Switching Channels is a 1988 comedic movie remake of The Front Page (also more famously remade as His Girl Friday in 1940). It stars Kathleen Turner as Christy Colleran, Burt Reynolds as John L. Sullivan IV, Christopher Reeve as Blaine Bingham, Ned Beatty as Roy Ridnitz, Henry Gibson as Ike Roscoe, and George Newbern as Sigenthaler. The film was notorious for its harsh infighting between Reynolds and Turner during filming. As a result, the bad partnership between the two led to the film's failure, commercially and critically. It is available on DVD in Regions 2 and 4.
Synopsis
The film uses only the basic premise of The Front Page and His Girl Friday. All of the characters' names are changed, the story is modernized to the present day, and none of the dialogue from the play is used in the film.
Sullivan (Reynolds) is a cable TV news mogul. He tries to prevent the impending marriage of Colleran (Turner), his best reporter and ex-wife, by keeping her on the job during the critical news coverage of an upcoming execution and prison break.
Cast
The film features two Superman actors - Christopher Reeve, who starred in all four of the films made between 1978 and 1987, and George Newbern, who would provide the voice of Superman for Bruce Timm's Justice League series. Ned Beatty, who played "Otis" in the two first Superman films, also appears; he and Reeve had also worked together on the 1978 film Gray Lady Down.
Filmed primarily in Canada with a Canadian director (Ted Kotcheff), Switching Channels features many popular Canadian character actors in supporting roles: Al Waxman as Berger, the station manager, Ken James as Warden Terwilliger, Barry Flatman and Anthony Sherwood as television reporters Zaks and Carvalho, Joe Silver as newswriter Mordsini, Tony Rosato, Jackie Richardson, Philip Akin, Laura Robinson (from Night Heat), Fiona Reid (who co-starred with Waxman on King of Kensington) and Jack Duffy. It also co-stars Charles Kimbrough as the hapless Governor, just before he began his popular role of anchorman Jim Dale on Murphy Brown.
Critical and box office reception
The film was not only commercially and critically unsuccessful, it also derailed Reeve's career, who played against type as the hapless fiancé.
Reeve later expressed regret in making the film, believing he "made a fool of himself" and that he had only taken the project as a distraction from depression following a divorce. He also reportedly had to act as "referee", as costars Turner and Reynolds feuded with each other during filming.
Siskel & Ebert gave "Switching Channels" mixed results: Ebert was positive about the film and liked how the film did overall; not so Siskel-he expressed strong disappointment in the film and gave "Switching Channels" a thumbs down.[1]
However, Rotten Tomatoes currently lists "Switching Channels" with a 56% rating.[2]
External links
References
- ^ "?sec=6&subsec=switching+channels Switching Channels film review from Siskel & Ebert". Buena Vista Television. http://bventertainment.go.com/tv/buenavista/ebertandroeper/index2.html ?sec=6&subsec=switching+channels. Retrieved May 9, 2009.
- ^ "Switching Channels movie reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/switching_channels. Retrieved May 9, 2009.
