Search - The Pickle on DVD

Michel D. (michelann) from WALNUT GROVE, MO
Reviewed on 6/26/2012...

While other reviewers have been harsh on this film I loved it! It was refreshing to see Danny Aiello play someone other than a tough guy or gangster type. He is so funny, kinda pathetic, and very much loved by family and friends. Dyan Cannon has always been talented and so funny herself! I especially love Paul Mazursky ever since his lengthy cameo in Down and Out in Beverly Hills. I think the idea originated with Hitchcock? Shelley Winters is a classic from the golden days of Hollywood!
Chris Penn, who’s life was far too short (he died in 2006), always stole the show no matter what he was in including Footloose and Reservoir Dogs, and Ally Sheedy’s role in The Pickle was so small it was difficult to remember her once the movie ended. The premise of a flying pickle is, of course, ridiculous but then so was a huge Blob wallowing around eating up everyone in sight! Look for a cameo from Donald Trump that is fun! And who can believe Little Richard as the President? It’s all for fun and there’s plenty of it!

2 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.

(pause) Sour.

p. silverman | USA | 11/10/2002

(2 out of 5 stars)

"It's always good to watch performers like Danny Aiello, Shelley Winters, and Dyan Cannon in an imaginative enterprise...like this movie was supposed to be. Maybe "The Pickle" was to be Paul Mazursky's "Stardust Memories" [Woody Allen's highly personal and decidedly off-beat effort]. All three try to wring life out of an unfocused, one-note script, leaving the viewer with the uncomfortable feeling that the performances are merely drammatic exercises in an acting class.
The premise is interesting: Aiello, the serious director of "art" films can no longer make a buck doing 'em, so he is convinced that in order to keep the home fires burning he must...stretch a bit. Like make a all-out crowd-pleaser with all the trendy, commercial stuff you can think of, with a totally spaced out science fiction backdrop. So the burned out Director reaches into his own psyche for whatever feels right, whatever works. When he was a child he was rewarded with a nice juicy pickle. So a pickle takes on guargantuan proportions and seemingly human intelligence.
One depressing and pointless scene blends into the next.
While the premiere of the film takes place its' embarrassed Director attempts to take his life in a hotel room and Aiello's acting is strong, but again pretentiousness reduces the impact. Little Richard fans note that the Architect makes a second Mazursky appearance - the first being the '86 "Down and Out in Beverly Hills" with a production number of the 1956 recording of "Good Golly, Miss Molly"."