Harriet Deltubbo Hoping for positive publicity, a tobacco company offers $25 million to any American town that quits smoking for 30 days. Amidst a media frenzy, Eagle Rock, Iowa accepts the challenge while the company's PR man tries to sabotage the effort. In this film the women are not natural at all. On the other hand, the women held it together with excellent acting. There are some films with great potential that somehow go horribly wrong. This is one of them. This cast interacts with absolute precision, whether walking around a room or interrupting each others' wisecracks. The script and direction meld into a strong movie. What's best is that not one character ever withdraws tongue from cheek.

tostinati This film would pretend to satirize and critique small town Babbitry. But I think what we are left with after watching it is the sense or the message that the damning failure of people in small towns all over America isn't that they are greedy or hypocritical, but merely that they are personally ridiculous. Lear could forgive them their addiction to tobacco, which is really just their conditioned response to manipulation by tobacco company execs. --What he cannot forgive is their being embarrassing to anointed, omniscient hipsters such as himself.For example: What is the satirical strength -- or the purpose -- of fleeting, disjointed closeups of the hands of middle aged and elderly women tugging at and smoothing their girdles as they file out of church Sunday morning? There's a sense that Lear is addressing a grievance here, possibly working off a grudge or past slight. But what does Lear have, really, aside from contempt? And is the contempt really earned and fair? And is it entertaining in it's own right? To that last, I say no. As a film, it is just too mean-spirited and misanthropic at it's core to be a rewarding or honest watch. It makes the fatal mistake of all diatribe literature, which his TV shows skirted because of the short format. His soured view is absolutely fatal at feature length, unrelieved as it is by frequent commercial breaks to dilute the rancor. In long form, it is too clear that Lear cannot create engaging and truthful characters. Even actors you always like -- Dick Van Dyke, Jean Stapleton, Bernard Hughes -- are weird jerks or Pavlovian puppets in Lear's hands. Apparently, nothing like entertainment value or human empathy can stand in the way of Lear's particular message nor his brand of "relevant" '70s evangelism.

Darknessviking i saw this one when i was little..and i loved it.. i don't know if i would think its any good if i saw it again NOW..but then i laughed many times ..i wonder if I did see it again,if I would discover new jokes that i didn't notice when i was little..anyways..very good film ..and its funny that even 35 years ago they said that smoking was bad...and even til this day people don't listen .dick van dyke was goodin this onei think

preppy-3 A tobacco company gives out an announcement--they will give 25 million dollars to any town where everybody stops smoking for 30 days. They figure no town can do this and it will give their company free publicity. The pastor (Dick van Dyke) of a VERY small town called Eagle Rock convinces the townspeople that they need the money and can stop smoking. Will they make it? I saw this as a kid (I was 9) at a Saturday matinée with a theatre full of kids my age. We hated it! I remembered the movie and the message but when you're 9 you want action and adventure. We were bored and restless. Seeing it again over 30 years later I like it a lot. It's not a film for kids but a satire for adults. The movie is actually pretty funny (seeing everybody trying to give up smoking is great) and the cast is fantastic. I was never a fan of van Dyke but I must admit he was very good in this movie. His character is not perfect--he's somewhat cold and cynical (especially to his wife) and van Dyke pulls it off. Barnard Hughes is hysterical as a doctor who almost goes crazy trying to give up smoking. It's also fun seeing Jean Stapleton in a (somewhat) serious role and using her normal voice. And Bob Newhart is amusing as a tobacco company executive.Some of the comedy doesn't work--the jokes about Walter Cronk (obviously doing Walter Cronkite) will go over the heads of younger viewers and I could have lived without the little old lady swearing (quite a bit for a PG film). I also found the ending VERY depressing (but that's sort of the point) and the fate of three characters is left up in the air. This bombed in its initial release but it was probably a little too strong for its time--I think it plays very well today. Worth catching.