Murphy Howard 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.

Abbigail Bush what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Sammy-Jo Cervantes There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

John Brooks So before Roger Rabbit introduced cartoon characters into live filmed footage, or mind you, Steve Oedekerk inserted himself into an old Chinese kungfu flick in Kung Pow...there was this film.It's really well made for its time, and not to be precious or anything but it does get a bit obvious after a while and the plot will sort of fade at times and the film seems a bit too happy with the new movie overlaid over old movie scheme and plays too self-indulgingly with that.But Martin's recognizable humor is good as always here and he'll really give life to the film from time to time. "I want to kiss you with every lip on my face !..."Rachel Ward, sublimely beautiful here, holds her role perfectly well too.Not bad. But too obvious after a while.6/10.

oOoBarracuda Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid is the perfect introduction to actor/writer/director/producer extraordinaire Carl Reiner. I had never before seen anything Reiner had acted in or directed, so his 1982 feature was a brilliant introduction. The comedy starring Steve Martin, Rachel Ward, and several famous faces from 1940's film noirs was a brilliant homage/parody of the detective film genre. A detective trying to solve his current case with the help of many top-notch detectives from yesteryear intercut into this black and white film is a treat for audiences everywhere.Juliet Forrest (Rachel Wood) is convinced that her father's death from an apparent vehicle crash was no accident. To prove her theory that her father was murdered, she enlists the help of a detective Rigby Reardon (Steve Martin). Reardon, however, is not the private eye Juliet thinks he is. He is unable to solve the case alone and enlists the help of his many famous friends. Mostly aided and mentored by Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) himself, Reardon begins to piece together the many pieces of the puzzle while winding through 19 well-known films from the golden age of Hollywood. With the help of his mentor and many sidekicks, Reardon is able to uncover the sinister plot involving a member of the nazi party, Field Marshall VonKluck (Carl Reiner).Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid was my first go with Carl Reiner, and I could not have been more pleased with the outcome. I am attempting to become more familiar with the spoof genre, and this film is a notable entry on many "best of" spoof lists. It was great to see the legendary Edith Head's name in the opening credits; it was then, in fact, that I knew this film was going to be a great time of visiting many of the film noir films that I love so much. It was wonderful to see this film dedicated to Edith and her memory, as well as the many others who have worked on classic cinema of the 40's and 50's, considering this would turn out to be Head's final film. The notion to intercut the scenes with classic scenes from noir films was comedic brilliance. It became a game to see how Reardon would make the scenes work within the context of his case, leaving the audience fully engaged throughout the entire film. Anytime you see a clip of one of your all-time favorite, and oft forgotten about films (The Lost Weekend) in a contemporary film, it is sure to bring some personal joy. Steve Martin was perfectly cast in the role of the bumbling, light-hearted yet well-meaning and determined detective. A laugh a minute, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid is one of those difficult to achieve comedies that one is able to watch again and again and still find extremely funny. What I wouldn't give for a cup of Reardon's famous java!

secondtake Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)I'm a film noir buff. Fanatic. Devotee. So I really loved how this movie was made--not what happens in it, but the main trick of inserting real film noir clips with new footage starring Steve Martin. When it first happens (with Alan Ladd) it's like, what? Is this for real? And then it keeps happening, usually with easy cuts where the original noir shows someone on the phone and it can cut to Martin talking on the phone, or with two people on each side of a room or a door, the camera changing positions and allowing the cuts from one world to the other. In a few special cases they get fancier, like the Cary Grant insert--you'll have to see about that. (I just corrected the wikipedia page on this note.)I also think the director (and co-writer) Rob Reiner makes the new footage (which is 90 percent of the movie) take on an authentic black and white feel--heavy shadows, moving camera, and so on. Martin of course is a somewhat comic version of a film noir hero or anti-hero (this movie is a spoof overall) but he's got more presence than you might expect. It's smart and respectful and well done.What it lacks is a genuine plot. The many various clips require such somersaulting to work them into the script, any hope of an overarching drama is dashed. I found myself watching just to watch, and to wonder who would get included next. Martin's sidekick played by Rachel Ward is a bit drab, too, if pretty (she was a model) and is for some reason very English, a big monkeywrench in the film noir universe. Steve Martin deserves some admiration for pulling this off. There is not only a filming continuity needed but one of acting and delivery, which he masters. Now if only he and Reiner had a plot to carry the thing through as a movie, and not just a big, sophisticated, beautiful gag.

thesar-2 Ooh deary me. Either I forgot or didn't realize Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid took basically three main actors and spliced them into decades old films. (I did eventually, roughly one third of the way in, but I'll get to that later.) This Steve Martin feature escaped me for years until a close friend recommended it to me. I'm not the biggest Martin fan – I can only name three I especially liked, Roxanne, All of Me and (guilty pleasure) Housesitter – so I was in no hurry to watch this. And as much as my friend and I agree on 90% of movies, some we don't. So, it was no 100% guarantee I would like this.Well, just to sum it all up, that 90% statistic turned to 95% of our movie compatibility. I was laughing throughout this movie, way after and when I woke the next morning, more scenes floated in my head and I found myself laughing some more.Private detective Rigby Reardon (Martin) is so stereotypically almost flat broke and down on his luck when "doll face" Julie Forrest (Ward) shows up at his office door with an assignment for Rigby to investigate her father's murder. (Yeah, I say stereotypically but not in a bad way as that's the premise/spoof of this movie – either mocking or playing homage to film noir of half a century earlier.) Slapstick immediate surfaces and he takes the case on, meeting dozens of individuals (from a grand multitude of black & white features) who advance the case/story so he can get to the bottom of the murder.Seriously, as a joy this was to watch – my first time of many guaranteed viewings – I don't want to give away any more. Each scene opened up more laughs for me. And it's one of those rare, VERY RARE films that starts off slow, mediocre even, and gets progressively BETTER.One of the biggest complaints I have with a lot of films is the fact the director and/or writer is so incredibly preoccupied on making a movie based solely on one HUGE SECRET or TWIST that they simply forget to make a movie that happens to have a twist. M. Night Shyamalan films fit perfectly into my argument – but more recently, A Perfect Getaway. The worst part of those films is if you happen to figure out the "secret twisted" climax in the first few minutes (or someone spoiled it for you), you're literally sitting there for two hours where they try and confuse you and throw obvious clues your way. And you never actually get a well made movie – just a bunch of misdirection so you'll be so-called blown away at the end.Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid didn't do this. They played homage to anyone who is in LOVE with those 1930-1940s classics and grand stars (my personal favorite of the group was Grant and Davis) and used wonderful splicing new and old techniques. This is obviously a "gimmick" yet, when other lesser directors/writers would rely on this, this was only part of the equation. There was really a story here and it really was built as a film noir mystery, albeit slapstick 1980s humor.As I stated, I didn't catch this "device" of using old and new until about 1/3 in, with Cary Grant. I didn't read anything about this movie, so since it was black & white (and Martin actually had dark hair) I figured they filmed this when Bogart, Grant and Davis were all still alive and dyed their own hair to appear younger. Yeah, I'm a dope. Seriously, I should've known better.Obviously, I won't make that mistake again (i.e. in my definite repeat viewings) and when I realized what was happening, the movie opened up to me, making it all the more hilarious and especially when Martin dresses as some of the characters they're mimicking.I would highly recommend this movie, especially to those movie buffs of decades past. Though I am only rating it 9 out of 10 stars now, that might change, even with viewing #2. And I can't wait to see this again. There's severe comic genius here – the finale's battle of words between Reiner and Martin is just one of many examples. SEE IT! Side Note: If you have the DVD – make sure you watch the hilarious trailer, namely the last 2-3 seconds had me rolling.