The Secret of My Success
November 22, 2009 by 11 Forgotten Laws
Filed under Success
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An ambitious young man hustles his way up the corporate ladder and finds himself running into comical complications on the job and in love. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 03/18/2003 Starring: Michael J. Fox Helen Slater Run time: 111 minutes Rating: Pg13
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars “The Sexual Revolution is over, everyone out of bed!!!”
This is one of my favorite 80’s movies (amongist others). It has it all: great actors (Richard Jordan, Michael J. Fox, Margaret Whitton, Fred Gwynne and Helen Slater), comedy, romance, action, and a great soundtrack.
Michael J. Fox plays Brantley Foster who lives on a farm with his parents in Kansas. Brantley looks to succeed and starts right at the top of the difficulty scale…Manhattan. You know the old saying, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. Same thing goes for teaching, within the suburbs they tell you to get expierence in the NYC schools first. But don’t believe what you hear, it’s definately not bad at all. Anyway, Brantley gets fired on the first day he reports to his job and follows that up with rejections when he applies for others. He then goes as a last resort to his Uncle Howard who is CEO of Pembroke. Brantley starts in the mailroom and cooks up a plan to reach as high as he can…so he can be able to fly back to his parents house in the corporate jet and be able to afford that lovely penthouse he has, just kidding. You have to see and “hear” his apartment for yourself. It’s hillarious!
Trouble arises: Enter Donald Davenport (Fred Gwynne) and a hostile company takeover. Brantley who goes by the name of Carlton Whitfield when he’s a “suit” also finds the girl of his dreams in Christy (Helen Slater, who also is not related to Christian Slater FYI); a whiz kid on money matters. Brantley’s boss in the mailroom is also suspecting something is up and have an evil eye on him. Carlton/Brantley also have to look out for Uncle Howard but his biggest challenge is to tame his Aunt Vera (Margaret Whitton from Major League) who has taken a ’special liking” to him.
All of this adds to tremendous laughs almost every minute. The ending at Uncle Howard’s house is great fun and non-stop laughs along with that famous song (So beautiful–with the great sound effects) from Feris Bueller’s Day Off (great movie also). The soundtrack includes Night Ranger’s The Secret of My Success and Roger Daltrey’s The Price of Love. If you like the music from the 80’s, you’ll like these songs as well as the soundtrack. It would be nice to have a DVD that has the soundtrack included. For example, the James Bond movies have the music video for that particular movie. Don’t mind my minor knit-picking; this is a great movie and for anyone who enjoys comedies then this is a definate for your movie collection.
To sum it up, can Carlton/Brantley outwit his Uncle Howard, tame the wild beast aka his Aunt, and make it to the top?
3 Stars Your secret is safe with me
I remember when this movie came out in the late 1980’s. Michael J. Fox was one of the iconic actors of that decade, famous for his portrayals as the stuffy but endearing Alex P. Keaton on TV’s “Family Ties”, as well as the in-over-his-head teen caught up in a time-travelling nightmare in “Back to the Future”. It’s safe to say that just about anything Michael J. Fox touched in this era was all but guaranteed gold. And there’s nothing wrong with that. The kid always came across as a genuine article likeable guy, all-American, with a real penchant for bringing out belly laughs. And I think this is what made “The Secret of My Success” so “successful” during it’s theatrical run, because viewed two decades later with all of this in it’s proper context, the movie is cute but long in the tooth and really just not *that* funny. Spoilers ahead! Consider yourself warned!
Fox portrays Brantley Foster, an idealistic small town college graduate from Kansas determined to move to NY City and make it big in the business world. Upon finding himself in the Big Apple the job he had lined up has been suddenly and unexpectedly axed, leading Foster into unemployment. He runs through the motions of trying to find another job until, desperate, he eventually goes to his distant uncle, Howard Prescott (played by the ever fantastic Richard Jordan), who just so happens to be CEO of a major company in NYC, for a job. After an impassioned speech to Prescott, Foster is given a job in the mailroom, where he befriends coworker Fred (John Pankow from “To Live and Die in LA”) and comes under immediate suspicion from the mailroom boss. Pankow shows him the ropes and eventually Foster sees Christy Wills (played by “Supergirl” Helen Slater) in one of the most ridiculous water-fountain drinking sequences I have ever been subjected to. I know it’s the whole “love at first sight thing”, but really folks…it’s just a water fountain! *rolls eyes*
The plot thickens when Foster ends up doing a one day limo service for an executive’s wife, Vera (Margaret Whitton from “Major League”), and after some awkward back and forth, she seduces him and, as the Bible puts it, he “knows” her. He discovers five minutes afterwards that it turns out Vera is Prescott’s wife, making her Foster’s aunt. Follow all that? 
Bear in mind we haven’t even really touched upon the main theme of the film, namely what makes the “Secret” so “Successful”, which basically involves Foster getting uppity and hijacking an empty office space for himself and taking on the role of an executive without anyone knowing it’s all a sham.
The movie has some truly funny moments (Foster’s constant costume changing in the elevator is hilarious) but even Fox’s charisma can’t carry this film all the way through and after a while it turns into a series of mediocre slapstick moments tacked on to each other. The “room switching” scene in Prescott’s mansion towards the end of the film exemplifies the problem. Here’s a scene in which all the principals are trying to sneak off to various rooms to get their thing on with the other principals while simultaneously trying to not be seen en route there. It was a scene that was rife with comedic potential and it was squandered by poor pacing, lousy camera angles, unfunny slapstick, and very extended overuse of “Oh Yeah” by Yello (made famous by “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”. Oh Yeaaaah *bow bow chick…chicka chicka*), a song which is cool in small amounts but gratingly annoying when one is forced to endure it for several minutes at a time.
On a personal note I found it rather hypocritical of Foster to go around accusing Prescott of cheating on his wife when Foster was “knowing” her himself. He goes to Prescott at the beginning of the movie, who gives him a chance in his company when he didn’t *have* to (this is key), and yet Foster ultimately pays him back by getting him fired? I would say that capitalism works out its own bugs without interference from outside forces but this just came across as a little to “personal” to me, and I felt that Foster simply did not have the proper motives for such animosity towards his benefactor (although Vera admittedly did). In fact, considering that Foster’s “success” was based entirely upon fraud I would think that there should have been at least *some* minor penalty for him. Instead he gets the CEO job, the girl, and does it all pretty dishonestly. Perhaps I make too much of it, but it deeply bothered me that I had seen it happen and with no consequence. I know…I know…it’s just a movie. 
“Secret” was, to me, a fairly mediocre movie, filled with 80’s synthesizer music (and a whole pile of “Oh Yeah” by Yello), occasionally funny moments, and the ever likeable Michael J. Fox. It’s certainly worth of a rental but this is not one that I’ll be rushing forward to put in my DVD collection anytime soon. It feels overlong for what it is and probably could have been condensed into a much shorter movie with much better effect.
5 Stars Michael J. Fox shines in this timeless comedy
I was born in 1984 so when this movie came out (1987) I wasn’t really the target demographic; fast forward to 2009 and it’s actually one of the favorites in my collection. I’ve always been a Michael J. Fox fan, from the Back to the Future trilogy to Doc Hollywood to Family Ties. If you’re an MJF fan, this movie is right up your alley!
5 Stars Mike is the “secret of my success’
Thank God for Michael J. Fox!!! He was in his prime when he made this film. It is hilarious! Margaret Whitton is brilliant as “Auntie” Vera, especially in the limo scene(OH YEAHHHHHHHHHHH). I love the shots of New York, especially of the World Trade Center - pre9/11! All in all, a very funny and enjoyable movie. It’s great when your feeling blue, out of a job or school(makes you want to be like “Brantley Foster/Carlton Whitfield). A great tribute to the 80’s!!!!!!!!
5 Stars Great movie!
This movie is so great! A true 80’s classic comedy with Michael J. Fox. The soundtrack to the movie is also awesome!
Fierce Creatures
November 5, 2009 by 11 Forgotten Laws
Filed under Emotion
To boost attendance the marwood zoos new director decides to do away with cute cuddly aniamals and display only fierce creatures. Thats when the outraged zoo keepers launch a riotous revolt to save their furry friends. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 12/26/2006 Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis Micahel Palin Run time: 94 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Robert Young/fred Schepisi
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Fierce Creatures is Fiercly Funny!
Monty Python fans will really appreciate the brilliant comedic performance by John Cleese. Joining him are “A Fish Called Wanda” castmates Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline. This is insanely clever, full of inuendos and ironic twists that will make you laugh and laugh and laugh some more. This is my familie’s favorite flick ( my children are 17 and 19) and a real sleeper because no one seems to know about it. Kevin Kline fans will love his duel role as both father and son. The whole zoo business makes it even funnier. Fans of English humor with simply love this movie.
5 Stars Funny movie
I loved this movie when it first came out, and it was great to see it again. The quality was really good too.
5 Stars Very Funny
Cute and funny. Story line is a little weak, but the laughs gets you through the rough spots.
5 Stars Continuation on Fish Called Wanda
If you loved “A Fish Called Wanda” you will love this movie. So incredibly funny I laugh so hard even though I’ve seen it over a dozen times. All the characters mesh so well and the story line is beyond hilarious. It’s on my “must have” list.
3 Stars Not a Fish Called Wanda
Although Fierce Creatures has some fairly funny situations, it lacks the side splitting laughs delivered by Wanda. Overall, it’s not a bad movie. For Wanda lovers though, this follow up movie might be a bit of a disappointment.
