Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that there are adult jokes as well as mild raunchiness, including backside-grabbing and leering.
Families can talk about board games and which others, if any, might be good candidates for a movie. If you could make a movie based on any board game, which would you choose and why? How would the movie be different from the game? If you could make your own movie version of Clue, what would it be like?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Maria Llull
Based on the Hasbro board game, CLUE attempts to explain how six unrelated, eccentric characters manage to become murder suspects while staying under one roof.
The story is propelled and narrated by a character not found in the board game--the butler (Tim Curry), who runs the show at a dinner to which the familiar characters of Miss Scarlet, Colonel Mustard, Mrs. Peacock, Professor Plum, Mrs. White and Mr. Green have been invited.
The guests find out they have all been being blackmailed by the same man, Mr. Boddy, who joins the party halfway through dinner. After Mr. Boddy's inevitable death, the murders compound as the group stumbles upon several more bodies, including those of the maid and the cook. Basically, that's the whole movie. There is a lot of recapping in this film, which makes the already tedious storyline even more so. Though the DVD offers three different endings (and three different murderers), none of the scenarios seem plausible or even likely.
Tim Curry is likeable (and very energetic) and has moments of brilliance, but he isn't able to distract from the mess of plot holes and ill-planned nonsense. The rest of the main cast, including Madeline Kahn, Eileen Brennan, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean , Martin Mull, and Lesley Ann Warren, seem to have stumbled into the film while half asleep. For the most part, they speak their weak lines as though their words are genius, but their understated style only works with a good script.
Though there are moments of good comedic timing, most of the jokes and sight gags are obvious, flat, and crude. The juvenile humor and sexual innuendo will be best appreciated by the junior high and high school crowds.
Families who like this movie might also like Haunted Honeymoon and Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentMild sexual innuendo and sight gags. |
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ViolenceMurder done in a playful way, with bodies being dragged around and placed in awkward positions. |
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LanguageSome mild sexual innuendo, but no swearing. |
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Social BehaviorMost of the characters are duplicitous and greedy. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoSome alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking. |
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