It's a sign of the times (i.e., the 1970s) when Dick and Jane rob the telephone company at gunpoint and all the customers applaud. It's distinctly un-PC now, but very funny back then. As usual, it's a "Jane Fonda movie" that thinly conceals a social message underneath its comic scenario, but I didn't feel it got too preachy until near the finish-line. George Segal works very easily with Fonda, and there are some hugely funny scenes after an arduous opening wherein Segal loses his cushy job. The desperation of unemployment is touched upon briefly (for a comic effect), but there are some stabs at social commentary that do not work (as with two bad caveats involving a transsexual and a man with no vocal chords). But for every foul ball there comes along something fresh and groovy, like the sequence where Fonda acts her way out of neighborhood humiliation once the gardeners start rolling up her lawn, or when the gentleman from Food Stamps shows up at an inappropriate moment (a ritzy family dinner) confessing he just had a Big Mac and a Coke. **1/2 from ****
55 Reviews
Keeping Up Appearances
bkoganbing7 September 2016
Fun With Dick And Jane has George Segal and Jane Fonda as this upper middle class suburban couple living the American dream with their son Sean Frye. It all comes to an end when aerospace engineer Segal gets fired by his unctuous and smarmy boss Ed McMahon. Owing a lot because they're keeping up appearances in their neighborhood it all comes crashing down. After trying other ways to get an income and failing, Segal and Fonda turn to a life of crime. Though they have many setbacks, they begin to like it.
Watching Fun With Dick And Jane put me in mind oddly enough of dealing with World Trade Center families at Crime Victims Board who were a lot like Segal and Fonda. Working in the Towers for various wealthy companies when the male breadwinner was taken away, these families in most serious way were in the same kind of trouble this family was. That lifestyle can be expensive. John Dehner who was Fonda's father may be a self righteous creep, but there is a grain of truth in what he preaches at them about spending on luxury items.
McMahon who America knew for decades as the announcer and boon companion of Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show turns in a really good performance. He's a guy you learn to hate more and more as the film progresses. There's a great cameo part from Dick Gautier as a crooked televangelist Fonda and Segal rob. That should almost be legal.
With all the humor Fun With Dick And Jane is an interesting social critique and commentary on American values. It even got a remake in this new century. I'll have to check it out to see if it is as good as this one.
Watching Fun With Dick And Jane put me in mind oddly enough of dealing with World Trade Center families at Crime Victims Board who were a lot like Segal and Fonda. Working in the Towers for various wealthy companies when the male breadwinner was taken away, these families in most serious way were in the same kind of trouble this family was. That lifestyle can be expensive. John Dehner who was Fonda's father may be a self righteous creep, but there is a grain of truth in what he preaches at them about spending on luxury items.
McMahon who America knew for decades as the announcer and boon companion of Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show turns in a really good performance. He's a guy you learn to hate more and more as the film progresses. There's a great cameo part from Dick Gautier as a crooked televangelist Fonda and Segal rob. That should almost be legal.
With all the humor Fun With Dick And Jane is an interesting social critique and commentary on American values. It even got a remake in this new century. I'll have to check it out to see if it is as good as this one.
Bonnie and Clyde they ain't.
Lady_Targaryen26 September 2006
Warning: Spoilers
''Fun with Dick and Jane'' is not the best comedy I watched, but still is a nice movie from the 70's starring George Segal and Jane Fonda as Dick and Jane, a couple from the upper-middle class who suddenly stay with high debts, since Dick was fired, and decide to steal to pay their bills and keep their life style.
This version is much better then the remake with Jim Carrey. In this one, George Segal plays a serious executive engineer, while in the new version, Jim Carrey makes Dick a stupid idiot. Jane Fonda is very beautiful, and I am amazed that she was already 40 years old when she did this movie,since she doesn't look more then 32.
This version is much better then the remake with Jim Carrey. In this one, George Segal plays a serious executive engineer, while in the new version, Jim Carrey makes Dick a stupid idiot. Jane Fonda is very beautiful, and I am amazed that she was already 40 years old when she did this movie,since she doesn't look more then 32.
George and Jane are an unlikely pair
WalterFrith9 September 2000
George Segal and Jane Fonda are not he kind of actors you would expect to find in this movie with low brow humour that is a delightfully guilty addiction. Dirty jokes, a rancid social commentary and the glib life of bad mid to late 1970's economics drive 'Fun With Dick and Jane' to a level of crime that makes you root for them. Three scenes stand out. Watch for them! One has Segal practicing his stick up routine in the mirror dressed totally in black with a nylon wrapped over his head. Another one has Fonda visiting her conservative parents to ask for financial help and her father turning her down with an evangelical sermon and Dick and Jane's first stick up at a cheap motel. This movie has some slapstick that is hard to resist.
Have Fun with Dick and Jane
wes-connors1 July 2011
After upper middle-class aerospace executive George Segal (as Dick Harper) is unexpected fired from his high-paying job, he and housewife Jane Fonda (as Jane) are forced to tighten their economic belts. The family decides to give up membership in a "Book of the Month Club", French wines at home, and ski lessons. Another sacrifice is deciding not to heat their new swimming pool, currently being constructed. However, when Ms. Fonda fails to hold a job of her own and Mr. Segal is exposed as a unemployment check cheat, the increasingly desperate couple must become the "Bonnie and Clyde" of the corporate world...
Watching "Fun with Dick and Jane" alongside the 2005 re-make elevates this version of the film, although neither really approaches classic status. Some of the topical humor is painful, but this one has many genuinely funny sequences. The satire is good and tight, but the anti-corporate subtext is all over the map (obvious at the end). One of the best scenes here is Segal's botched robbery; when the leading man has trouble getting a gun out of his pants, the clerk thinks he desperately needs a condom. In the re-make, Jim Carrey's "Dick" has no such trouble. Don't blink once or you'll miss Jay Leno, twice for Thayer David.
****** Fun with Dick and Jane (2/9/77) Ted Kotcheff ~ George Segal, Jane Fonda, Ed McMahon, Hank Garcia
Watching "Fun with Dick and Jane" alongside the 2005 re-make elevates this version of the film, although neither really approaches classic status. Some of the topical humor is painful, but this one has many genuinely funny sequences. The satire is good and tight, but the anti-corporate subtext is all over the map (obvious at the end). One of the best scenes here is Segal's botched robbery; when the leading man has trouble getting a gun out of his pants, the clerk thinks he desperately needs a condom. In the re-make, Jim Carrey's "Dick" has no such trouble. Don't blink once or you'll miss Jay Leno, twice for Thayer David.
****** Fun with Dick and Jane (2/9/77) Ted Kotcheff ~ George Segal, Jane Fonda, Ed McMahon, Hank Garcia
Bicentennial Blues
JamesHitchcock8 November 2023
Warning: Spoilers
In 1976 America celebrated the bicentennial of its independence, but with an economic depression following on the heels of the twin traumas of Vietnam and Watergate there were many in the mid-seventies who felt the the country did not have much else to celebrate. President Nixon had narrowly escaped imprisonment over his role in the Watergate affair, and his successor Gerald Ford was widely seen as dull and uninspiring. When he lost the 1976 Presidential election to Jimmy Carter the only surprise was how narrow Carter's margin of victory was, possibly because he was seen as only slightly more inspiring than Ford.
"Fun with Dick and Jane" is a black comedy from 1977 which reflects this rather sour national mood. The title is taken from the title of one of the books in the "Dick and Jane" series of children's reading primers. Like their British equivalents, the "Peter and Jane" and "Janet and John" series, these books were sometimes criticised for only depicting white, middle-class families. At the beginning of the film the two main characters, Dick and Jane Harper, seem to be living the white middle-class American dream. Dick is a successful executive with a Los Angeles aerospace company which played a role in the Apollo moon landings. His wife Jane is a housewife whose main responsibility is caring for their son, Billy. And they all live together in a white middle-class house in an upmarket white middle-class suburb.
And then Dick suddenly loses his job. He may have played his part in putting men on the moon, but that cuts no ice with his boss, Charlie Blanchard, who needs to make cuts because of the company's difficult financial position. Dick fails to find another job and ends up applying for unemployment benefit and food stamps, while Jane's attempts to find employment are no more successful. They try appealing to her wealthy parents, but instead of helping they merely subject the couple to a patronising lecture about how hardship is good for the soul. Owing $70,000 on their mortgage, and unable to raise the money, Dick and Jane decide there is only one thing to be done. They will turn to crime. To be precise, to robbery, like a middle-class Bonnie and Clyde.
This is the sort of film that could never have been made in the days of the Production Code, which took a strictly moralistic view of law and order and forbade the sympathetic treatment of crime or criminals. By 1977, however, the Code had been in the dustbin of history for a decade, and Dick and Jane are very much the heroes of this film, not its villains. The villains in the first half of the film, when Dick and Jane are desperately trying to make ends meet, are the small-minded and unfeeling bureaucrats who administer America's welfare programmes. And in the second half, when they go on their crime spree, the real villains are the big faceless corporations they rob. Dick and Jane never actually hurt anyone, and are so hopelessly amateurish that the audience cannot help but root for them. Of course, in real life they would doubtless have been arrested after pulling off their first job, but black comedy is a film genre that has always enjoyed a certain immunity from the iron laws of probability which govern real life. For their final heist they decide to take their revenge on Charlie Blanchard, having discovered that he keeps two hundred thousand dollars in his office. As this money is a "slush fund" used for bribing officials, Dick and Jane realise that Charlie will never dare report its loss to the police.
Some aspects of the film are surprisingly left-wing for a Hollywood production made at the height of the Cold War; the general idea is that there is something rotten in the state of American capitalism and in the way the poor and unemployed are treated. It was no accident that the film's leading lady is Jane Fonda, possibly Hollywood's most left-wing star of the period. It was seen as her "comeback movie", her first big success since she won an Oscar for "Klute" six years earlier. The films she had made during the intervening period had not done well at the box office, something often attributed to her unpopularity with much of the American public following her controversial visit to North Vietnam in 1972.
This does not mean, however, that the film is solemn or preachy. Far from it; it is often very funny. Not all the jokes work, but Fonda shows that she could be as much at home in comedy as she was in serious drama, something not always apparent earlier in her career. (In "Cat Ballou", for example, she played her character with an earnestness which didn't fit in well with everyone else's jokey tone, and in "Barefoot in the Park" she was prone to overacting). Her co-star George Segal is also good here, although he was an actor I associated more with comedy than I did Fonda. (He had recently made another good one, "The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox").
I have never seen the 2005 remake of the film with Jim Carrey, but I can well understand why someone thought it was worth remaking during the age of Dubya Bush. Some political satires can look very dated to later generations. "Fun with Dick and Jane", however, touched on concerns which remained relevant in 2005- and still do in 2023. 7/10.
"Fun with Dick and Jane" is a black comedy from 1977 which reflects this rather sour national mood. The title is taken from the title of one of the books in the "Dick and Jane" series of children's reading primers. Like their British equivalents, the "Peter and Jane" and "Janet and John" series, these books were sometimes criticised for only depicting white, middle-class families. At the beginning of the film the two main characters, Dick and Jane Harper, seem to be living the white middle-class American dream. Dick is a successful executive with a Los Angeles aerospace company which played a role in the Apollo moon landings. His wife Jane is a housewife whose main responsibility is caring for their son, Billy. And they all live together in a white middle-class house in an upmarket white middle-class suburb.
And then Dick suddenly loses his job. He may have played his part in putting men on the moon, but that cuts no ice with his boss, Charlie Blanchard, who needs to make cuts because of the company's difficult financial position. Dick fails to find another job and ends up applying for unemployment benefit and food stamps, while Jane's attempts to find employment are no more successful. They try appealing to her wealthy parents, but instead of helping they merely subject the couple to a patronising lecture about how hardship is good for the soul. Owing $70,000 on their mortgage, and unable to raise the money, Dick and Jane decide there is only one thing to be done. They will turn to crime. To be precise, to robbery, like a middle-class Bonnie and Clyde.
This is the sort of film that could never have been made in the days of the Production Code, which took a strictly moralistic view of law and order and forbade the sympathetic treatment of crime or criminals. By 1977, however, the Code had been in the dustbin of history for a decade, and Dick and Jane are very much the heroes of this film, not its villains. The villains in the first half of the film, when Dick and Jane are desperately trying to make ends meet, are the small-minded and unfeeling bureaucrats who administer America's welfare programmes. And in the second half, when they go on their crime spree, the real villains are the big faceless corporations they rob. Dick and Jane never actually hurt anyone, and are so hopelessly amateurish that the audience cannot help but root for them. Of course, in real life they would doubtless have been arrested after pulling off their first job, but black comedy is a film genre that has always enjoyed a certain immunity from the iron laws of probability which govern real life. For their final heist they decide to take their revenge on Charlie Blanchard, having discovered that he keeps two hundred thousand dollars in his office. As this money is a "slush fund" used for bribing officials, Dick and Jane realise that Charlie will never dare report its loss to the police.
Some aspects of the film are surprisingly left-wing for a Hollywood production made at the height of the Cold War; the general idea is that there is something rotten in the state of American capitalism and in the way the poor and unemployed are treated. It was no accident that the film's leading lady is Jane Fonda, possibly Hollywood's most left-wing star of the period. It was seen as her "comeback movie", her first big success since she won an Oscar for "Klute" six years earlier. The films she had made during the intervening period had not done well at the box office, something often attributed to her unpopularity with much of the American public following her controversial visit to North Vietnam in 1972.
This does not mean, however, that the film is solemn or preachy. Far from it; it is often very funny. Not all the jokes work, but Fonda shows that she could be as much at home in comedy as she was in serious drama, something not always apparent earlier in her career. (In "Cat Ballou", for example, she played her character with an earnestness which didn't fit in well with everyone else's jokey tone, and in "Barefoot in the Park" she was prone to overacting). Her co-star George Segal is also good here, although he was an actor I associated more with comedy than I did Fonda. (He had recently made another good one, "The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox").
I have never seen the 2005 remake of the film with Jim Carrey, but I can well understand why someone thought it was worth remaking during the age of Dubya Bush. Some political satires can look very dated to later generations. "Fun with Dick and Jane", however, touched on concerns which remained relevant in 2005- and still do in 2023. 7/10.
Fun with George and Jane
Scaramouche20045 January 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Having never seen either version of this film before, I tuned into Fun with Dick on a whim after once again finding their was very little else on the other gazillion channels we extortionately pay for, and was I so glad I did.
Respectable Aero Engineer Dick Harper has everything. A high flying job, his dream home complete with soon to be complete swimming pool, the perfect wife and son and obligatory dog. In short he has managed to acquire the prefect existence and has made a complete success of life.
However when George is laid off by his company, he finds that he has been completely living beyond his means, as the debts of the financially secure mount around a financially ruined family. Endless Hire purchase agreements and red bank statements hardly make good bedfellows.
After several disastrous attempts to find other employment and with their welfare checks withheld, Dick and Jane are almost at the end of their rope. With their affluent lifestyle and social position spiralling out of control it seems that their is no where else for them to turn.
However when Dick and Jane become innocent victims of an armed hold up in a loan office, Jane manages to re steal some of the already stolen money which sets them on a new and exciting path to regain the perks and comforts of old.
They decide that if they cannot earn money and they are unable to receive it through benefits then they would steal it in a number of bizarre hold ups ranging from sleazy porn motels, record shops and liquor stores.
George Segal and Jane Fonda are perfectly cast as the daring couple bitten by the bug of thrills and excitement as their new way of life becomes more than just a means to an end.
We see them practise at their new found art, gain their confidence and slowly acquire the tricks of the trade as they slowly and more than willingly turn from amateur to professional criminals.
With confidence comes bigger and better jobs, and with the necessary skill and ability, Dick and Jane turn their attentions to Dicks former employers and their bulging safe. The Ultimate revenge. Great stuff.
It wasn't a 'fall out of your seat laughing' kind of comedy, but none the less it was amusing and entertaining enough to be perfect family viewing on a rainy afternoon.
It really is Fun with Dick and Jane.
Respectable Aero Engineer Dick Harper has everything. A high flying job, his dream home complete with soon to be complete swimming pool, the perfect wife and son and obligatory dog. In short he has managed to acquire the prefect existence and has made a complete success of life.
However when George is laid off by his company, he finds that he has been completely living beyond his means, as the debts of the financially secure mount around a financially ruined family. Endless Hire purchase agreements and red bank statements hardly make good bedfellows.
After several disastrous attempts to find other employment and with their welfare checks withheld, Dick and Jane are almost at the end of their rope. With their affluent lifestyle and social position spiralling out of control it seems that their is no where else for them to turn.
However when Dick and Jane become innocent victims of an armed hold up in a loan office, Jane manages to re steal some of the already stolen money which sets them on a new and exciting path to regain the perks and comforts of old.
They decide that if they cannot earn money and they are unable to receive it through benefits then they would steal it in a number of bizarre hold ups ranging from sleazy porn motels, record shops and liquor stores.
George Segal and Jane Fonda are perfectly cast as the daring couple bitten by the bug of thrills and excitement as their new way of life becomes more than just a means to an end.
We see them practise at their new found art, gain their confidence and slowly acquire the tricks of the trade as they slowly and more than willingly turn from amateur to professional criminals.
With confidence comes bigger and better jobs, and with the necessary skill and ability, Dick and Jane turn their attentions to Dicks former employers and their bulging safe. The Ultimate revenge. Great stuff.
It wasn't a 'fall out of your seat laughing' kind of comedy, but none the less it was amusing and entertaining enough to be perfect family viewing on a rainy afternoon.
It really is Fun with Dick and Jane.
A fun, enjoyable family movie albeit far from perfect.
MovieAddict201622 August 2005
"Fun with Dick and Jane" is a solid, well-made family movie, although it goes without saying that it's not perfect.
Dick (George Segal) is a successful upper-class businessman who suddenly loses his job when his boss (Ed McMahon) fires him. His wife, Jane (Jane Fonda), soon finds her world turned upside-down as she is hard-pressed to afford the most simple commodities.
In a last-ditch effort, the couple turn to harmless crime such as robbing banks (never killing people - it is a PG movie after all and they aren't Bonnie and Clyde, as the tagline says), until they decide to even rip off Dick's ex-boss at one of his Christmas parties.
The movie is being remade this year with Jim Carrey (originally to co-star Cameron Diaz, who pulled out) and I don't think it's necessary. The original works as an amiable, entertaining family comedy and a remake set today would only seem redundant.
The cast is strong - McMahon is a scene-stealer and Fonda and Segal have good chemistry.
It's a lite version of "Bonnie and Clyde" with a predictably fairy-tale-happy ending and likable characters. It's not ugly or mean-spirited, it's just a nice family film - and what more would you expect from a movie called "Fun with Dick and Jane"? (Well, other than porn, obviously.)
Dick (George Segal) is a successful upper-class businessman who suddenly loses his job when his boss (Ed McMahon) fires him. His wife, Jane (Jane Fonda), soon finds her world turned upside-down as she is hard-pressed to afford the most simple commodities.
In a last-ditch effort, the couple turn to harmless crime such as robbing banks (never killing people - it is a PG movie after all and they aren't Bonnie and Clyde, as the tagline says), until they decide to even rip off Dick's ex-boss at one of his Christmas parties.
The movie is being remade this year with Jim Carrey (originally to co-star Cameron Diaz, who pulled out) and I don't think it's necessary. The original works as an amiable, entertaining family comedy and a remake set today would only seem redundant.
The cast is strong - McMahon is a scene-stealer and Fonda and Segal have good chemistry.
It's a lite version of "Bonnie and Clyde" with a predictably fairy-tale-happy ending and likable characters. It's not ugly or mean-spirited, it's just a nice family film - and what more would you expect from a movie called "Fun with Dick and Jane"? (Well, other than porn, obviously.)
Terrific comedy...
secook9 January 2006
I agree with the reviewer who said that George Segal and Jane Fonda are an unlikely couple to star in this movie. But, oh, does it work! This is one of my top ten all-time favorite movies. The humor is a bit more subtle than the Jim Carey remake and I happen to prefer that kind of humor.
The premise of the movie would be hard to beat at any rate. It really works as a comedy situation. Some of the scenes in this movie will absolutely make you roar with laughter.
If you want a good laugh on a Friday night...rent this one. :) Or better yet, buy yourself a copy so you can watch it again and again. It really is that funny.
The premise of the movie would be hard to beat at any rate. It really works as a comedy situation. Some of the scenes in this movie will absolutely make you roar with laughter.
If you want a good laugh on a Friday night...rent this one. :) Or better yet, buy yourself a copy so you can watch it again and again. It really is that funny.
VERY mild but worth seeing
preppy-322 August 2004
Dick Harper (George Segal) is suddenly fired from his high-paying job. There's a recession going on and he can't find another. His wife Jane (Jane Fonda) tries to help but she fails in every job she gets. Finally they turn to robbery to make ends meet...and it works!
Silly (as you can tell by the premise) but watchable. I never really laughed or found it funny but I did smile quite a few times. What makes this worth seeing is Segal and Fonda--they're both just fantastic. They give very relaxed, believable performances. They also are great at comedy and play off each other very well. Fonda in particular seems to be enjoying herself. Another plus (or minus, depending on your view) are some truly horrible 70s fashions and decor. Check out some of Jane's outfits and look at the wallpaper in their bedroom! Also interesting to see Ed McMahon as Segals' boss. The only real bad things are a few ugly, needless, homophobic lines and a transsexual set up as a joke. But that was all acceptable back in the 70s.
Mild but worth catching.
Silly (as you can tell by the premise) but watchable. I never really laughed or found it funny but I did smile quite a few times. What makes this worth seeing is Segal and Fonda--they're both just fantastic. They give very relaxed, believable performances. They also are great at comedy and play off each other very well. Fonda in particular seems to be enjoying herself. Another plus (or minus, depending on your view) are some truly horrible 70s fashions and decor. Check out some of Jane's outfits and look at the wallpaper in their bedroom! Also interesting to see Ed McMahon as Segals' boss. The only real bad things are a few ugly, needless, homophobic lines and a transsexual set up as a joke. But that was all acceptable back in the 70s.
Mild but worth catching.
Can't pin down what's wrong with it, but it bored me.
smatysia19 August 2000
I can't really say what's wrong with this film, but it really didn't hold my interest. Nothing at all wrong with the performances by Segal, Fonda, or McMahon. The direction and photography were fine. I guess that means it was the script, although I didn't notice anything wrong with it at the time. I have nothing specifically bad to say about it, I just didn't enjoy it much.
" No kidding Charlie, . . You're really firing me! ?? "
thinker169116 November 2008
In these trying times, when American's financial world is going down the drain, and the dreams, aspirations and livelihood of millions of Americans are evaporating, a film like this one is just what a despairing audience needs. The story of the American Middle Class in jeopardy and is aptly personified in this movie, called 'Fun With Dick and Jane.' There have been several other films based on this theme, but for my money, the stars of George Segal and Jane Fonda are solidly entrenched and not easily replaced by later film couples. Segal stars' as Mr. Richard Harper a Aero-space executive who as his boss (Ed McMahon) states is the very best at his job, but like so many other corporate executives is no longer needed. His position is one which promised security, but has fallen on hard times. Thus he soon learns he is unemployed. The fun begins when Harper and his wife try to adjust to the downward spiral of economic descent. They like so many Americans take what they can get and object poverty is not attractive at all. Thus, when the bottom is ready to engulf them, they turn to a life of crime. Can they do any worse? Not being prepared, they soon realize, they are not cut out to be white collar criminals and decide to quit. That's when opportunity beckons once again. A great movie and one fitted to our time. ****
Robbing to keep up with the mortgage
Prismark103 August 2015
George Segal made his name in the 1960s with dramas such as King Rat and the sublime Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
In the 1970s he became a master of light comedy and this is a good example as he teams up with Jane Fonda. They are Dick And Jane the aspiring middle classes of 1970s suburban America whose world comes crashing down.
Dick is a successful Aerospace Executive whose company was responsible for sending the man to the moon but gets fired as the firm downsizes. The couple who have a large house, a son, maid unfinished pool and garden eventually realise that they have been living beyond their means and life in the breadline is no fun. Dick is unable to get another job and when Jane succeeds with employment it ends in disaster.
The couple turn to theft rather ineptly at first to make ends meet. They then decide to rob Dick's former boss who has stashed some slush money in his safe.
This is an immoral light hearted film with a subtext of life in breadline America which did get worse from the late 1970s onwards.
Its a fun, zippy film which is a lot better than the Jim Carrey remake but has dated with its racial attitudes. Of course its likely that it was the Hispanics and Blacks that were more likely to be in the underclass in that period. Then again even today. Ironically Segal would go on to make Carbon Copy a few years later which would examine prejudice as he discovers he has a grown up black son played by Denzel Washington (his film debut.)
George Segal and Jane Fonda bounce off well with each other, there is a nice cameo from John Dehner who plays Jane's father who turns down her plea for financial help.
In the 1970s he became a master of light comedy and this is a good example as he teams up with Jane Fonda. They are Dick And Jane the aspiring middle classes of 1970s suburban America whose world comes crashing down.
Dick is a successful Aerospace Executive whose company was responsible for sending the man to the moon but gets fired as the firm downsizes. The couple who have a large house, a son, maid unfinished pool and garden eventually realise that they have been living beyond their means and life in the breadline is no fun. Dick is unable to get another job and when Jane succeeds with employment it ends in disaster.
The couple turn to theft rather ineptly at first to make ends meet. They then decide to rob Dick's former boss who has stashed some slush money in his safe.
This is an immoral light hearted film with a subtext of life in breadline America which did get worse from the late 1970s onwards.
Its a fun, zippy film which is a lot better than the Jim Carrey remake but has dated with its racial attitudes. Of course its likely that it was the Hispanics and Blacks that were more likely to be in the underclass in that period. Then again even today. Ironically Segal would go on to make Carbon Copy a few years later which would examine prejudice as he discovers he has a grown up black son played by Denzel Washington (his film debut.)
George Segal and Jane Fonda bounce off well with each other, there is a nice cameo from John Dehner who plays Jane's father who turns down her plea for financial help.
In a word, unfunny!
willmcneil20 April 2008
I waited a long time to finally see what I thought was going to be a fun caper flick and was shocked to discover shoddy direction, awkward dialogue, a lackluster pace, unmotivated slapstick gags and an overall coarseness that permeated the film throughout. Just not funny! The sets looked cheap, the costumes by the usually excellent Donfeld are garish and distracting. Even the title song is annoying. The whole children's book characters doesn't come close to representing the married couple whose life is turned upside down when he loses his job. For a film that seems to aim a dart at the unfairness of welfare and unemployment systems, the filmmakers have no problem in being unfair themselves, allowing Hispanic, black and gay stereotypes played at such a cruel level. The look of the film resembles any episode of Love American Style. This is not a compliment. Tacky seventies fashions abound in this world of white collar theft that only lends an air of implausibility to every situation. Outside of a clever initial idea, and two capable stars in Jane Fonda and George Segal, this dated exercise in social commentary comes off as forced and mean spirited to minorities, especially to gay people. If you want a better caper film, you're better off with The Hot Rock with George Segal and Robert Redford or What's Up Doc with Ryan O'Neal and Barbra Streisand. Now that's funny!
Fun with Dick and Jane gives you a wonderful time with George and Jane!
mallard-61 October 1999
This is certainly my favorite show for both George Segal and Jane Fonda. They are marvelous as folks trying to make ends meet (by hook OR crook) in the face of unemployment. Their hijinks are marvelous, as they exhaust ALL the possibilities for humor in the search for employment.
Especially memorable are the fashion show, the celebratory dinner, and the performance of Carmen. But good spots in this film are too frequent to even cite!
Especially memorable are the fashion show, the celebratory dinner, and the performance of Carmen. But good spots in this film are too frequent to even cite!
First half needs more laughs
SnoopyStyle8 July 2014
Dick (George Segal) and Jane Harper (Jane Fonda) are living the American dream. He has a good job at Taft Aerospace but then he get laid off by his boss Charlie Blanchard (Ed McMahon). At first, they're unconcerned. Eventually it gets so bad that the landscaper even takes back the grass. He needs to cut back on spending while on unemployment and she needs to get a job. Her job isn't working out and he gets kicked off unemployment. When they get robbed at the loan place, they get an idea.
The first half is basically a spiral downwards for this upper class family. It needs more comedy. It has the potential but it doesn't take full advantage. It plays as a light comedy. The couple is materialistic. They aren't the most nicest but they are likable enough to root for. There are some edgy social commentary with Dick as unemployed dealing with the lower class problems. Then the movie turns with the Bonnie and Clyde antics. It gets funnier and more edgier. George Segal and Jane Fonda play a good bickering couple. It could have been even more outrageous if they treated their help with less than friendliness. Then they could learn something as their table gets turned. The setup could be better.
The first half is basically a spiral downwards for this upper class family. It needs more comedy. It has the potential but it doesn't take full advantage. It plays as a light comedy. The couple is materialistic. They aren't the most nicest but they are likable enough to root for. There are some edgy social commentary with Dick as unemployed dealing with the lower class problems. Then the movie turns with the Bonnie and Clyde antics. It gets funnier and more edgier. George Segal and Jane Fonda play a good bickering couple. It could have been even more outrageous if they treated their help with less than friendliness. Then they could learn something as their table gets turned. The setup could be better.
A pleasant film
rabauer0803122 May 2005
That's about the best that I can come with, and that is a good thing...just a pleasant film. I watched it on On Demand the other night for the first time since I originally saw it on cable back in 1978. I was a teen ager who wanted to write movies, and this is one of the films that I recorded onto an audio cassette to listen to over and over again to help with my visualization.
There is nothing overly funny about it, it doesn't leave me in stitches, but I do smile a lot while watching it. It is also interesting to see some of the old bit players from the 70s who have either died off (Anne Ramsay) or stopped getting work. For some reason, it is a pleasure to watch. I think there is a sense of living vicariously through this couple that makes it enjoyable to watch.
Seeing it as an adult, there are jokes that I now get that I didn't as a pre-teen, but it is still a film that I would let a child watch. It's entertaining...nothing I can overtly say than that it is an entertaining movie, and I am interested to see what Jim Carrey does to the remake.
There is nothing overly funny about it, it doesn't leave me in stitches, but I do smile a lot while watching it. It is also interesting to see some of the old bit players from the 70s who have either died off (Anne Ramsay) or stopped getting work. For some reason, it is a pleasure to watch. I think there is a sense of living vicariously through this couple that makes it enjoyable to watch.
Seeing it as an adult, there are jokes that I now get that I didn't as a pre-teen, but it is still a film that I would let a child watch. It's entertaining...nothing I can overtly say than that it is an entertaining movie, and I am interested to see what Jim Carrey does to the remake.
Six out of 10 is just about right.
ksdilauri2 December 2023
There's a lot of talent involved in this project, in front of the camera and behind the scenes.
I remember when it was first released in the Seventies but had only seen bits and pieces over the years. Finally watching the whole thing recently, I understand why it won't make many Ten Best lists, in spite of its cast and creative team. Attractive stars carrying out lighthearted capers was done a hundred times in the Thirties and Forties because audiences liked it. By the late Seventies, it was harder to buy the sight of two privileged social climbers diving into a crime spree and never getting caught or hurting anyone. (A remake, with Jim Carrey 30 years later, was even more out of place.) But bottom line: if you enjoy the considerable talents of Jane Fonda and George Segal, even when they're coasting, you just may find this amusing---if you can put up with Ed McMahon as Dick's boss.
I remember when it was first released in the Seventies but had only seen bits and pieces over the years. Finally watching the whole thing recently, I understand why it won't make many Ten Best lists, in spite of its cast and creative team. Attractive stars carrying out lighthearted capers was done a hundred times in the Thirties and Forties because audiences liked it. By the late Seventies, it was harder to buy the sight of two privileged social climbers diving into a crime spree and never getting caught or hurting anyone. (A remake, with Jim Carrey 30 years later, was even more out of place.) But bottom line: if you enjoy the considerable talents of Jane Fonda and George Segal, even when they're coasting, you just may find this amusing---if you can put up with Ed McMahon as Dick's boss.
Bits of Fun with Dick & Jane
daoldiges21 November 2023
A few bits of fun on offer here but I was expecting a bit more given this strong cast. Everyone does a fine job alright but there wasn't really any bite to the comedy or social commentary going on here. Any potential rough edges seem to have been very thoroughly rubbed smooth so as not to hurt anyone. Segal and Fonda are likeable, as is pretty much most of the cast involved here. Sure there are some humorous bits spaced throughout but it just doesn't seem to ever gather enough momentum to really hit its marks. Still, despite some issues with Fun with Dick and Jane, it's still kind of fun and worth checking out if you're curious.
Fonda and Segal Shine in this Tale of Financial Woe!!!
Dan Briggs15 May 1999
Warning: Spoilers
This film brings a smile to my face every time I think about it!Jane Fonda and George Segal are Jane and Dick Harper,A typical Suburbia Couple in LA.When Dick loses his Aerospace job,he goes downhill,first losing his Welfare status by Working one night at the Opera,and getting caught by the welfare adjuster!!And the laughs just keep on coming.Jane loses her job,Dick borrows money from a loan agency,but as they collect the cash,the place gets robbed.The Harpers get a new idea:Rob to pay the bills!As the story progresses,they rob:The telephone company,A record store,a no-tell motel,and a minister!But the best of all:When the Harpers are invited to a party at Dick's old job,they go in and steal all the money out of his old boss's safe.Since the Money is not supposed to exist:He let's them go:WITH THE MONEY!!All in all a good film and one that will make you laugh to see that crime does pay......In Laughs!!
"I have a white collar mentality, I panic in the face of death".
classicsoncall26 August 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Well, Bonnie and Clyde they ain't. I recall this movie getting a lot of fanfare when it was first released back in 1977, hard to believe it'll be forty years old soon as I write this. Today was the first time I watched it and it was sort of underwhelming. I've never seen Ed McMahon in a principal movie role before so that was new for me. George Segal and Jane Fonda had the right chemistry to pull off their roles here, but a lot of times I thought the story was forced and didn't ring true to character. The stereotypical use of black and Hispanic actors in the picture would never pass muster today, though I don't generally have a problem with those kinds of portrayals when used to comic effect.
Something I'd like to point out that really has nothing to do with the movie itself, but I've noticed this in other pictures as well. I generally turn on captioning when watching films so I don't miss any nuance in the dialog, and fairly consistently I find that any words that might be considered controversial are 'X'ed out. So for this picture, any time someone uses Dick Harper's (Segal) first name, it appears in captioning as 'XXXX'. You can do the translation, but the only thing that it does is draw more attention to the more prurient use of the word. I have to laugh every time it happens.
I guess you can have some fun with this one in a Seventies nostalgic kind of way, but for me it wasn't very memorable at all. I actually know a married couple whose names are Dick and Jane who are friends of mine, and managed to reference the film the last time we got together. It was for a Happy Together concert tour we went to featuring a bunch of bands from the Sixties and Seventies, so at least we kept it in the same era as the picture.
Something I'd like to point out that really has nothing to do with the movie itself, but I've noticed this in other pictures as well. I generally turn on captioning when watching films so I don't miss any nuance in the dialog, and fairly consistently I find that any words that might be considered controversial are 'X'ed out. So for this picture, any time someone uses Dick Harper's (Segal) first name, it appears in captioning as 'XXXX'. You can do the translation, but the only thing that it does is draw more attention to the more prurient use of the word. I have to laugh every time it happens.
I guess you can have some fun with this one in a Seventies nostalgic kind of way, but for me it wasn't very memorable at all. I actually know a married couple whose names are Dick and Jane who are friends of mine, and managed to reference the film the last time we got together. It was for a Happy Together concert tour we went to featuring a bunch of bands from the Sixties and Seventies, so at least we kept it in the same era as the picture.
Ed McMahon!
BandSAboutMovies2 February 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Dick and Jane Harper (George Segal and Jane Fonda) were living the American dream, but when Dick's aerospace job got liquidated due to the fuzzy accounting of his boss Charlie Blanchard (Ed McMahon, and if you think I'm not doing a week of movies that Ed was in, you don't know me) and have to suddenly figure out how to save everything they have, even if Jane's parents believe that poverty is going to be the best lesson they can ever receive.
The best answer to their problems? A life of crime. While Dick and Jane try to keep the people they're stealing from to be those even more on the wrong side of the law than them, they still worry that they're getting too used to being criminals. Can they give it up? Or is the lure of easy money just too much?
This movie was based on a story by Gerard Gaiser, which was scripted by David Giler (who wrote Myra Breckinridge and The Parallax View, as well as serving as the producer and rewriter of Alien as part of his partnership with Walter Hill), Jerry Belson (who popularized the line, "When you assume..." in a script he wrote for The Odd Couple) and Mordecai Richler. It's directed by Ted Kotcheff, whose career is all over every genre, from the scares of Wake In Fright to the sports film North Dallas Forty, the original Rambo movie First Blood and Weekend at Bernie's.
That said - this has a homophobic scene followed by George Segal in blackface, so...1977 everybody. A year I was alive in, can remember and yes, it's even more racist today, so we've made progress. Not enough progress, but some.
The best answer to their problems? A life of crime. While Dick and Jane try to keep the people they're stealing from to be those even more on the wrong side of the law than them, they still worry that they're getting too used to being criminals. Can they give it up? Or is the lure of easy money just too much?
This movie was based on a story by Gerard Gaiser, which was scripted by David Giler (who wrote Myra Breckinridge and The Parallax View, as well as serving as the producer and rewriter of Alien as part of his partnership with Walter Hill), Jerry Belson (who popularized the line, "When you assume..." in a script he wrote for The Odd Couple) and Mordecai Richler. It's directed by Ted Kotcheff, whose career is all over every genre, from the scares of Wake In Fright to the sports film North Dallas Forty, the original Rambo movie First Blood and Weekend at Bernie's.
That said - this has a homophobic scene followed by George Segal in blackface, so...1977 everybody. A year I was alive in, can remember and yes, it's even more racist today, so we've made progress. Not enough progress, but some.
Delightful Politically Incorrect Comedy
claudio_carvalho20 September 2006
When the executive engineer Dick Harper (George Segal) is unexpectedly fired by the president Charlie Blanchard (Ed McMahon) of the Taft Aerospace, company where he works, his wife Jane Harper (Jane Fonda) and him get completely broken, full of debts including the mortgage of their fancy house and without means to support their lifestyle. Dick unsuccessfully tries to find a new position, while Jane looks for a job and cuts their costs to the minimum. While using the insufficient unemployment paycheck of the social security to survive, they contract a loan in a bank. There is a heist in the bank and Jane accidentally steals some money from the thieves, and the couple decides to robber to survive and maintain their social status.
"Fun with Dick and Jane" is a great amoral comedy that has not aged or dated. The politically incorrect story is delightful and very funny, and is a sharp critic to the American Dream, satirizing the hypocrite need of maintaining a status and also to the corruption related to the big business of the corporations. Jane Fonda is very beautiful and shows a great chemistry with George Segal. This is the first time that I watch this movie, which is an excellent entertainment. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Adivinhe Quem Vem Para Roubar?" ("Guess Who Is Coming to Robber?")
"Fun with Dick and Jane" is a great amoral comedy that has not aged or dated. The politically incorrect story is delightful and very funny, and is a sharp critic to the American Dream, satirizing the hypocrite need of maintaining a status and also to the corruption related to the big business of the corporations. Jane Fonda is very beautiful and shows a great chemistry with George Segal. This is the first time that I watch this movie, which is an excellent entertainment. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Adivinhe Quem Vem Para Roubar?" ("Guess Who Is Coming to Robber?")
Lots of Funny Scenes but Very Little Coherence
mrb198025 November 2008
Warning: Spoilers
"Fun with Dick and Jane" was released during George Segal's flirtation with real stardom during the mid-1970s. While pleasant in tone and easy to take, the movie loses momentum about halfway through, wandering to a strictly standard ending.
Dick (George Segal) and Jane (Jane Fonda) are a couple living the Southern California dream: lots of money, big house, comfortable lifestyle. Then Dick is laid off by his drunken boss Charlie (Ed McMahon), resulting in the couple borrowing money at first, then turning to a life of crime later. The film's conclusion is a predictable burglary of Dick's ex-boss' safe, where huge sums of stolen money are hidden.
The film has lots of amusing vignettes, including the initial layoff scene, the landscaping company repossessing Dick and Jane's plants, a bank robbery while Dick is borrowing money, and a funny job interview at Dick and Jane's house. However, the movie turns out to be just humorous situations strung together with very little coherence. Segal is enormously appealing as always, Fonda is her usual professional self, and McMahon is great as the evil, corrupt boss. It's too bad the screenwriters didn't give them more to work with.
Many movies are called more than the sum of their parts. In this case, I think the movie is actually less. I think viewing the film will provide a pleasant evening with lots of laughs, but it won't leave you with anything memorable.
Dick (George Segal) and Jane (Jane Fonda) are a couple living the Southern California dream: lots of money, big house, comfortable lifestyle. Then Dick is laid off by his drunken boss Charlie (Ed McMahon), resulting in the couple borrowing money at first, then turning to a life of crime later. The film's conclusion is a predictable burglary of Dick's ex-boss' safe, where huge sums of stolen money are hidden.
The film has lots of amusing vignettes, including the initial layoff scene, the landscaping company repossessing Dick and Jane's plants, a bank robbery while Dick is borrowing money, and a funny job interview at Dick and Jane's house. However, the movie turns out to be just humorous situations strung together with very little coherence. Segal is enormously appealing as always, Fonda is her usual professional self, and McMahon is great as the evil, corrupt boss. It's too bad the screenwriters didn't give them more to work with.
Many movies are called more than the sum of their parts. In this case, I think the movie is actually less. I think viewing the film will provide a pleasant evening with lots of laughs, but it won't leave you with anything memorable.
Fun with Dick and Jane
jboothmillard25 August 2009
Warning: Spoilers
From director Ted Kotcheff (Rambo: First Blood), I was very interested to see the original version of this comedy film, remade with Jim Carrey. It is the same format, executive engineer Dick Harper (The Cable Guy's George Segal) is unexpectedly fired by Charlie Blanchard (Ed McMahon) just after finishing a new swimming pool, and he and his wife Jane (Jane Fonda) are in financial trouble. They try to cut down their expenses, find new jobs and ways to get money, and even with unemployment benefits it is uncertain they can keep the house. There is nothing for it for Dick and Jane, when they gain the confidence to they begin robbing drug and liquor stores. Doing this they seem to be surviving and maintaining their social status, it is only a question of whether they will be caught or get away with it all. Also starring Richard 'Dick' Gautier as Dr. Will, Allan Miller as Loan Company Manager, Hank Garcia as Raoul Esteban, John Dehner as Jane's father, Mary Jackson as Jane's mother, Walter Brooke as Jim Weeks, Sean Frye as Billy Harper, James Jeter as Immigration officer and Maxine Stuart as Blanchard's secretary and Fred Willard as Bob. Segal and Fonda make a good duo, there are more amusing jokes than in the remake, it is a pleasant feel-good (or bad that they resort to robbery) comedy classic. Worth watching!
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