Curry excels at the final exposition of who the killer is.

I also prefer that ending versus the "Here's what really happened" ending.

Now available for instant streaming on Netflix as of this writing.


Final Grade: A-

Would I Own It: Yes, yes I would.  We've watched it twice thus far, and it's just as funny with each viewing.