These Old Broads (2001/Comedy Telefilm/Sony DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Episodes: C+

 

 

Despite having Carrie Fisher co-writing the script, the TV movie These Old Broads brings together Shirley MacLaine, Joan Collins, Debbie Reynolds, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Graves, Gene Barry and Pat Harrington, yet it becomes fun only to watch the starts together and not much else.  After a theatrical re-release of one of their biggest hits ever, the actresses are hot again and some people who see money (including Johnathan Silverman) want to reunite them.

 

The oddest thing about the whole production is Collins, who I like very much, but is out of her element here, it because she is not the equal of the others but because her character is badly written and even the wardrobe is bizarre in any case.  I do not know what Fisher (who also shows up as a hooker) and Elaine Pope were thinking, but this never adds up and Fisher is a better writer than this.  Suzanne Charney also stars.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is on the soft side, sometimes by intention, sometimes by stylizing, but it is not silly the way it appears.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has vague surrounds and not much else.  Except for previews, this has no extras.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo