I have no idea why this movie was made or who came up with this preposterous casting.I've decided it was some sort of an inside joke cooked up by Robert Stigwood, who had no taste. None.Lily Tomlin, her spouse Jane Wagner, and John Travolta are all huge talents. Tomlin has proved herself over the years to be a fabulous comedienne and a fine dramatic actress. Wagner is a brilliant writer. John Travolta has acting ability, charm, and charisma to spare. But Tomlin is woefully miscast as a rich Malibu housewife, John Travolta's name in the film is Strip, and the script is terrible.I think a couple of things. First of all, I think Travolta, Tomlin, Wagner, and Stigwood were all friends. If you look at Stigwood's resume, he was known way back when for taking untalented people and making them stars. The stardom never lasted, but the man could obviously sell ice to Eskimos. He thought he could make a hit movie with a hot star like John Travolta, no matter that the script was bad and his costar was miscast. When in doubt, overhype. Tomlin probably wanted to try something different, and Wagner accommodated her. However, neither were in their milieu. The result: a disaster that hurt John Travolta's career. Fortunately, he recovered.For "so bad it's good movies," this one beats Monsignor, Valley of the Dolls, The Big Cube, The Oscar, and Bittersweet Love.

I enjoyed this movie so much, and for so many reasons. But that's because I can appreciate a truly awful film. I can't say anything really, to add to everything that's been said here. At least Ed Wood had an excuse, gaining immortality with absolutely no resources. So poverty is not an explanation for this film. However, it's just as hilarious as Plan 9, and I am so glad I found it again after so many decades. Tomlin and Travolta were talented enough to survive this career-killer.I was tempted to give this film a multi-star rating because of how much I loved it. But I didn't rate it because it would be a shame to skew the average, and perhaps lead someone to think it's a good film. Which it's not. But I don't think that's any reason not to see it.

Unbelievably wrong headed piece of tripe was so notorious a flop on its release that it has become an unspeakable badge of shame for both of it's stars and director.Lily Tomlin is an incredibly talented woman but even the most gifted people usually have things they can't do and overblown melodrama is something that is beyond Lily. The part itself is awful but something that a larger than life star such as Susan Hayward or Lana Turner could have found a way to make work with glamour and gravitas, there is none of that here. John Travolta is vapid and annoying, an empty vessel with the ridiculous name Strip. His character is those things but he brings nothing to the role other than that. At least he wears very little during most of the film and at this time in his career was quite attractive so if you're a fan of his that's something. But it's the ONLY thing he brings to the picture.Both stars are awful but they are only part of the larger problem which is that not only is the script dreadful but it is directed or rather undirected with zero sense of purpose or point of view. What are we supposed to take away from this meandering mess other than the memory of Lily saying Strip! Strip! over and over again? The answer seems to be that she has no clue and neither will you.Damaging the reputation of all involved spare yourself and skip this.

In 1978, John Travolta and Lily Tomlin were both riding high off major successes: Travolta with the back-to-back megahits Saturday Night Fever and Grease and Tomlin with an Oscar win for Nashville. Travolta soon expressed an interest in working with Tomlin and it was decided that they would make a movie together. After all, a collaboration between two respected and successful actors should've been a slam dunk, right?Sadly that was not the case."Moment By Moment" instead became a rare epic misfire for Tomlin and sadly the first of many for Travolta. It proved to be such an embarrassment to all involved that to this day it has not seen a DVD release and MST3K was forbidden from featuring it on their show. Everything about this movie is just plain wrong.Starting with the cast, the chemistry between Tomlin and Travolta is non-existent. It doesn't help that both actors have been followed by gay rumors their entire careers. Tomlin's lesbian lover even wrote and directed this thing. Adding to the void of chemistry is the fact that the leads look alike with matching haircuts to boot. It gives their relationship a creepy mother-son vibe due to the age difference and the way they act toward each other does little to dispel this. Tomlin makes several motherly gestures and at one point before they "make love," Travolta puts his head in her lap and says, "Don't leave me." I almost expected his next line to be "Tell me a story, Mommy." If the mother-son angle weren't disturbing enough, the script paints Strip (yes, that's Travolta's character's actual name) as an unrelenting stalker, repeatedly following Tomlin's character, Trish, around and showing up at her house announced despite receiving several dirty looks and being told to go away. Once Trish unconvincingly comes around, she treats like him dirt, not saying the "L" word and acting ashamed of him in public and he still comes back to her every time.When Trish and Strip are not in the throes of sterile passion, they also act strangely. In addition to stalking, Strip spends the first quarter of the film acting like a hyperactive 5-year-old on a sugar high, babbling uncontrollably about utter nonsense. It is later revealed that his drifter status can be attributed to… wait for it… his parents forgetting his birthday. Two years in a ROW, mind you. Trish gets her own surreal moments, offering Strip a joint while naked in a hot tub and weeping over the undetermined fate of her ex-husband's pool filter. Her annoyance toward him also vanishes overnight after they consummate their union and they both quickly transform into lovesick fools.The overall plot doesn't make much more sense either. Sure, May-December romances do exist but this one is just a little too far-fetched. Strip is a nomad with no prospects and shady friends and Trish, while wealthy, is no great beauty. Usually people like Strip who seek out these kinds of relationships are con-artists, a fact that Trish even lampshades.Also numerous subplots are introduced and are either resolved offscreen or dropped completely. The most glaring examples are the unseen character of Greg, who supplies Strip with drugs, gets arrested, bailed out of jail and murdered, all offscreen and the identification of one of Trish's affluent friends as his killer which nobody does anything about. As mentioned before, Trish wonders if Strip is only after her money but this is never really explored. Trish is tormented by an ex-husband and consoled by a best friend who show up for a few minutes and don't really do anything important. The real kicker is the ending, where Trish and Strip decide to reconcile because… the plot demands it, I guess.The funniest part of it all is with the dangling subplots, bad acting, surreal dialogue, glacial pacing, limited sets and pointless characters, this movie almost comes off like a big-budget re-imagining of "The Room." All they needed was to have Trish's mother show up and casually announce she has breast cancer and screenwriter Jane Wagner could've sued Tommy Wiseau for plagiarism. At least the directing and editing are slightly more competent.Fortunately, both actors would recover from this fiasco. Tomlin learned her lesson and made a return to comedic form in "9 to 5," and Travolta would come back too, though it took a few more years for him. However, if you're looking for a bad Travolta film to laugh at, I would suggest "Battlefield Earth" as this movie, while having a few unintentionally funny moments, is rather slow and boring. See it once mostly for the curiosity factor.