The Secret of My Success

Thank God for Michael J. Fox!!! He was in his prime when he made this film. It is hilarious! Margaret Whitton is brilliant as "Auntie" Vera, especially in the limo scene(OH YEAHHHHHHHHHHH). I love the shots of New York, especially of the World Trade Center - pre9/11! All in all, a very funny and enjoyable movie. It's great when your feeling blue, out of a job or school(makes you want to be like "Brantley Foster/Carlton Whitfield). A great tribute to the 80's!!!!!!!!

This is one of my favorite 80's movies (amongist others). It has it all: great actors (Richard Jordan, Michael J. Fox, Margaret Whitton, Fred Gwynne and Helen Slater), comedy, romance, action, and a great soundtrack.

Michael J. Fox plays Brantley Foster who lives on a farm with his parents in Kansas. Brantley looks to succeed and starts right at the top of the difficulty scale...Manhattan. You know the old saying, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. Same thing goes for teaching, within the suburbs they tell you to get expierence in the NYC schools first. But don't believe what you hear, it's definately not bad at all. Anyway, Brantley gets fired on the first day he reports to his job and follows that up with rejections when he applies for others. He then goes as a last resort to his Uncle Howard who is CEO of Pembroke. Brantley starts in the mailroom and cooks up a plan to reach as high as he can...so he can be able to fly back to his parents house in the corporate jet and be able to afford that lovely penthouse he has, just kidding. You have to see and "hear" his apartment for yourself. It's hillarious!

Trouble arises: Enter Donald Davenport (Fred Gwynne) and a hostile company takeover. Brantley who goes by the name of Carlton Whitfield when he's a "suit" also finds the girl of his dreams in Christy (Helen Slater, who also is not related to Christian Slater FYI); a whiz kid on money matters. Brantley's boss in the mailroom is also suspecting something is up and have an evil eye on him. Carlton/Brantley also have to look out for Uncle Howard but his biggest challenge is to tame his Aunt Vera (Margaret Whitton from Major League) who has taken a 'special liking" to him.

All of this adds to tremendous laughs almost every minute. The ending at Uncle Howard's house is great fun and non-stop laughs along with that famous song (So beautiful--with the great sound effects) from Feris Bueller's Day Off (great movie also). The soundtrack includes Night Ranger's The Secret of My Success and Roger Daltrey's The Price of Love. If you like the music from the 80's, you'll like these songs as well as the soundtrack. It would be nice to have a DVD that has the soundtrack included. For example, the James Bond movies have the music video for that particular movie. Don't mind my minor knit-picking; this is a great movie and for anyone who enjoys comedies then this is a definate for your movie collection.

To sum it up, can Carlton/Brantley outwit his Uncle Howard, tame the wild beast aka his Aunt, and make it to the top?

Pretty much my favorite movie of ALL time. Comedy, Romance...Dreamer pursues his dream, achieves it AND gets the "girl"!

Many strange people come from Kansas and all of them are dreamers like Dorothea. And the way to success is paved with yellow bricks. In this film the dream comes true and the means used to do so are standard in business. One share of women, using them and being used by them. One share of good sound logic and practical intelligence. One share of pure righteous and deserved brutality with the higher-ups who are so narrow minded and egotistic that they don't even see their personal interest. One share of a well developed sniffing device known has a nose that is the intuition of a dog but also the best sanity of a man. And you get to the top. Just use the elevator please and don't get it stuck accidentally on purpose because plenty of people are expecting to use it. And you have the secret of success for a comedy that is nothing but an American Psycho in Hell's Kitchen turned into an unrestricted American Dreamo in Heaven's Dining-room. Very good, very fast, very dynamic, quite convincingly absurd and absurdly funny. Just what we need when we look at the stock exchange and think subprime.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

Who doesn't like Michael J Fox. And in this movie it is an impossibility. Fox plays the newly graduate Brantly from Kansas. Brantly moves to the big city to make it big as an executive and comes up only with a job in the mail room. But with the tenacity that we all love Brantly moves into a corner office, falls in love with a co-worker, has a small affair with his boss' wife (also his Aunt) and turns this company up-side down. Hilarious movie.