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i must have seen a different film!!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Michael Caine is absolutely terrific in this combination dark comedy / corporate satire. He plays Graham Marshall, veteran executive at the Gibb Corporation. He's married to a shrewish woman named Leslie (Swoosie Kurtz), who regularly puts him down. Supposedly in line for a big promotion at work, he's obliged to watch as a slimy younger co-worker, Bob (Peter Riegert), gets the gig instead. When he accidentally causes the death of a panhandler, and nobody seemingly witnesses the act, he feels emboldened. Now his plan is to get back at the people who have done him wrong.Unfortunately, "A Shock to the System" is never quite as satisfying as this viewer would have liked. It needed a little more bite; as it is, director Jan Egleson ("Billy in the Lowlands") has a rather light touch. Still, it's not without interest as a comment on how old pros like Graham, and his friend George (John McMartin), find their livelihood threatened by the young turks in the corporate world. Where it succeeds the most is when it follows the activities of our merry antagonist, who's come too far and worked too hard to want to back down. One good thing: it wraps up in a tidy 88 minutes, making its points and telling its story in a fairly succinct manner.Ultimately, the movie is just okay, but it's made a must see by the dynamic performance of Mr. Caine. It's great fun to hear him use profanities and otherwise lose his *beep*, and one can relate to him enough that you do sympathize with him and are amused with his newfound attitude. Elizabeth McGovern is lovely and adorable as the colleague who realizes that she's attracted to him. The rest of the supporting cast is all first-rate: Riegert, Kurtz, Will Patton as an investigating detective, Jenny Wright as a secretary, Barbara Baxley as Kurtz' mother, and Haviland Morris as Bob's ravishing lady friend. Familiar faces in character roles include Kent Broadhurst, Zach Grenier, David Schramm, Mike Starr, and Samuel L. Jackson.If you're a Caine fan and want to check out some of the lesser known items on his resume, this one does hold your attention for its duration.Six out of 10.

A middle age corporate executive discovers that you literally DO Need to "step over the bodies" of others to make it to the top. A brilliant & bitter satire of what it takes to make it in the Corporate Business World.Michael Caine delivers an exceptionally good "tongue in cheek" portrayal of someone who literally "got away with murder" several times. That it was all for the sake of advancement in the Business World tells you what this filmmaker quite rightly thinks about Corporate America. That this tale begins with the superficial appearance of the "America Dream" of having a nice house in the suburbs and a good office job downtown also reveals the filmmaker's righteous cynicism of the evil that may lurk behind the "American Dream itself.... [email protected]

Almost effortlessly accomplished, A Shock to the System absolutely exudes confidence and remains a minor - if largely still unknown - classic. Caine is on real form as the tale's moral black hole, conjuring a performance of occasionally genuine surprise (witness Caine's hilarious reaction to his wife's death, or his utter bewilderment/rage over being passed over for promotion).With Gary Chang's dexterous score and the production's nimble, well-framed cinematography, it's one of those rare films that allows you to absolutely relax, confident that you are in good hands. A similar case could be made for Liliana Cavani's superb Ripley's Game which is charted by an equally immoral (but again highly satisfying) compass.

Graham Marshall seems to have everything: a beautiful, dutiful wife. a great high-paying job in advertisement. A large, sprawling country estate where he can commute to the big city. Trouble starts for Graham when all this becomes dubious and questions arise about just how wonderful all these things really are. At its core A Shock to the System makes one think about what is important in life. For Graham it is really none of these things - because in some ways he never really had them. This is a first-rate black comedy along the lines of a Kind Hearts and Coronets(no Alec Guiness playing eight roles here) with Michael Caine giving a wickedly funny, humanizing portrayal of a man just trying to keep up with what is expected with the corporate ladder and maintaining the perching power that comes with being at the top. Caine, to borrow another reviewer's succinct modifier, is very Machivellian as he whittles away at all those people that stand in his way of keeping/maintaining/achieving power. Caine does it while making us like him. A true feat as we see him really do quite horrible things to quite horrible people. Based on Simon Brett's novel A Shock to the System is a morality play with no moral other than the end does indeed justify the means. Michael Caine glides through the role of this middle-age man being passed up at home and at work with charm, pathos, and his ever present wry sense of humour. This film is just fun and the dialog and script in general generate numerous good scenes as well as fresh plot developments. Aiding Caine is a well-experienced cast of good quality actors like Swoosie Kurtz as his hair-brained, belittling wife, Elizabeth McGovern as his beautiful, trustworthy secretary, John McMartin as his over-the-hill, tired, flat boss George, and Peter Riegert as the new young buck out to wipe the floor with anyone that stands in his yuppie way to the top of the business. Throughout the film we get Michael Caine narrating to us his thoughts and his mental evolution. Some of the best lines come here. Although very funny, depraved too I will give a bit as well, A Shock to the System pokes fun at the corporate environment, the Yuppie Revolution, and the whole keeping up with the Jones' mentality that affects American society so thoroughly today. Director Jan Egleson does a masterful job making us care and like Caine despite his killing for the horrible reason of supporting some kind of Social Darwinism. All of the victims are very unlikable characters embodying some catastrophic fatal flaw of what it takes to rise to the top. Definitely worth a look and easily the easiest way to succeed in business without even trying.