I was on Spring Break during the week of March 10-16. I went to Vegas for a bachelorette trip, went to a wedding (caught the bouquet), and got sick. I managed to watch one movie though! Check out my review for this cult classic below.
Movie: Clue (1985) Directed by Jonathan Lynn; Story by John Landis and Jonathan Lynn;
Based on Cluedo by Anthony E. Pratt
Summary:
Clue (1995) is a comedic mystery based on the popular board game of the same name. The story revolves around six strangers who are invited to a secluded mansion for a dinner party. As the night progresses, they discover they are being blackmailed by their mysterious host and are plunged into a series of murders. The guests must navigate the mansion’s secret passages and hidden agendas to uncover the truth behind the killings while trying to stay alive themselves. With a blend of slapstick humor, witty dialogue, and multiple endings, Clue keeps audiences guessing until the very end. The film features an ensemble cast including Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, and Michael McKean, each portraying colorful characters with their own motives and secrets.
Summary written by ChatGPT when prompted “Summarize the 1985 film ‘Clue’“
My Thoughts:
YouTube has been my biggest addiction for the past 17 years. While I enjoy short-form content at times, I am a huge fan of throwing on a long video essay and going about my business for an hour or so while I listen to the video as if it were a podcast.
Recently, I watched this 3.5 hour long video essay about the USA Network detective-comedy drama Psych:
Obviously, there is no need to watch this feature-length YouTube video (unless Psych is one of your special interests), but it does make a case as to why Psych might be an underrated “Sherlock Holmes” adaptation. I used to watch Psych growing up with my family. Actually, my friends and I even used to have watch parties to watch Monk followed by Psych sometimes.
Anyway, my biggest takeaway from this video essay is that Psych did an amazing job in terms of pop culture references. They had Tim Curry guest star in an episode and they brought back many cast members from Clue for another Clue themed episode titled “100 Clues.” This video essay convinced me that I must watch Twin Peaks and Clue. I didn’t have the time or energy to watch a TV series last week, and so I decided to watch Clue.
I know Clue is a cult classic, and I imagine it’s the kind of movie that you need to watch with other people maybe during a midnight screening to get the most out of it à la The Room or The Rocky Horror Picture Show (another movie I still need to watch…). However, watching Clue at home by myself didn’t make a huge impression on me. It’s witty and it has some funny slapstick and dark humor, but I don’t think it ever made me laugh out loud. At times scenes feel like they move too fast or too slow, and so it was difficult for me to try to put the pieces together to try to decipher “whodunit” on my own. I do think that it was very clever for the movie to have multiple endings, just as the board game has a variation of endings.
Overall, I think it’s a movie that would be fun to watch with friends or with an audience, ideally at a “midnight screening.” My local independently owned movie theater closed after the pandemic, and so I’ll have to do some digging to find a place to watch this movie in person someday.
My Rating:
Meh – Yes!
Where to Watch: As of 3/18/2024, you can stream Clue on Paramount+/Showtime with a subscription.
References:
OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (Mar 18 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat
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