Switching Channels (1988)

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Nobody expects greatness from actors like Burt Reynolds and Chris Reeves but they do have a certain charm and together with the wonderful Kathleen Turner, a competent director, some good character actors and a great script have produced an hilarious movie. As other reviewers have noted, the chemistry between Reynolds and Turner brings a lot to the movie and even though the dialogue has been completely re-written it works as well as it did in 1940 for Cary Grant in His Girl Friday (the second movie version of The Front Page and one of the funniest movies of all time). Interestingly, my DVD is called Scoop (rather than Switching Channels) - who knows why the name was changed but the choice of name is amusing. It seems likely that it is a reference to the eponymous Evelyn Waugh novel written in 1938 satirising the press.

Spoiler This movie should be (but hardly ever is) judged on its own merits as opposed to as a remake of "His Girl Friday" an "The Front Page". It is a fast paced movie full of twists and turns and political satire that I still find hilarious and edgy. Part of what makes it work is that the story takes place at a Chicago-based cable news network. The newspaper, which was regarded as the most up-to-date medium in "The Front Page," is mocked by news anchors as primitive while they check their makeup.Kathleen Turner is Christine Colleran, the tough news anchor with a conscience; Burt Reynolds hilariously plays Sully, her ex-husband/boss who unscrupulously scouts stories while being badgered by the Ted Turner-esque head of the network to put on more "smutless fires". Christopher Reeve plays Christine's one-dimensional yuppie fiance, Blaine Bingham. Henry Gibson makes a surprising turn as the timid Ike Roscoe, who is on death row for killing his son's drug dealer (who happened to be an undercover cop).The story revolves around Roscoe's execution: the gung-ho Attorney General (Ned Beatty) wants Roscoe executed so he can win the upcoming Governor's election. The Governor (a Reagan-esque Charles Kimbrough) wants to pardon Roscoe so he can win the election. TV reporters are scrambling like rats around a carcass looking for a hot (and preferably exclusive) scoop. The only people who seem concerned for Roscoe himself are Christine and Roscoe's attorney girlfriend, Pamela, derisively referred to as "the conscience of America."Meanwhile, Sully is trying to stop Christine from quitting the news business so she can live with Blaine in New York. First, Sully has his interns book all New York-bound flights leaving within the next 24 hours. Then he has Blaine subjected to strip searches and sends the acrophobic Blaine to a skyscraper with a glass elevator. Then Sully tries one last tactic to seduce Christine back into the news business, and subsequently back into his life: to have her do one last interview with Ike Roscoe. It would bring in monster ratings, and oh yeah, it might get the guy pardoned or whatever.And if you're looking for a history lesson, watch Christine talking to Blaine on her "cell phone."

I loved this movie. I thought Kathleen Turner and Burt Reynolds were great together. Christopher Reeves was perfect. I loved the inventiveness of hiding the criminal in the bottom space of the copier as opposed to the roll top desk used in His gal Friday. I am just sorry that this is not available anywhere. If you liked Burt in this try to find Rent a Cop with Liza Minelli. Forgive spelling error in actors names.

This umpteenth version of the Front Page story made the quite appropriate adaptation from newspaper journalism to television.Although the character names have been changed we have no problems identifying the main characters of the Front Page. As in His Girl Friday, Hildy is played by a woman and Kathleen Turner was the ideal choice for this role at the time. Burt Reynolds takes on the Walter Burns character, but he neither has the charm of Cary Grant [His Girl Friday] nor the comic timing of Walter Matthau [Front Page, The (1974)] - but then, who has? The only serious miscasting is Christopher Reeve who just can't match the whimpish Ralph Bellamy.All in all it's not as good as the previous (excellent) versions, but it is still quite enjoyable. A story with that many remakes normally has a stinker amongst the lot, but this one has not (so far).