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Highly Overrated But Still Good

Good concept, poorly executed.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Not the spectacular, must-see, insightful bio of all time, but for people even remotely interested in the dream factory, this is killer stuff.At first, you have to be a little fascinated with the character himself (person is not an adequate term). It's amazing how some people in film can be a character all the time, even though they are not actors per se, and Robert Evans is quite a character.And herein lies the problem. We don't really know if Evans is putting on an act or if this is at all related to truth. Also, the narrative style, using still photographs instead of live footage for most of the running time, makes it look rather artificial.The film is entertaining at times and Evans is quite funny. Maybe I would have been more involved if he had done it as a live stage show. The stories about his relationships with directors are fascinating and are the most balanced parts of the whole thing (neither one of them looks the victor). Of course, knowing the back-story beforehand, you know who came on top.Look for a far more successful treatment of this subject in the documentary Brando.

Robert Evans's book version of this documentary, The Kid Stays in the Picture, is still un-read by me. But I have read much about him from other movie books from the 70's, and so this film does illuminate certain aspects of him that I already knew- his huge ego, his drug addiction, his proclivity to lots and lots of women, and having some part in the more outstanding films of the 1970's. Sometimes with Evans himself narrating throughout two things become apparent as peculiarities that keep it from being great- 1) the filmmaker's style is rather repetitive and, aside from some flourishes of talent, isn't anything too grand for the material, and 2) the three sides to the story that Evans is quoted with at the beginning become rather blurred as one full-on nostalgia (for bad and good) comes out. What makes it captivating, however, is that Evans is the kind of guy who will be honest about being full of crap and will even call on himself for his past troubles. Rarely has one man's achievements gone neck and neck with his flaws, and let out in a filmic, grandiose style such as this.Evans is shown to have, basically, a lot of luck as someone getting into Hollywood (as many of these stories go). He starts out as a so-so actor and tries desperately to establish himself as a producer. He becomes more apart of the development side of the pictures, and ushers through Rosemary's Baby, Love Story, and even the Godfather to an extent. As his story includes the personal side (his rise and fall in the relationship to Ali McGraw, the cocaine, the other tabloid stuff), the other side of his professional accomplishments still gears in for room. By the end, one can see that the man has gone through enough to have his rightful reputation as Paramount's longest remaining producer, and will likely hold onto his ego of being the head-cheese kind of 'creative producer' so many directors like or dread till the grave. If anything, the film is actually too short, as at 93 minutes (a brilliant Dustin Hoffman imitation over the credits included) we only get glimpses that are further expounded in the book. Therefore its already subjective viewpoint becomes even more crunched into one all-too-simple story on such an interesting case study.The Kid Stays in the Picture, despite not being as terrific as the filmmakers might think it is by their sleek camera angles and typical interludes of montage, is as close to being as honest as it could be. Honest, in the sense that Evans doesn't hide much in his story and how his own way of speaking about it, in its deep-sounding and straight-forward Hollywood way, is what film buffs look for. He may have been and done a lot of things, but as he says at the end, "I enjoy what I do, which most people can't say that they do."

Robert Evans is a Hollywood legend. For the good, for the bad and for the somewhere in between. The man is often portrayed as the "guy that got lucky", but isn't that a bit unfair? He was only the oil that made the steel wheels go around - but in Tinseltown oil is king.He also had good taste and he got what he wanted. He made Francis Ford Copolla what he is today having - as this film makes clear - made three utterly offbeat flops and a b-picture.He is more than a row of credits - including producing the best film that was ever made in The Godfather. Or so IMDb.com says anyway. Did anyone see a blockbuster in a gangster film before it was actually made? No, but Evans did.This production uses the (droning) voice of Evans and a load of cuts-and-paste animation's plus old film clips. There are times when the clips are probably nothing to do with the subject in hand. London police holding back the crowds? Which crowds? Or does this not matter?Evans shows that he can actually act a bit despite being a failed actor. Just a bit. Enough to get the money and to persuade the money guys that they are not hearing the sound of toilets flushing. Even though they sometimes did. Naturally this has nothing to do with Evans. The Cotton Club was expensive because he lost control of his original lead and lost control of his director.Sometime after this someone ended up dead. Somehow people started to falsely tie Evans in to this death. He was never even a suspect - but there had to be more to it than he is telling here. I know a short change when I hear one!He had loads of friends. From Bob Hope to Jack Nicolson, stopping off at Paul Newman. He even had them appear at his benefit gig - some sort of trade off to stop him going to prison for dope dealing. I won't spoil the film by giving the full excuse here - but he should have served time.It is hard to feel sorry for Evans because he had loads of women (he was a good looking guy), loads of dope (you should here the excuses made here!!!) and loads of money. He did work hard as well. What drags this production down a couple of notches is that Evans never lets anyone else speak. It is my version or no version and is not really a documentary in my book. More a long drone - although the subject makes up for it a little bit.Evans has gone the way of all flesh. He has got older, he has got fatter and he has got lazier. But he has had his day in the sun and that is what counts. His fifteen minutes are up and the party is over. He lived the American dream and emerged the other side - if only just.This film demonstrates that hard work and luck are no substitute for talent, but they are the next best thing..

....is Robert Evans' balls clanking together. The man is simply a force of nature, and the film does a good job of telling his story. I'd recommend you also pick up the book--even better the audio version read by Evans himself--which covers a number of subjects that the book leaves out. The book gives more details about his relationship with Henry Kissenger, his marriage to Phylis George and the financial bath he took on the movie "Black Sunday". The book also goes into more detail on his friendship with Jack Nicholson. Evans is an American original. He's just a one-of-a-kind character, and the sort of maverick that today's business and formula driven Hollywood could use more of. Obviously the film (and the book) gives his life the spin he wants to put on it--like him taking credit for editing "The Godfather". To hear him tell the story, Coppola's original cut was unwatchable and it took his touch to make it into the classic it became. That's the nature of all autobiographies, though, and can't really be considered a flaw in the film (or the book). Anyway, I'm a sucker for films about the movie industry which made me like this even more. Just a very entertaining and well made movie about a fascinating individual.