Such a riveting story and performance.

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by Anonymous

reply 40

January 30, 2024 1:23 AM

He's not a sympathetic character.

by Anonymous

reply 1

January 28, 2024 5:10 AM

RDJ was unbelievable in this.

by Anonymous

reply 2

January 28, 2024 5:14 AM

No one cared about Charlie Chaplin in 1992. And RDJ, as good as he was, was not a box office draw.

by Anonymous

reply 3

January 28, 2024 5:39 AM

What do you mean, r2? Do you mean he wasn’t believable as Chaplin, or he was unbelievably good?

by Anonymous

reply 4

January 28, 2024 5:42 AM

RDJ is a ham playing a ham albeit a genius ham.

by Anonymous

reply 5

January 28, 2024 5:44 AM

The following year, Attenborough directed the lower budget "Shadowlands" about C.S. Lewis and it ended up grossing 5 times what "Chaplin" did. I guess it had Anthony Hopkins as a draw, but it's hard to predict what biopics will attract an audience. I'd never have guessed a film about Oppenheimer could gross almost a billion.

by Anonymous

reply 6

January 28, 2024 5:46 AM

I forgot about this film, but actually heard great things about RDJ in it. Is it worth watching?

I've liked RDJ in most of his non-Iron Man performances. Thought he did great with Zodiac and the little-seen (somewhat fantasy) biopic "Fur" about Diane Arbus. This was when he was taking some real chances to win back his career after his incarceration.

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by Anonymous

reply 7

January 28, 2024 5:51 AM

But Downey got rave reviews and Oscar nom.

by Anonymous

reply 8

January 28, 2024 5:53 AM

This is one of those movies that I always end up watching if it's playing on the TV. It isn't great, but the recreation of silent era Hollywood is fascinating.

by Anonymous

reply 9

January 28, 2024 7:17 AM

I saw it when it came out, i liked it. Then again, I had a crush on Robert Downey Jr.

by Anonymous

reply 10

January 28, 2024 7:51 AM

It's too long. The parts with the biographer (Anthony Hopkins) and RDJ in old age make-up slow down the momentum of the film. The biographer device was obviously included to provide a framework and fill in the blanks of the story but IMO it's superfluous. RDJ's old man makeup looks like Dave Chapelle in that skit where he plays the old blind black man who was brought up thinking he is white. However, I do love the first half of the film.

by Anonymous

reply 11

January 28, 2024 2:36 PM

r4 I meant unbelievably good in it! Sorry about that

by Anonymous

reply 12

January 28, 2024 3:03 PM

Audiences thought it was about Geraldine, and they stayed away in droves.

by Anonymous

reply 13

January 28, 2024 3:17 PM

We all enjoyed that scene in which Geraldine Chaplain, playing her own grandmother, timidly sings “Your Are My Honeysuckle” and gets shouted off the stage “Get off, ya SILLY COW!” , with raspberries from the Peanut Gallery and “Off, Lady! QUICK!”. That scene was so heartbreaking but also uplifting when Chaplin, as a little boy, recovers the audience with his own version of the song.

Some of these expository scenes were sort of “docu-dramatic” or designed to show specific details of Chaplin’s life story. Still, it was entertaining to watch at that time.

by Anonymous

reply 14

January 28, 2024 3:31 PM

^^ That’s meant to spell “Geraldine Chaplin”

by Anonymous

reply 15

January 28, 2024 3:32 PM

at the time of release I remember the public stayed away in droves.

but i'd be curious to watch it now, especially in the light of MAESTRO .. to see what an older traditional biopic looked like in 1992

by Anonymous

reply 16

January 28, 2024 3:38 PM

Timing is everything. No one cared (or cares) about Charlie Chaplin anymore. And the clothes from that era look ugly rather than chic.

by Anonymous

reply 17

January 28, 2024 3:46 PM

In the trailer, some of the performances look corny and hackneyed. Also that sweeping musical score and the baritone narrator, both telltale signs of a docudrama of that period.

by Anonymous

reply 18

January 28, 2024 3:53 PM

They needed a scene with elephant shit.

by Anonymous

reply 19

January 28, 2024 3:54 PM

That creepy little fucker was a god-damn pedo. Where's my bio-pic? A let a fucking house nearly fall on me!

by Anonymous

reply 20

January 28, 2024 4:38 PM

The sweeping musical score was even anachronistic in the 90s.

by Anonymous

reply 21

January 28, 2024 4:43 PM

R17 I don't think everyone thinks clothes from that era are ugly.

by Anonymous

reply 22

January 28, 2024 4:51 PM

I agree that it was endless and turgid. Love it or hate it, the framing device with Hopkins was provided by script doctor William Goldman.

by Anonymous

reply 23

January 28, 2024 5:02 PM

There's something off about it in the trailer. They're hyping it up like some great enigmatic mystery but it's just Charlie Chaplin clowning around. What's the mystery? He liked women? Big deal.

by Anonymous

reply 24

January 28, 2024 5:31 PM

If RDJ showed his penis and low-hangers in the movie back then it would have done a hell of a lot more money.

by Anonymous

reply 25

January 28, 2024 5:51 PM

R22 is an original Gibson Girl

by Anonymous

reply 26

January 28, 2024 10:26 PM

[quote] It's just Charlie Chaplin clowning around. What's the mystery? He liked women? Big deal.

Little women.

by Anonymous

reply 27

January 28, 2024 10:28 PM

Buster you had your movie back in 1957.......starring that great great actor Donald O'Connor.

It was about as truthful as Carroll Baker's version of Harlow.

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by Anonymous

reply 28

January 28, 2024 11:17 PM

RDJ should have won the Oscar. Instead they gave it to Al Pacino for his extremely hammy performance in Scent of a Woman.

by Anonymous

reply 29

January 28, 2024 11:19 PM

RDJ did a photo shoot to promote this film (GQ, I think) and that’s when I first realized how hot he was.

by Anonymous

reply 30

January 28, 2024 11:26 PM

I thought Attenborough directed the movie with too much solemnity and reverence; it should have been sprightlier. I guess it was written that way. The framing was pointless, and they shouldn't have introduced every character with Chaplin's sage reminiscences—just let the audience get to know them.

RDJ's rendition of "Smile" is something to behold.

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by Anonymous

reply 32

January 28, 2024 11:58 PM

Would have been much better if they had gone with their first casting choice of Norm Macdonald.

by Anonymous

reply 33

January 29, 2024 1:53 AM

R32 Attenboroughs seem better suited for documentaries. Not much variation like Ali G and his psychologist cousin Simon Cohen. Or Louis Theroux and Justin Theroux. Or Nic Cage and Francis Coppola. Or Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher. Or Liza and her mom, that lady, I can't remember.

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by Anonymous

reply 34

January 29, 2024 3:19 AM

Is that RDJ singing Smile? What a hideous version!

by Anonymous

reply 36

January 29, 2024 6:09 AM

R28 - Why do they have me posed in that bending over position on the poster? Are they trying to suggest I buggered my way to the top?!

by Anonymous

reply 37

January 29, 2024 11:14 PM

It got terrible reviews but RDJ’s performance got good notices. The Oscar nom was sort of an acknowledgment of his talent - like Hollywood was trying to make him a star despite the film being a massive bomb.

by Anonymous

reply 38

January 30, 2024 12:50 AM