Man on the Moon (1999)

The life and career of legendary comedian Andy Kaufman.

Director:

Milos Forman

Writers:

Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski

Stars:

Jim Carrey, Danny DeVito, Gerry Becker

Won 1 Golden Globe. Another 4 wins & 25 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jim Carrey	...	Andy Kaufman (as Tony Clifton)
Gerry Becker	...	Stanley Kaufman - Andy's Father
Greyson Erik Pendry	...	Little Michael Kaufman (as Greyson Pendry)
Brittany Colonna	...	Baby Carol Kaufman
Leslie Lyles	...	Janice Kaufman - Andy's Mother
Bobby Boriello	...	Little Andy Kaufman
George Shapiro	...	Mr. Besserman
Danny DeVito	...	George Shapiro
Budd Friedman	...	Budd Friedman
Tom Dreesen	...	Wiseass Comic
Thomas Armbruster	...	Improv Piano Player
Pamela Abdy	...	Diane Barnett
Wendy Polland	...	Little Wendy
Cash Oshman	...	Yogi
Matt Price	...	Meditation Student

Storyline

A biographical film on the late comedian Andy Kaufman. Kaufman, along with his role on Taxi (1978), was famous for being the self-declared Intergender Wrestling Champion of the world. After beating women time and time again, Jerry Lawler (who plays himself in the movie), a professional wrestler, got tired of seeing all of this and decided to challenge Kaufman to a match. In most of the matches the two had, Lawler prevailed with the piledriver, which is a move by spiking an opponent head-first into the mat. One of the most famous moments in this feud was in the early 80s when Kaufman threw coffee on Lawler on [error], got into fisticuffs with Lawler, and proceeded to sue NBC.

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Plot Keywords:

comedian | eccentric | wrestler | female frontal nudity | kissing while having sex | 

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Taglines:

Hello, my name is Andy and this is my DVD." [DVD release]

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Genres:

Biography | Comedy | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and brief sexuality/nudity

Did You Know?

Trivia

Bob Zmuda: Plays Fridays (1980) producer Jack Burns (the man with whom Andy fights on the show).

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Goofs

In the "Mighty Mouse" scene, supposed to take place in 1975, the "Proud N" NBC logo, depicting a peacock inside the letter N, is seen on the studio camera. The Proud N logo wasn't introduced until 1979 (the logo used in 1975 was simply an N divided into red and blue trapezoids).

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Quotes

[first lines]
Andy Kaufman: [as Foreign Man] Hello. I am Andy and I would like to thank you for coming to my movie. I wish it was *better*, you know, but... it is so stupid! It's terrible! I do not even like it. All of the most important things in my life are changed around and mixed up for dramatic purposes. So, I decided to cut out all of the baloney! Now the movie is much *shorter*.
[pause]
Andy Kaufman: In fact, this is the end of the movie. Thank you very much.

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Crazy Credits

Because the main cast credits appear at the beginning of the film, the only cast members listed in the end credits are the featured cast members.

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Alternate Versions

Several scenes were shot but cut. These include:

• The cast of Taxi rehearsing with a stand-in substituting for Andy.
• Andy responding to fan mail from some attractive girls.
• Andy taking a girl out on a date and acting so weird she asks to go home.
• After the Tony Clifton fiasco on the Taxi set, Andy calling Ed Weinberger and thanking him for playing along so convincingly.
• A scene backstage after Andy "hurts" his neck at the wrestling match where his worried parents come to see if he is okay.
• A scene towards the end of the movie at the Improv Club where Andy resurrects his Foreign Man routine and is "heckled" by Zmuda posing as an audience member.

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Connections

Referenced in Life As It Is: Milos Forman on Milos Forman (2018)

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Soundtracks

It's Howdy Doody Time
(1947)
Music from "Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay" by Henry J. Sayers (1891) (uncredited)
Words by Bob Smith (as Robert Smith) and Edward Kean
Courtesy of Simitar Entertainment, Inc.

User Reviews

Fair movie, but poor biography

I watched this movie already knowing quite a bit about Andy Kaufman and the things that he has done in the past. I was hoping to learn more about him after watching this movie. Unfortunately, I knew more about Andy Kaufman than this movie told me. As a biography, this movie wasn't so great. It didn't go into much about Andy's childhood or what he was like outside of work. Rather, it showed most of the skits and performances that Andy has done throughout his life, most of which you could learn about on MTV specials.

The acting was well done, especially by the star Jim Carrey. Carrey played Andy Kaufman. This was by far the best acting job I have ever seen Jim Carrey perform. One could argue he did a better job at Andy Kaufman's skits than Andy Kaufman himself did.

The plot and storyline, if not looking from a biography point of view, was very interesting. The best thing, in my opinion about the movie is learning more about how Andy Kaufman met his girlfriend, the scenes from Taxi and his wrestling career. I didn't care much for Tony Clifton but, as the movie states, he is a different person from Andy Kaufman all together.

I'd say this movie is worth a rent, don't go to theaters to see it. Jim Carrey deserves an Academy Award for his performance.

Details

Country:

UK Germany Japan USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 December 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

Andy Kaufman

Filming Locations:

Ambassador Hotel - 3400 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$82,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$7,515,585, 26 December 1999

Gross USA:

$34,607,430

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$47,434,430

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, Mutual Film Company, Jersey Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

118 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1