{"id":1480,"date":"2024-08-01T02:43:40","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T02:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=1480"},"modified":"2024-10-14T15:04:59","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T19:04:59","slug":"moment-by-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/01\/moment-by-moment\/","title":{"rendered":"Moment by Moment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Moment by Moment <\/strong>(1978)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 105 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (brief strong language, some sexual content, drug material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jane Wagner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jane Wagner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Lee Holdridge\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Phillip Lathrop\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 22, 1978 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Lily Tomlin, John Travolta, Andra Akers, Bert Kramer, Shelley R. Bonus, Debra Feuer, James Luisi, John O\u2019Leary.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $10.9M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *<\/p>\n

\u00a0I wouldn\u2019t necessarily call Moment by Moment<\/strong> the Holy Grail of bad movies, but it was certainly hard to come by in the 40+ years since its release. The May-September romantic drama was supposed to be a hit. Nobody intended for it to fall into the abyss of obscurity. Universal had high hopes for it back in 1978. They were so confident that male lead John Travolta, hot off the success of Saturday Night Fever and Grease, would attract big audiences, they made it their big Christmas release. Oh, how wrong they were. It was a huge failure, both commercially and critically. Critics savaged it mercilessly and audiences stayed away in droves. After it completed its brief theatrical run, it was shelved and never released on any home entertainment format. An edited version showed up once in a while on AMC, but I didn\u2019t bother with it. I\u2019m the kind of film geek that refuses to watch cut-for-content movies. Why should I? I\u2019m not 12 anymore, for Pete\u2019s sake!<\/p>\n

\u00a0It would appear as though the powers that be at Universal finally decided the public was ready to bear witness to the utter fiasco that is Moment by Moment<\/strong>. It quietly came out on DVD this past summer. I didn\u2019t know this until a FB friend posted about it recently (thanks, WM!). I wasted no time in getting my hands on a copy. It certainly lives down to its reputation. It\u2019s every bit as bad as I remember hearing as a fifth grader not yet old enough to see the movies I wanted to see.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I recently asked my readers to list their top five Worst Romantic Pairings on the Movie Guy 24\/7 FB page. I now wish I had waited a few weeks. Moment by Moment<\/strong> definitely would have taken a slot on my list. I\u2019ve seen some odd pairings in my life- Sylvester Stallone and Dolly Parton anybody?- but this one takes the freaking cake! It pairs Travolta with comedienne Lily Tomlin. Yes, you read that right, John Travolta and Lily Tomlin. This is what\u2019s known in the industry as a bad idea, a monumental one at that. I can\u2019t believe somebody thought it would work. They look more like brother and (much older) sister than lovers. They generate no chemistry whatsoever. Their romantic dialogue is laughable at best and banal at worst. The sex scenes are anything but sexy. If I had to pick a single adjective, it would be awkward. Look at the hot tub scene. I\u2019m amazed the water didn\u2019t freeze. The two dogs in the movie, Scamp and Corky, have better chemistry than the humans.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Now for the plot, such as it is. Tomlin plays Trisha, a bored Beverly Hills socialite recently separated from her cheating husband. While shopping on Rodeo Drive, she meets Strip (Travolta), a down-on-his-luck drifter who claims he was a parking valet at a party she gave months earlier. She says she doesn\u2019t remember him and ices him out. He shows up at her Malibu beach house where she\u2019s staying to lick her wounds. She blows him off again. He keeps coming back until she finally starts to warm up a little. Maternal instinct gives over to lust and before long, they\u2019re sexually involved. But how can it possibly work out? He\u2019s young and doesn\u2019t exactly fit in with her crowd. She\u2019s old enough to be his mother. In fact, she has a son (that we never see) around his age.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Moment by Moment <\/strong>is written and directed by Jane Wagner, the talented comedy writer whose collaboration with Tomlin is long and more than professional. This would explain the grievous miscasting of her real-life partner Tomlin who delivers the sleepiest performance this side of Steven Wright. I know her character is supposed to be depressed, but that doesn\u2019t mean she has to be devoid of any signs of life. I really hate to put Tomlin down. I like her work very much. She\u2019s a gifted actress. She\u2019s just not right for this particular film. Then again, nothing about Moment by Moment<\/strong> is right. It\u2019s the only movie Wagner has directed and for good reason. It stinks!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Travolta plays a character named Strip. He tells Tomlin to \u201cthink Sunset\u201d when he introduces himself. I can think of another reason he goes by that moniker. There are several scenes of him stripping down to his Speedos much to the forced delight of Trisha. Seeing this, I\u2019m thinking he could easily solve his financial woes simply by getting a job as a male stripper. He\u2019s clearly qualified for the gig and there\u2019s no shortage of such places on the Strip. So why doesn\u2019t he? That\u2019s easy, the guy is an idiot.<\/p>\n

\u00a0This works against his character. Somebody like Strip ought to project a sense of danger. After all, we\u2019re talking about a guy who\u2019s associated with criminals and lives in a fleabag hotel. In addition, his stupidity distracts viewers from the fact that he\u2019s a stalker. I can\u2019t be the only one that notices this, can I? Look at how he actively pursues Trisha, showing up at her house uninvited and unwelcome on multiple occasions. Didn\u2019t they have stalkers in the 70s? It doesn\u2019t matter since his character is too much of a bonehead to pose any threat. He\u2019s just this good-looking dope that Trisha takes in to make her life feel less empty. SPOILER! <\/strong>It doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Unlike the city in which it takes place, Moment by Moment<\/strong> is sparsely populated. Rarely do we see anybody other than the main characters. When we do, it\u2019s somebody from Trisha\u2019s upscale world like her vacuous friend Naomi (Akers of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman) or her self-absorbed soon-to-be ex Stu (Kramer, Bloody Birthday). We never meet ANY of the people Strip mentions. This includes his best friend Greg around whom a semblance of a subplot revolves. It goes like this. He\u2019s arrested for stealing drugs from the pharmacy where he works. He\u2019s involved with some dangerous criminal types who bail him out of jail and kill him. All of it happens off-camera. We hear about it from Strip. If it\u2019s so damn important, why not depict it instead of describe it?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Much of what happens in Moment by Moment<\/strong> is laughable and unbelievable. Take the sequence where Trisha and Naomi hit the Strip in search of Strip after he splits in response to his feelings being hurt when Trisha pretends he\u2019s the delivery boy from the market when Naomi stops by the beach house unexpectedly. What, she can\u2019t admit to her bff that she has a boy toy? Anyway, these ladies go to some seedy places asking shady types if they\u2019ve seen Strip. Here\u2019s what I want to know. How is it they don\u2019t get robbed, assaulted or killed? It\u2019s clear they\u2019ve never set foot outside the safe, cushy boundaries of Beverly Hills. It\u2019s a bloody miracle they don\u2019t end up victims of a violent crime. You know, I could ask a million questions about Moment by Moment<\/strong>, but why bother? The only one of any importance is why it was made at all.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It would be one thing if Moment by Moment<\/strong> was an unintentional laughfest. Sometimes it is. The rest of the time it\u2019s a bore. They should have called it Hour by Hour. Also, it\u2019s WAY too tame. It\u2019s rated R for no discernible reason. There\u2019s absolutely no nudity. The sex scenes don\u2019t show much of anything. In one, it\u2019s implied Trisha is fondling Strip under his robe. In another, they\u2019re in bed together. Again, nothing is shown. I counted only one swear word and it isn\u2019t the f-word. There\u2019s talk of drugs and a scene where Strip gifts Trisha with barbiturates after her druggist refuses to give her sleeping pills. This adds up to an R? Okay, maybe it does by 1978 standards. Today, Moment by Moment<\/strong> would be a PG-13.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In any event, the makers of Moment by Moment<\/strong> take the wrong approach to the material. Wagner plays it straight when she should have embraced the trashiness of the premise instead. Make it more like Jacqueline Susann or Jackie Collins. Of course, this is all academic. There is no antidote for leads as mismatched as Tomlin and Travolta. Also, it\u2019s BORING!\u00a0 Ultimately, Moment by Moment <\/strong>is 105 minutes of NOTHING! It\u2019s as empty as the lives (and heads) of the characters. I can see why Universal kept this one hidden from the public for so long. I\u2019m glad I finally got to see it for myself. Now if I could only unsee it.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Moment by Moment (1978)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 105 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (brief strong language, some sexual content, drug material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jane Wagner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jane Wagner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Lee Holdridge\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Phillip Lathrop\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 22, 1978 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Lily Tomlin, John Travolta, Andra Akers, Bert Kramer, Shelley R. Bonus, Debra Feuer, James Luisi, John O\u2019Leary.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-this-sucks-so-bad"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Moment-by-Moment-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1480"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2033,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480\/revisions\/2033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}