Hello Again (1987)

Housewife Lucy Chadman (Shelley Long of OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE and TV's CHEERS) comes to an untimely end while nibbling on an oriental chicken ball ... but says HELLO AGAIN when her wacky, mystical sister Zelda (Judith Ivey) brings her back from the great beyond! Only one year has passed but oh, how things have changed. Lucy's miraculous return creates laugh-filled pandemonium with everyone she re-encounters ... especially with her upwardly mobile husband (Corbin Bernsen, L.A. LAW) who is now wed to her "former" best friend! Suddenly solo, Lucy must piece together a new life -- in a riotous odyssey that bewitches her handsome doctor... bewilders her ex-husband ... and bedazzles both press and public alike!

The Love of a Sister is Strong

Lucy ( Shelly Long ) is a mild mannered housewife who gave up all to help out her husband ( Corbin Bernsen ) to become the plastic surgeon of his dreams. They had a son, who was a joy to his mom and who, inspired by his mom's herbs and cooking, loved to cook and create as well. Lucy's sister, Zelda ( Judith Ivey ), is a bit out there with her mystic beliefs and chants, but the 2 sisters love each other deeply. Lucy is the odd-man-out at most high society, "snob" parties, as she trips, gets parts of her clothes drenced in soup, and assists in the burning of a prized tuna on a spit for a meal. She always feels like she doesn't fit in with her husband's friends and colleagues, nor her glamorous friend Kimmy ( Sela Ward ), who goes through rich husbands like kleenex. Kim's last husband, unfortunately, didn't leave her any money, as he died shortly after he...had his "moment of passion", so to speak. ( If ya know what I mean ). Lucy goes to her sister's shop and takes a bite of Zelda's lunch, which is a chicken ball, and promptly chokes and dies from it ( gets caught in her throat ). The last thing she sees before she passes away is a friendly pair of caring eyes--the examination Dr's ( Gabriel Byrne ).

A year passes and many things have happened....Kimmie married Lucy's widowed husband, Lucy's son is a chief at a famous restaurant, and Zelda has found a way to bring Lucy back to life! After Zelda says the magic words and waves her crystal ball while at her sister's grave, Lucy comes back to life, but must adjust to the media scrutiny ( she did come back to life, after all ), the loss of her marriage, and the loss of her sense of self, i.e. wife and mother. She is sort of a fish out of water, all the while the media hounds after her. She begins to fall in love with the doctor whose eyes were the last thing she saw before she died a year ago, as he helps her with tests to see if she actually is alive and well.

Lucy's former husband has told her that he enjoys his new life with Kimmie and all the excitement she brings, but he likes all the attention Lucy is getting and wants to be a part of that, as well, but Lucy wisely rebuffs his advances. Kimmy sees her husband give a peck to his former wife's cheek and her jealousy rears its ugly head. She holds a press meeting telling everyone that Lucy is a fake and that she took some drug to slow down her heart and breathing rate, but she was still really alive. Lucy, wanting the press to get off her back and off of those that she loves as well, says nothing. Now the doctor that she has fallen in love with will be digraced as a nut, and Lucy feels terrible, as she was only trying to help. Together with the help of Zelda and Zelda's most interesting rich boyfriend, they prove the nay-sayers wrong and get a confession out of Kimmie that clears their names.

This is happily-ever-after type of movie and once in a while, ya just need one of these, especially after a downer day at work or whatever. The clothes/music/art are vintage 80's, but that's one of the things that just makes it so light hearted and fun.

Hope you enjoy it. June 9, 2008

Trading Places

I find it fascinating that Shelley Long quit "Cheers" to make movies like this. Because unlike TV actresses like Suzanne Somers, Shelly Long had real talent. In "Hello Again" Shelley plays the somewhat boring Lucy Chadman, a bored suburban wife who finds herself brought back to life; thanks to her sister. Despite the foolish plot, this really isn't that bad. It's one of those silly 80's movies that you have to laugh at because it is such a far fetched story. The supporting cast was pretty good, I especially liked Judith Ivy as Zelda the fun-loving psychic and Sela Ward as money-hungry Kim. March 26, 2008

Gol-jo Win-JA!

Best 80's film ever. Yes, yes, we all know it's actually a terrible storyline and rather tacky on the whole, but that's the beauty of it! Any film with Shelley Long is worth seeing.

"I choked on a chicken ball?"

December 5, 2007

Back From The Dead And On Life Support

Shelley Long's decision to leave CHEERS, ostensibly to focus on movies, made her the brunt of many a late night talk show barb. Understandably so since it seemed like classic show biz hubris. You're on a great TV series and garnering acclaim and Emmy nominations, so you leap to the conclusion that big screen success is virtually inevitable if you but make the leap. In Long's case, she went from the Emmy winning CHEERS to, well, TROOP BEVERLY HILLS, followed by a string of other cinematic flops. Admittedly there were some successes too, but when critics--or comedians--are looking for examples of bad show biz career moves, Shelley Long's case always seems to be at or near the top of the list.

It probaby should be noted that the 1987 film HELLO AGAIN was actually made BEFORE Long's announcement that she would be leaving CHEERS. This Disney/Touchstone comedy had been preceded by the much more successful (both critically AND commercially) OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE) with Bette Midler. Long, like Midler, was apparently being groomed for Touchstone stardom, but it probably should have been clear to both Long and her handlers that not every Touchstone film would do for her career what FORTUNE had done. HELLO AGAIN's critical and box office failure probably should have sounded a clear warning that cinematic success just might prove more elusive that it may have appeared at first blush.

This film's "high concept" is that a socially and physically awkward wife and mother dies in a comically(?) quirky way (choking to death on a piece of Korean chicken) and is brought back to life by her endearingly eccentric, New Agey sister's (laughably hammy) incantations exactly one year after her death. In the intervening year, all kinds of changes have occurred--including her plastic surgeon hubby's remarriage to her glitzy, best friend. You can imagine the "highjinks" that ensue.

One such complication is her husband's apparently hasty marriage to her former best friend. If that promts you to feel sorry for poor Shelley, you needn't fret. True, her shallow husband (Corbin Bernsen) has no desire to leave his current and equally shallow wife (Sela Ward) and the chique urban lifestyle they have since adopted. But we know that truer love must be right around the corner, namely in the form of the handsome, soulful doctor she literally met on her deathbed (well, ok, it'd be more accurate to say her death gurney). Of course, you just know that she's going to hook up with Dr. Right again upon her resurrection. (Hardly a spoiler, I trust, since a five-year old could tell you that you don't exchange glances like that unless your cosmically matched).

Can a story this patently silly even begin to succeed. Certainly, more outrageous premises have been successfully handled before. But you need sharp, sharp, SHARP writing, keen directing and spot on acting. You don't see nearly enough of any of these in HELLO AGAIN. It's a common enough Hollywood syndrome--the belief that a wacky premise is enough. It's not, and it can't sustain the film's tepid humor, plodding story line and weak character development. We are, at least, spared a chase scene.

A number of the reviews published on public sites like Amazon, seem to tout this film's virtues as family fare. It's true you needn't worry about the little ones seeing anything objectionable here, and some of the younger ones may like the film's hokey hocus pocus. But the film actually tries to make some grown up statements about accepting change and moving on--always relevant messages, certainly, but hardly the most significant lessons a profound event like resurrection from the dead would seem to offer.

Long's apparent career blunder, of course, is hardly of cosmic significance either. Twenty years after the fact, I imagine that the real-life Shelley Long has "moved on" as well. HELLO AGAIN probably should have served as a very earthly warning that good comedy scripts are hard to come by, no matter how gifted a comic actor you may be (and I do believe that Shelley Long is certainly that). Letting go of a great small screen role for an iffy big-screen future may have been unwise as career moves go. As stated, this film should have served her as a warning of sorts. As it stands, it's likely that the small screen success of CHEERS will remain the highlight of Shelley Long's career. On the other hand, like most of the cast of this flop (incluing Byrne, Bernson, Ward and Judith Ivey, who had perhaps the film's most unfortunate role as the eccentric sister), she has remained a working actor with plenty of large and small screen credits on her imdb roster.

And there are struggling actors out there who would DIE for that level of success.



November 30, 2007

*Great Movie!*

I really like this movie.It was entertaining and just a great movie that made me happy.It is nice to watch a movie where good things happen to the good people in the movie. October 30, 2007

More reviews at Amazon.com ...