Company Man (2000) Reviews

• A Hilarious Joke With the Contemporary History of Cuba and USA – A Very Funny Movie

  claudio_carvalho2004-02-27

  In the 60's, Alan Quimp (Douglas McGrath) is a school teacher of English grammar and married with the very demanding woman Daisy Quimp (Sigourney Weaver). In order to avoid the constant mockery in Daisy's family, Alan says that he is a secret CIA agent. Daisy tells everybody, the CIA acknowledges the lie, but due to a coincidence, Alan has just helped and hidden the professional Russian dancer Petrov (Ryan Phillippe) who wanted to leave Russia. The CIA decides to hire Alan as an agent, to get the credits of bringing Petrov to USA, and immediately decides to send him to a very calm place, Cuba. Again due to a fortunate coincidence, Alan disclosures the identity of a double agent (Dennis Leary). Then, Fidel Castro (Anthony LaPaglia) makes the revolution and deposes Fulgêncio Batista (Alan Cumming). With the support of the former CIA agent in Cuba Lowther (Woody Allen) and Croker Johnson (John Turturro), Alan tries unsuccessfully to eliminate Fidel. In the end, he is sent to another quiet place (Vietnam). This movie is one of the most funny I have recently seen. The constellation of excellent actors and actresses is amazing. The story, a hilarious joke with the contemporary history of Cuba and USA, is delicious. Only the character of John Turturro disappoints a little bit, but when Woody Allen appears in scene, there are fantastic ironic dialogs. All the cast is excellent and wonderful, but Woody Allen is splendorous, as usual, with the best lines. I can not understand why this movie is so underrated in IMDB. My vote is eight. Title (Brazil): `Um Agente Como A Gente' (`An Agent Like Us') Obs: There is a joke in the Brazilian title that is not possible to explain to those not familiarized with Portuguese.

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• It's not "The In-Laws," but it's cute

  mlevans2002-04-27

  Upon reading the description on the back of the video box, I immediately thought of the classic "The In-Laws" with Peter Faulk & Alan Arkin. Company Man turned out be more of an Austin Powers or Top Secret, instead. Perhaps it was not a cinematic masterpiece. It was fun to watch, though, and gave me several really good belly laughs -- such as the "real" secret behind Gorbichev's alleged birthmark! The plot is silly & "quirky," as some have noted, but it had a nice feel to it. Overall, I would call it a good little film.

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• Old style still the best humor

  LivingDog2003-02-20

  This movie seemed really boring at first, but after about 15 mins I got it and it takes off with a loud clear resounding laugh! I was pleased to see that I was laughing at something that was actually funny for a change... in lieu of the "im so hip i chuckle at nothing because its snl" (so-called) humor. (snl hasn't been funny for 20 of the last 25 years.) The cast is perfect in acting in the style of a 50's movie. The ones that stood out to me are: Douglas McGrath .... Alan Quimp = brilliant brilliant delivery Sigourney Weaver .... Daisy Quimp = she can play a real witch :) John Torturro .... Crocker Johnson = psycho-soldier extrodinaire Anthony LaPaglia .... Fidel Castro = warm cuddly version See this movie if you want to be reminded that humor isn't necessarily vulgar, but just plain funny! 9/10

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• Old style humor - still enjoyable

  atzimo2002-05-30

  'Company Man' is absolutely old style. The jokes, the acting, even the story. Douglas McGrath is a cross between Bob Hope and Jack Lemmon, while Sigourney Weaver's acting is reminiscent of something from the 50's. In fact, all the cast is absolutely magnificent and it consists of Paul Guilfoyle, John Torturro, Alan Cumming, Ryan Phillippe and the fabulous Anthony LaPaglia as Fidel Castro. Of course, for once more, no one is able to appreciate this movie, probably because of the absence of toilet humor and stupidity. Classy humor is something that people don't care about any more, they want rudeness, shallowness and indecency. So, we have 'Scary Movie' scoring more in imdb that a movie with Woody Allen in it. That's great! That's really great! 10/10

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• Clever Farce

  jazzbox22003-08-30

  "Company Man" is a clever farce that deserves to be seen by more people. Though Douglas McGrath, its writer and star, is not well known, it has several famous actors, such as Sigourney Weaver and Woody Allen, playing major roles. This film is a revisionist look at the Bay of Pigs fiasco, much in the way "Dick" looks at Watergate. If you can suspend your disbelief a bit, and you're ready to have fun, you'll enjoy this comedy. Mucho laughs!

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