Pssst, want to check out Cold Turkey in our new look?
Information
- Year
- 1971
- Runtime
- 99 min.
- Director
- Norman Lear
- Genre
- Comedy
- Rating *
- 6.8
- Votes *
- 1,362
- Checks
- 109
- Favs
- 3
- Dislikes
- 1
- Favs/checks
- 2.8% (1:36)
- Favs/dislikes
- 3:1
Top comments
-
Siskoid
Cold Turkey has a really fun premise - a tobacco company offers 25 million dollars to the town that can stop smoking for 30 days, with no expectation it could ever happen, until one pastor organizes things in a desperate town... The results are variable. As a satire, I really like it. When it attempts other types of comedy, not so much. The performances are often broad, and the physical comedy loud and obnoxious. But yeah, as a satire of American culture, it doesn't so much take aim as lob a grenade in its general direction, so it'll hit targets you want it to hit. I especially liked the Libertarians' hypocrisy, myself. It's a little weird to see a town so addicted to cigarettes because smoking has gone down quite a lot since 1971 (at least, in the circles I navigate), but while a noble idea to quit this vice, the ensuing media circus opens the town up to other vices, to greed, even to fascism. You don't know whether to cheer on Dick Van Dyke and his town, or Bob Newhart's tobacco executive. Cold Turkey's opinion is that people are terrible and its cynical humor grew on me. Brilliant final shot clinched it. I could have done with more Road Runner/Coyote back and forth between the principals, and less shouting, but I'm generally glad to have seen this oddball movie. 4 years 8 months ago -
-
devilsadvocado
Female banker: "Now you just sign up or you're going to be removing gallstones in your bathtub."
Doctor: "That's blackmail."
Banker: "You say that word again and I'll cry rape!" 11 years 2 months ago