Two Idiots in Hollywood (1988) User Reviews

Worst of the worst

[zogmorph · 5 October 2004]

I caught this movie as part of a pre-release audience focus group. And this was the only time I've ever seen or heard of a mass audience walk-out on a free screening and forego the $50 focus group fee. it was THAT bad. Audience members were pushing pollsters aside on their way out, others could be seen to be writing profanities in big block letters on their questionnaires.

This was one of those movies that deliberately strives to be bad through self-mockery, but it didn't even succeed at campiness. Not funny-bad, just painfully, excruciatingly, AWFUL.

If these other reviews are to be believed, the movie must have been re-written, re-filmed, re-edited and re-tooled beyond recognition.

Very bad attempt at making a vary bad movie.

[d-millhoff · 1/10 · 28 January 2018]

Many moons ago, I saw a test screening of this disaster movie in a theater with a couple of hundred others.

Few if any saw the movie all the way through.

About 20 minutes into the screening, someone got up and walked out. Then a couple of others. Then a mass exodus.

Workers scrambled to get feedback as everyone exited, most responses were profane, this movie was so bad as to insult a non-paying audience.

I am at a loss to explain a 6.6 rating, I can only speculate that either the movie was completely re-worked from scratch after the failed screenings, or that people involved in the production are soliciting shill reviews to bump the ratings.

There's a reason you never saw this in a video store and it never even airs on late night TV.

Comedy gold - but clearly not to everybody's tastes.

[p_sandalz · 9/10 · 28 July 2005]

I couldn't disagree much stronger with the sentiment of old zogmorph's review of this movie. I guess it's one of those films that you either love or truly hate.

It's not the most sophisticated of premises, I'll give you that much: a chief guiding principle of the film, for example, is that the protagonists, and even inanimate objects, must send themselves up at almost every opportunity. How many scenes are interrupted by problems with the set, passers by getting in the way, and loud police sirens drowning out the diction? But it really works for me. Similarly, a lot of the humour is pretty childish: there's a character called Loupenis Jones! But it's all good good good as far as I'm concerned. I ask you: Loupenis, hahahaha.

But. You don't understand. When the moon is full...

If you don't know what comes next you need to see the hit film TWO IDIOTS IN Hollywood.

All Potential Film School Students Should See This Movie First!

[kevinpochocki · 10/10 · 15 January 2006]

True- The first time you see this movie, you aren't really sure what hit you, that is if anything hit you at all. What I recommend is that you consider the title of the movie before you watch it and you won't be disappointed. This movie was actually very clever and took a great deal of intelligence to write and put together. Simply put, it is an over the top satire about the excesses of the Hollywood and the people running it. It follows two mopes from Ohio, Murhpy Wagg and Taylor Dup (with one "p") who go to California on a whim, like some many other people to find jobs in the Motion Picture Industry. The ideas that they (the movies characters) come up with aren't too far off from other movies being made nowadays, that is where the real comedy and genius of this picture are. Hollywood executives, big and small, giving us one rotten movie only to sell us another one, a sequel, or some other garbage franchise that might be derived from it. Stephen Tobolowsky showed a great deal of courage, and creativity, to create a movie like this. I understand why so many would turn their backs on it, because it hits so close to the truth. I only hope that we can get more movies like this one.

Great! Makes me laugh every single time.

[les_boulez · 10/10 · 10 December 2001]

Rented this in college back in 1991 with my bud Ardocki. We never stopped laughing or quoting from the movie for years. "But you don't understand. When the moon is full. I BECOME the wolf!" If you can find it, rent it. Tape it. Watch it again. Great B-Movie. The Pac-Man scene is a killer. "Wall of fish!

Original, good humor all out sick comedy. A must see B-flick

[CREE-2 · 10/10 · 28 April 1999]

This movie take an interesting look at a couple of losers in their prime. If you like off the wall comedy with a twist of sickness this is a must see.

Pretty Damn funny

[unkle_nasty_fingers · 10/10 · 31 July 2004]

The first time I saw this movie, my mom rented it for me back in 1993. Up until recently I had forgotten about the movie completely. I spent 3 months searching every video store in the area and coming up with nothing, then my friend found a copy on half.com and I was in business. This movie is so funny, completely random. The songs, the wolfman impressions, the amazing robot from outer space. My favorite song from the movie is "big men, big women". I cannot count the numbers of quotes from this movie. It may not be a masterpiece, but it will make you laugh your head off. If you can't laugh at this movie, then you are a cold heartless moron. But you don't understand, when the moon is full...I become a WOLF!

a tobolowsky masterpiece

[yuanshik · 8/10 · 18 June 1999]

or should i say "a t. barry armstrong masterpiece?" Yeah, this movie is dumb. but it's worth it. basically this is the funniest movie ever. period.

The best film I've ever seen!

[eggjones · 10/10 · 3 August 1999]

A hilarious jaunt through the lives of two complete losers, this film must not be missed. The jauntieness of it's hilarity is complete. Also, do NOT miss The Robot From Outer Space - it's excitement! it's suspense! it's excitement!

What must die for the earth to live - see this film and find out!

This is best thing to watch since they took that IronButt show off the air years ago.

[cycominnow · 10/10 · 24 August 2005]

This film is a cinematic masterpiece. I whole heartedly agree that this a quotation goldmine. My best friend and I probably don't go a day without quoting the beefy smelling Taylor Dup, with one P from Ohio, or Murphy "this one's on Ma Bell" Wegg.

This is also the test my friends use to test the compatibility of the girls we dated. We would crack this gem out on the second date and take note of the reactions.

No smile or laugh = doomed relationship Smile only = girlfriend material, after all she tried Laughter = marriage caliber

So far this test has been 100% accurate. My wife ,who now claims she didn't laugh, and I have been married since 2000. I put this in my top 3 favorite films of all time. I could talk about this movie all day but you see I've got this ruptured disk in back.

Like Winn Kaalsen says, "Try it, I say try it you'll like it."

On second thought, it's a masterpiece

[barryzoohat · 10/10 · 19 December 2021]

My three friends and I rented this from Blockbuster (with some trepidation) on the vague promise of the title alone. We didn't make it past about twenty minutes in, concluding (rather prematurely, as it transpired) that this was a joke we simply weren't in on.

Then a month or two later a strange thing happened: All of us began remembering absurd jokes and scenes; like a random jump-cut to a shark or a poorly spliced black & white b-roll of a burning town, and began excitedly quoting what dialogue we could recall, bringing us to tears of laughter as we all questioned: What on Earth had we witnessed? Was this divine absurdity a shared fever-dream, and why hadn't we stuck with it?

We rented it again and watched incredulously, trying to hold ourselves together as we rewound scenes with bemused delight to confirm the reality of what we were witnessing, and to constantly remind ourselves that we weren't collapsing in laughter from the onset of a huge, sublime dose of LSD.

Quite simply, life has never been the same since. "Immensely quotable" cannot begin to convey the genius of its dialogue (it's been something of a challenge, or I daresay a miracle, not to use any quotes in this review).

It's one of those films that has to be watched from beginning to end, every time you think of it. I must have racked up hundreds of viewings without exaggeration and still it never gets old. It's the film that miraculously keeps on giving, long after it should have been buried in concrete and is truly the high watermark in writer/director Stephen Tobolowsky's starred career.

It is quite simply a surrealist masterpiece of modern cinema and anyone who says different is an idiot.