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| Director: Alexander Mackendrick
Actors: Tony Curtis, Claudia Cardinale, Robert Webber, Joanna Barnes, Sharon Tate
Studio: MGM/UA Home Video
List Price: $29.98
Buy New: $19.98
You Save: $10.00 (33%)
New (2) Used (3) from $14.49
Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 13513
Format: Dolby, Dts Surround Sound, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: VHS Tape
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 96 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 6304411367
EAN: 9786304411360
ASIN: 6304411367
Theatrical Release Date: 2003
Release Date: February 18, 1997
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Shipping: International shipping available
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 10
 The satirical gaze! July 2, 2006
Hiram Gomez Pardo (Valencia, Venezuela)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
After the rotund success of "Someone like it hot", this is perhaps, the most provocative satire about then lives and times of South California around a beautiful house that will become a particular hell. The cast is incredibly good.
Don't miss it!
"We just reject all the ones we can't stand, and sort through whatever's left...." (3.5 stars) June 7, 2007
Clare Quilty (a little pad in hawaii)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I recorded this off TCM last week, mostly because I saw it had an appearance by Sharon Tate from the same year she did "The Fearless Vampire Killers." Which is, of course, a perfectly good reason to see any movie.
And while there's a fair amount here to satisfy people who just want to see Tate -- specifically some long, strange shots of her in a bikini bouncing endlessly on a beachside trampoline -- there's a lot more going on here.
"Waves" is basically a rake's progress tale as stammering, backstory-free Tony Curtis arrives in California and charms/scams his way to the top of a Malibu swimming pool empire.
Along the way he meets the aforementioned Tate (as a vacant but intrepid skydiver named ... Malibu); an accident-prone, broken-English-spouting Claudia Cardinale who destroys Curtis' little VW and then helps him stage his comeback; her sugar daddy (Robert Webber); his angry, voluptuous wife (a criminally underutilized Joanna Barnes); a queeny, crooked astrologer; future Mr. Universe David Draper; and, oddly enough, Jim Backus who, in an almost Charlie Kaufman-esque scene, plays himself and offers to do Mr. Magoo voice readings for Curtis at the promise of a free pool.
It even has an animated opening sequence (depicting Curtis' VW on an antic world tour) with music by The Byrds.
Basically, this is one of those glossy, widescreen, Metrocolor sexless sex farce confections from the waning days of the studio system -- Benjamin Braddock had to live somewhere nearby, but had he wandered into the story, the universe probably would've collapsed into itself.
What's odd, though, is that this was made by director Alexander Mackendrick exactly 10 years after he and Curtis made "The Sweet Smell of Success" together. Mackendrick doesn't have material by Lehman and Odets this time; the script is by one writer (Maurice Richlin) responsible for Inspector Clouseau and "Operating Petticoat," another (George Kirgo) who'd just penned the Elvis Presley epic "Spinout," and -- should it even be a surprise -- an uncredited Terry Southern.
Obviously, "Success" is the classic acid indictment of fame and corruptive ambition and the sting of betrayal. That film had its stark black-and-white photography, its potent and bustling New York aesthetic, its whip-cracking dialogue and a genuine taste of bile in its mouth. Which makes it not so much the *opposite* of the sunny, West Coast "Waves," but a reversed or negative image of it. It's Bizarre-O "Success."
And one of the reasons "Waves" is interesting is because you can tell there's some kind of force behind it, you can smell a whiff of satire beyond its heavy seabreeze, perfume and cigar smoke. But those aromas never quite waft to the forefront. The movie is intelligent and somewhat literate without ever actually being smart; witty without ever really being funny; and fairly sexy without ever attempting to even acknowledge the ramifications of its own weird carnality.
But it's also strangely paced and rambling without ever really being boring. As a result, I think it's a fascinating movie, even though the awkward slapstick grows tiresome and leads to a conclusion in which all the characters wind up in the same valley bachelor pad together and find themselves swept up in a SoCal landslide. But even then, it's hard not to admire the strange elaborate detail of ... the film's disaster effects (!). Yep, this is a bedroom farce in which Cardinale at one point literally has to leap for her life while a lavish patio crumbles under her feet. You can't tell me that doesn't have something to do with something besides the general plot.
By the way: I'm reviewing the VHS version of this only because there's no DVD. Don't buy the tape, though, the compositions will of course get killed by the pan-and-scan.
Something else Sharon Tate should be remembered for!!! September 15, 1999
Tony Curtis has obviously made some bad choices in film roles and has been pretty bad in most of them. BUT Not this one. While this film is dated it is still actually funny and would be a perfect companion with the upcoming video release of the Austin Powers sequel. Sharon Tate reveals a lot more than skin in this. She shows that while sexy you could be vunerable and the promise of what may have been had she not been stopped.
Something else Sharon Tate should be remembered for!!! September 15, 1999
Tony Curtis has obviously made some bad choices in film roles and has been pretty bad in most of them. BUT Not this one. While this film is dated it is still actually funny and would be a perfect companion with the upcoming video release of the Austin Powers sequel. Sharon Tate reveals a lot more than skin in this. She shows that while sexy you could be vunerable and the promise of what may have been had she not been stopped.
Sharon didn't have enough lines! May 27, 2003
Donna Di Giacomo (Philadelphia, PA)
This is your typical empty-headed surfer dude/chick movie with Sharon Tate playing the part of a beach bunny who practically lives at the beach (along her other "job" - a skydiver). She looked absolutely fantastic (as always) but it was sad to see how few lines she had throughout the film (if she had two full pages of script, it would have been a miracle).
Tony Curtis played the part of a guy who was moving to California and winds up losing all his posessions in one fell swoop on his first day there and moves in with Claudia Cardinale's character (who lives high thanks to her sugar daddy). He winds up selling pools for a living.
Although the movie is cute, the plot isn't complicated at all. It seemed as though Curtis and Claudinale didn't have anything else to do at the time and Tate was contracted to perform here.
I enjoyed this but, when it comes to seeing Sharon's comedic ability shine, "The Wrecking Crew" is a whole lot better.
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