Reviews (26)

A true Disney classic.
HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS is one of the better Disney, live-action films out there. It's original and unique - followed by two [HONEY, I BLEW UP THE KID and HONEY, WE SHRUNK OURSELVES] just as good sequels. This film is about a wacky scientist named Wayne Szalinski (Rick Moranis) who knows all about science and nothing about family or the "real world". When Wayne creates a shrinking machine, in hopes that it will shrink matter, it actually ends up shrinking his kids, Amy and Nicky (Amy O'Neill and Robert Oliveri), and his next door neighbor's kids, Russell and Ron Thompson (Thomas Wilson Brown and Jared Rushton). They escape from the trash bag and end up entering what appears to be a jungle but is actually the Szalinskis' own backyard! Now, just a few inches tall, the kids must find a way to get to the house and get their parents' attention so they can deshrink them and turn them back to their normal sizes.

This is a very funny comedy, and there are some excellent visual effects, too. Everything from the shrunk kids to riding on a flying bee - there is some truly amazing special effects. The plot is solid and so is the acting. This is one Disney comedy I recommend for every family!

Great, Great, Great!
The story is about an inventor Wayne Szalinski (Rick Moranis) who is trying to perfect his machine which, when working, will shrink matter. The problem is, nothing he does seems to make it work. But somehow, his kids Amy and Nicky (Amy O'Neill and Robert Oliveri), and his next door neighbor's kids, Russell and Ron Thompson (Thomas Wilson Brown and Jared Rushton) are shrunk! Being only a few inches tall, they end up in the garbage bag and are taken outside. They get out but the only way back to the house is through the Szalinski's front yard. They meet up with a friendly ant, a killer scorpion, the danger of being chopped up by a lawnmower, and being drowned by a water sprinkler. Will they make it home so they can be made back to their normal size?

This movie is just GREAT! Even though it's a kids movie, it's great for adults, too. I love to watch this movie with my parents. I especially love Robert Oliveri and Jared Rushton. They did a very good job acting in it. Anybody who wants to enjoy a good movie with the family, watch "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids." You won't regret it!

where did the widscreen for honey i shrunk the kids go
i whould have liked it better if it were widescreen i think fullscreen movies are a thing of the past please do away with full screen if possible but if the movie was only filmed in full screen then i dont mind but if the movie can be made for full screen then it should thank you yours truely a disturbed fan of disney movies.

Fun and full of adventure
Who knew cheerios in milk could be so dangerous? This is a fun adventure of a film. I still enjoy watching this film. Rick Moranis plays the bungalking inventor who shrinks his children. The special effects in this film were good.

Okay...but emphasizes special effects
This is a nice kids movie...but pretty stereotypical story line. Clearly devised to show off the Disney special effects. Can be scary for a 5 year old. Kids characters are stereotypes. And of course, it is the one girl who needs rescuing! ... Read more

Reviews (32)

Accurate look at the life of a 1L (first year law student)
I recently watched this movie after not having seen it for many years, and I am amazed by the accurate portrayal of life for 1Ls and of the "types" of people you will encounter in your first year of law school, regardless of whether you attend Harvard or any other law school. John Houseman gives an outstanding performance as the curmudgeon Prof. Kingsfield. He succeeds in rattling Hart (equally well portrayed by Timothy Bottoms) and teaching contracts using the Socratic Method, a torture device until students learn how to play the game and begin to think about the nuances of the law.
Some viewers have commented about how dated the film is, but I must respectfully disagree. The hair, clothing, and some of the attitudes are dated--after all, the movie was made in 1970! At that time, both men and women had long hair, wore flares (jeans and cords), lots of browns & beiges, etc. That was the style, pure and simple. Racial, gender, and ethnic diversity in the classroom was pretty nonexistent, and the virtually all-male student body accurately reflects those times as well. What has not changed is the portrayal of how 1Ls adjust and adapt to law school (it is so very different from the undergraduate experience, as the unfortunate Mr. Hart learns on the first day of class!), learn to help eachother master first year subjects such as contracts (emphasis on contracts in the movie), property, civil procedure, criminal law, torts, and constitutional law, or turn on eachother as they realize just how important those first year grades are to their futures as law students (competition for an invitation to serve on the Law Review) and attorneys. This is what makes this movie as pertinent now (for law students and would-be law students, at least) as it was in 1970, because the types of students in the class will remain the same, the huge learning curve, the Socratic Method, the study groups and obsessive outlining, and the way that the law permeates every thought are timeless. Unless law schools institute substantial changes in law school pedagogy, this movie will be accurate 100 years from now.
The romance between Hart and Susan is not what drives this movie, but adds human interest to this look at the lives of 1Ls.
Remember, "you enter law school with a skull full of mush, and you leave thinking like a lawyer!" Highly recommended.

James Bridges' Best Directorial Work
I found myself compelled to write this review for a number of reasons: (1) I graduated from law school (although not Harvard), (2) My mother and James Bridges were childhood friends, (3) I've been an admirer of John Houseman's work for as long as I can remember, and finally (4) I've watched this movie several times and like it.

Timothy Bottoms stars as James Hart, a midwestern boy literally dumped into his first year of Harvard Law School. John Houseman is Professor William Kingsfield, a curmudgeonly contract law professor about whom Hart has ambivalent feelings of dread and admiration. Lindsay Wagner is Kingsfield's daughter, with whom Hart is having a relationship.

This picture brought the so-called Socratic method of instruction into the light of day and doubtlessly inspired many professors of subjects other than the law. It no doubt also inspired many impressionable young men to consider a career in the law (as it did me). But the reason to really enjoy this movie is neither of those...it's Houseman's electrifying performance that netted him an Academy Award for best supporting actor. This film also stands as a testament to the short but spectacular directorial career of the late James Bridges, who went on to direct "The China Syndrome" and "Urban Cowboy" among several other films.

It should also be remembered that this picture inspired a short-lived CBS television series of the same name in which Houseman reprised the Kingsfield role. The show spawned the careers of, among others, Jon Lovitz of Saturday Night Live fame and Jane Kaczmarek (of the TV series "Malcolm in the Middle") and after its rather short-sighted cancellation by CBS was picked by Showtime, who ordered new episides, giving the series another five years of life until discontinued in 1984.

Did this picture have an impact? Absolutely. Was it good? You bet! And to James Bridges, wherever you are "thanks for the career advice...and hello from my mom!"

70s drop-out culture clashes with law school discipline
If you want to be inspired to go to Harvard Law School or Harvard Business School (they both use the same intimidating case study technique), this is the film to watch. It is the fear of having your name called out by the professor -- from the hundred students in the lecture theatre -- with his request that you lay out the case, that drives you to prepare well into the early hours the night before.

Harvard is ultra-competitive -- it marks on a bell curve, with the bottom x% of students being automatically chucked out. (That x% may be 10%. The film doesn't spell it out, perhaps because 1973 cinema-goers weren't ready for lectures on the normal distribution.)

The law school culture clashed conspicuously with the student background of the 60s/70s -- i.e. drugs, rock and roll, protests about Vietnam etc -- although little is made of this in the film. Instead we follow a year in the life of Hart, the Nice-but-Bright law student who idolises Professor Kingsfield -- determined to know everything about him, to the extent of bedding his daughter (played by Lindsay Wagner in her pre-Bionic Woman form).

In this film, the lecture theatre experience (studying Contract Law with the Prof) turns out to be a breeze, compared to participating in the Study Group, which contains some really unlikeable individuals. By the end, three of the six students have dropped out of the Study Group -- one even tries to shoot himself.

In the end, this film probably would be better if it didn't try also to be a romance. (I guess it was competing with 'Love Story' at the time.) Its highlights come in the lecture theatre and the study group. This is the potential for a very dark story, and I feel the director missed that opportunity.

On the other hand, no accommodation is made for the audience unfamiliar with contract law -- in other words, there is plenty of technical language -- but this adds to the authority of the drama.

I guess we're unlikely ever to see again the TV series of the same name that this movie spawned. So enjoy this while it's still available. For a similar experience on the page, get hold of a copy of Peter Cohen's 'The Gospel according to the Harvard Business School'.

The most accurate law school movie ever!
This movie shows the brutal truth about law school more accurately than any other movie made to this date. However, its rather old, and doesnt have much humor to it, so expect a bummed feeling after watching this movie. Its not one of those inspiring movies that leaves you happy or motivated.

Bogus Hollywood Moment: Throwing Grades into Sea
Yeah, great film, holds up well over the years. But no Harvard law student would have thrown his unopened grades into the ocean. Particularly one that was as dedicated and competitive as Hart. It would be like a lawyer trying a case and leaving the courtroom before hearing the verdict. One can understand and, in a mercenary way, perhaps admire Hart if he pretended not to care about the grades for the sake of impressing his erratic, anti-establishment/anti-hippy girlfriend. She doesn't make much sense, but she is cute and alluring. But to actually throw the grades into the sea? No.

Apart from that, the scenes of the workings of law school are pretty terrific. The characters of the study group are, for good and bad, very similar to people you actually find at law school. Particularly Bell. (By the way, did anyone notice that Hart's 3rd year advisor was Thirtysomething's Miles Drentell? He is exactly the type that would say, "Grades matter.") Yet, like lawyers themselves, they're not on the whole really awful people. Ford, the quintessential Harvard prepster, bails out James Naughton's character in class and even goes so far as to say that the subject is very difficult to understand. Hart himself is obviously very decent. And Kingsfield is meant to be feared, but moreover respected and admired.

So the romance is a bit unrealistic, but nothing approaching Ally McBeal silliness. That aside, it's a solid film worth seeing more than once. ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

"The cinema," Orson Welles famously noted, "is a ribbon of dream." 3 Women is one of few feature films on record as having taken form in a dream. The dreamer was Robert Altman, and although all his best work has an oneiric quality--the floaty zooms, the eerie pastels bleeding into one another, the slip and slide of characters' trajectories overlapping in the fluid accumulation of what passes for narrative--this last masterpiece in his amazing seven-year run of 1970s masterpieces is only more so. Shelly Duvall, that most unorthodox of Altman creatures, locks in the tone with her eerie portrayal of Millie Lammoreaux, a Texan hoyden whose nonstop prattle turns life into a stream-of-consciousness reverie even as most of the people in her vicinity studiously ignore her. Her primacy is worshiped, then emulated by a strange, certifiably dysfunctional childwoman named Pinky Rose (Sissy Spacek) who comes to work in the same old-age home as Millie, moves in with her, and progressively usurps her lifestyle and finally her identity. The third woman, Willie (the late Janice Rule), is a pregnant artist who paints reptilian humanoid figures on the floors of swimming pools. Willie's husband (Robert Fortier), a strutting gun nut who once had a bit part on TV's Wyatt Earp ("He knows Hugh O'Brian"), is just about the only male character of consequence in the film. This macho man gets his--but what "his" may be is only one of the movie's beguiling mysteries. It's only appropriate that the cameraman, Chuck Rosher, should be the son of the man who photographed F.W. Murnau's Sunrise. --Richard T. Jameson ... Read more

Reviews (19)

A True Cinematic Masterpiece
Dreamlike. Hypnotic. Surreal. Creepy. Yes, Robert Altman's Three Women is all of those things. It's also a true cinematic masterpiece. Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek give two of the best performances ever put on film as Millie and Pinky, two assistants at a convalescent home in Desert Springs, California. Who is the most pathetic? Millie, who fancies herself a hip social butterfly when, in reality, she is either ignored by or made fun of by those she considers her confidants and admirers? Or Pinky, the childlike woman who idolizes her? It's a toss up, but these two women become roommates in a swinging singles apartment complex(The Purple Sage)and it isn't long before things start getting really weird. Shelley Duvall's performance here is mesmerizing in it's detail. In improvised monologues she rambles on and on about her (non-existant) beaus, her fab recipe for Chocolate Pudding Tarts, and her chance at becoming the new Brett Girl! It's hysterical! Sissy Spacek is just as hilarious in her wide eyed infatuation with Millie. But if you're thinking this movie is a comedy you are dead wrong. After a bump on the head during an attempted suicide, Pinky begins to think she IS Millie. Is she? Observing at a distance is Willie, the third woman, the pregnant wife of a former cowboy who paints bizarre portraits of a rape and murder among reptilian aliens. Once this theft of personality gets underway, the movie really starts to sink it's hooks in you. Based on a dream, writer/producer/director Altman has created a visually stunning (three-wheelers racing across the desert), provacotive, enthralling character study of three fascinating people. Forget the ambiguous ending--the real question is why hasn't this movie ever been released on video or dvd? I taped it off cable almost 15 years ago and wouldn't sell my copy for anything. For any serious Altman fan--this film is a must own.

MILLIE & PINKY & WILLIE....
As a Robert Altman fan, I'm fully aware that he's a hit or miss director...with equal amounts of hits and misses. Yet, when he hits---he's a genius. "3 Women" contains the genius with the uncanny casting of Shelley Duvall as Millie, a would be sophisticate with no sophistication and Sissy Spacek as Pinky, a strange blank slate of a girl from Texas. The third woman is Willie (Janice Rule), an equally strange (and strangely silent) pregnant middle-aged artist who paints obscenely macabre murals of half-reptile half-human creatures in empty swimming pools. The setting is a small desert town in Arizona where Millie works as a physical therapy aide and meets Pinky, a new aide, who winds up her roommate. Pinky is fascinated by a pair of twins who work at the rest home and begins to study Millie's life and mannerisms. After nearly drowning in a suicide attempt, she winds up in a coma. When she recovers from the coma, Millie is told she has temporary amnesia. But Pinky is no longer Pinky, she's evolving into Millie. Willie will also assume a different role in the film's eerie, pastorial conclusion. Whether you like this or not depends on your tolerance for the unusual and challenging. Certainly the film has it's humor, like Millie's desperate attempts at being a social butterfly and everyone's blatant ignoring of her. It's funny, but there's also a sadness in Millie's refusal to accept her own failings. It's also chilling to watch Spacek as the childlike Pinky Rose, seemingly dumb as dirt yet studying everything around her---especially others as she apes their movements and mannerisms. As if she's looking for a vessel to inhabit. Then there's Willie, so silent---yet waiting, not only for the birth of her baby, but for something else as she paints her hideous art work. Nothing about "3 Women" is easily explained. It's a subtle, complex film with symbolism to spare. Even the film score is unnerving. Recommended for film purists and of course Altman fans, but watch it for the stellar performances of 3 stunning actresses as well.

Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek ROCK!!!
I first encounterd '3 Women' while flipping through the cable channels on a lazy summer day in 1997. I tuned into the movie right at the scene where Sissy Spacek was screaming at Shelley Duvall from a hospital bed, "DON'T CALL ME PINKY -- GET OUT OF HERE!" It was from this moment on that I became fascinated with Robert Altman's dreamlike masterpiece, '3 Women.' I made sure to tape it during a repeat screening, and for years hoped that it would make it to DVD, for it was never even released on VHS! So when I heard about Criterion giving it the deluxe treatment, I was very excited.

'3 Women' is not a conventional film by any means. Every person I invite over to watch it, either loathes it or is so utterly puzzled that they need to have a stiff drink afterwards. It is not a film that all audiences will appreciate. However, those with an interest in unusual characters or artsy cinema should find it a rewarding experience, especially with repeated viewings. It's not so much a matter the film being ahead of it's time -- '3 Women' is in a timespace all of it's own!

The strongest attraction of '3 Women' for me, is the remarkable performances by Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek. Duvall brings a sense of pathos and false reassurance to Millie. Can't we all think of some Millie-types who we know that try so hard to fit in with society but just fail miserably? Spacek, on the other hand, gives Pinky an other-worldliness that at times borders on a personality disorder right out of the DSM-IV manual.

Like '2001: A Space Odyssey,' '3 Women' leaves several mysteries unanswered and leaves the viewer to fill in the blanks. For instance, why was Pinky was warned about the twins early on in the film? Why did Pinky give Ms. Bunwell Millie's social security number instead of her own? And of course, what was the inexplicable final scene all about?

Criterion's DVD presention is acceptable. Robert Altman provides a commentary track which is more than welcome. There's also some interesting period photos, a teaser trailer, the theatrical trailer and two TV spots. I would have loved a documentary or some interviews with the cast, but I am quite satisfied with what is presented.

Intriguing but never overbearing, '3 Women' is one of the most interesting and brilliant films of all time. Watch it with an open mind, and some wine -- perferably Lemon Satin or Tickled Pink, of course.

Stop projecting and SEE what a pretentious film this is.
Altman may have been the most over-rated filmaker in the United States. What we see in this film is the work of a person with superb technical skills being applied by one with the vision of an ambitious film student. Disolves are disjointed and ambiguous---not "because they are meant to be" but because Mr. Altman has lost all sight of his narrative. This happens ALOT. No excuses, Mr. Altman. You are stillriding on your ill-deserved rep. For excellent film-making see ANYthing by Jaques Tati. Nuff said. And to all you out there, impressed by this film: what WAS going on in your life when you saw it, and were SOOO impressed?

Altman At His Best!!!!!!!!!!
It's been 17 years since the film appeared on the big screen and it's long over due for the film to hit the home market. Thank you Criterion Collection for selecting this classic as one of your children. Nothing prepared me for the Robert Altman commentary that accompanies the film. I didn't realize how much this film had affected my life and friends life. I loved Shelley Duvall's Millie but I didn't realize how close to the character I became. The commentary was like a two hour therapy session. They don't make films like this anymore. Altman called it a impressionistic painting with music. Wow! The production is top notch and the mural paintings and the music are erie adding tension to the dramatic nightmare. Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek and Jancie Rule are brilliant. ... Read more

Amazon.com

A last attempt to squeeze some laughs out of the team of Richard Pryorand Gene Wilder, Another You mostly conjures up pleasant memories ofSilver Streak and Stir Crazy. Pryor plays a con man forced to tenda pathological liar (Wilder), who's immediately mistaken as a missingmillionaire--a mistake that could pay off big. The storyline actually holdspromise as a classic screwball comedy outline, but the movie doesn't build anysnap or crackle, and promising set-ups dribble away. Even the once-electricchemistry between the stars has faded. Wilder displays that eerie sadness andstillness he brings to his comedic roles, but here he looks stranded. Pryor'sferocious talent is muted and his onscreen energy is turned down low; hisreliance on easy profanity feels a little desperate. This was his final starringrole before illness took him out of movies. --Robert Horton ... Read more