Downright amazing. Clue is one of my favorite movies ever made. The cast choice is outstanding (especially Tim Curry and Madelain Kahn!) Conveluted? Yes. Confusing? Sometimes. Cult Classic? Absolutely.Clue will leave you clueless. 10/10

Six guests receive a letter asking them to attend a secluded mansion with little to no explanation given in their letters. However, it soon becomes clear that these six people haven't been selected at random and they all form part of the dastardly scheme of an unknown party known as 'The Body' whom it seems has been blackmailing them. When a few of the guests in the house end up murdered, the other guests must work together to figure out the identity of the killer...Based on the popular board game Cluedo, Clue is a wonderful idea for a film and it certainly had bags of potential (and indeed a lot of this potential is highlighted at the start of the film when the mysterious guests first become acquainted), but once all the introductions are out of the way the film, for me, sadly went downhill very fast...There is far too much exposition and not enough action in the first half of the film; I get that some exposition is necessary to establish the characters and how each of them slots into the story, but I do think that this aspect of the film could have been trimmed down somewhat to prevent audiences from nodding off. In fact, the only thing that prevented me from taking my eyes off the screen was Colleen Camp's wonderful assets!!Things do liven up slightly when 'The Body' is introduced, but unfortunately from this point forward the film goes from being practically sedate to being overbearing, loud and irritating. The cast just seem to be running round, crashing into each other and yelling at one another for most of the second half of the film which is fun for a while but wears thin when it seems to just be chaotic for the sake of being chaotic (sometimes it reminded me of The Benny Hill show). A lot of the cast are guilty of overacting (particularly Tim Curry whose hammy performance actually started to annoy me towards the end of the film).Things get worse towards the end when the film tries to be too clever by getting bogged down in misdirection and a ridiculous 3 twist ending which was pointlessly confounding and it seemed evident that both director and screenwriter didn't know when to wrap this mess up!! In fact it's hard to believe that John Landis was involved in this crap as he has shown both before and after this film that he's capable of much better.I certainly liked the idea of making a film based on the popular board game of Cluedo, but sadly like a lot of the murders depicted in the film Clue is badly executed...

Another in my occasional series reappraising films after a couple of decades having not seen it, and alas "Clue" is disaster that not only hasn't stood the test of time, but makes me wonder why I couldn't see it all those years ago. Based on the board game; the film stars Tim Curry as Waddington, the Butler of Mr Boddy. Who gathers several of his masters Blackmail associates together ostensibly to help them understand that they are all in this together and to go to the police. However, when Mr Body comes home and discovers the group, the plans go awry and one of the guests murders him. As the guests attempt to determine which one of them is a murderer, and further bodies start to pile up, hilarity ensures.Except it doesn't. . There are a few weak puns. There are some jokes about a homosexual character that really haven't aged well but mostly there's just lots of running up and down, which I think the makers have confused with humour. It's tiresome both mentally and physically. It doesn't even hold the interest as a murder mystery, as there are no genuine clues that you can gather towards any of the three conclusions. Just stilted dialogue and forced performancesTim Curry is trying his best, I accept, but really wasn't given much to work with. There are some really talented supporting cast members too but all are undone by a witless underbaked script of backstory and nonsense.

For those who have not had the pleasure of playing the board game Clue, let me give a brief overview. A body was found in a mansion. The players have to explore the mansion, picking up clues along the way, and determine the identity of the murderer (Professor Plum, Colonel Mustard, Mrs. White, etc.), the murder weapon (gun, knife, candlestick, etc.) and where the murder took place (library, study, kitchen, etc.).We open to a dark night, as a car approaches a mansion. A butler named Wadsworth (Curry) steps out of the car and throws some bones to two large guard dogs. He starts to head inside but then stops, slowly looks down towards his shoe and then to the dogs with irritation. He stepped in dog poop. That's comedy gold, am-I-right? Now, we slowly but surely meet the rest of the cast who are given aliases to protect their identity. Wadsworth had summoned the group together to confront Mr. Body, who had been blackmailing each of the characters. Mr. Body responds by giving each character a weapon (the same ones from the game) and states that unless someone kills Wadsworth, their secrets will be exposed. Someone is murdered and the characters have to find out who did it, where and with what. The movie is a perfectly adequate adaptation of the elements of the game.Normally, I'm not the biggest fan of silly humor and Clue is pretty darn silly. Like having Wadsworth step in dog poop and then having each of the characters smell the air and check their shoes when he is around. But, for some reason, I don't mind it here. That is, I don't mind it as much as I normally would. Maybe I give it some slack because it's based off of a board game. It doesn't take itself too seriously like some board game-based movies- I'm lookin' at you, Battleship. Maybe it fills my goofy comedy quota. In any case, because of the type of humor (even though I let it slide) Clue is one of those movies that I can only really see once every couple years.I do find some of the 80's centered jokes amusing though. At some point, someone says, "It's Hoover on the phone for you." "Why would the FBI director be on your phone?" "He's on everyone else's, why should mine be any different?" Zing! Now, I don't really know anything about Hoover but I get the idea and it's kinda funny. You know, as far as it goes.One of the neat parts about the movie is that when it appeared, one of three endings was played at the theaters. When you watch it now, at the end of the movie, comes a card that reads, "That's how it could've happened. But how about this?" That gives a good indication of the light tone of the movie.Overall, I'd recommend Clue if you're in the mood for something silly. I kinda put it in the same family as Austin Powers and I'm sure just about everyone has seen Austin Powers a dozen times. So, if you want that sort of experience but something a little new, check out Clue. Oh and it has Tim Curry and Christopher Lloyd which is pretty cool, you know?