Continental Divide

source: Continental Divide

Trailer—Continental Divide

Continental Divide

If you think you're a John Belushi fan but you've never seen this movie, then I feel for you! You have no idea what you've missed. John Belushi was never more touching, poignant, witty, or incredibly COMEDIC than in this film. His timing and his tone was dead on. I just couldn't have adored this movie any more. I've seen it over and over again (and I look forward to seeing it again!) There are TONS of quotable laugh-lines in this movie. About every fifth line is a classic, in my opinion. Where were the critics' rave reviews when this film came out? What were they thinking? This is about as wonderful as a romantic comedy can get. Thanks, thanks, thanks to all who played a part in bringing it to us. And RIP dear John Belushi. We will always miss you.

One of the best novels ever, a true American movie. I really liked this movie, practically everything good, but mainly the photography, the sound mix, the final and the actors. Highly recommend.

Absurd and improbable, but so cute, it's hard not to love, I love these predictable romances, which start with a great dislike and estrangement, with a half-cop plot, the highlight was the comic situations on top of the mountain and an unlikely love triangle ... Sad, we lost John Belushi, a year after this film, at 33, of an accidental overdose, in which a chorus girl was convicted of giving the injection, sad...

Well, i think its really a cute laugh-and-sigh movie. John Belushi is at his best as a non-comic character and the movie is a typical 'cult' - that is, not a masterpiece, OK, just cute, but the more you see it, the more you WILL see it MORE... This is a great movie of feelings and fun and stories and love. John Belushi is at his best as a brilliant actor, and all the cameos are well placed. Plus, personally it reminds me of something very personal - and when a movie touches personal feelings, well, it HAS to be a good movie, isn't it? The rating here is a lot lower than mine, of which i can't give an explanation. It is one of my favorite light comedies.

I think this is Belushi's best work. Although he stays in a kind of character you might find on Saturday Night Live (when it was still funny) he develops the character in a way that Nell and you fall in love with him. BE WARNED, however I first saw this film after Belushi's death and found his character's frequent references to death disturbing. Michael Apted does well in the director's chair. Be sure to see some of his other work i.e. Coal Miner's Daughter, Gorky Park, and The World Is Not Enough.

Enjoyable as 'The Blues Brothers' was, it didn't really get a chance to show the versatility of John Belushi's acting talent, or his quieter side. 'Continental Divide' does both - it's a love story which isn't outrageous or slapstick, but genuinely sweet and funny. Belushi plays a reporter, Ernie, who takes a vacation from sniffing out corruption in Chicago's high places to get a story on a reclusive female scientist (Blair Brown), who is doing just nicely, holed up in the Rocky Mountains. Ernie isn't really the mountain type but as both characters evolve, he becomes more suited to the hard life. Some corny moments exist in this movie, but it isn't bad at all. It feels a bit like a TV movie rather than a big budget cinema piece (although the locations are beautiful), but it does show there was more to Belushi than you might guess from watching 'National Lampoon's Animal Vacation' or '1941'.

I really enjoyed this movie. No, it is not the deep heady stuff, nor it is a slapstick comedy. It is a movie about two people living in different worlds that cross paths, fall in love, and so on. For Belushi, this role is as much of a course change as it is for his character when he goes into the mountains. This is as far from SNL, Animal House and The Blues Brothers and Being There is from the Pink Panther Movies and Dr. Strangelove for Peter Sellers. Blair Brown's character (Nell Porter) is totally hot in that special, wholesome, outdoors way. You can how a guy could fall for her. All in all, this is a fine movie to rent for a night of popcorn, or maybe trail mix munching, with the family. Don't wrap yourself up too tight in trying to analyze every little nuance of the movie, like so many of the wannabe critics that inhabit these reviews. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.