Here Today

This was a great movie! It's not giving away anything to say that you will laugh, cry, and grow to love these characters over the two hours. The comedy and classic Billy Crystal one-liners we're the perfect balance to the struggles of an aging gentleman trying to maintain the life he has built over his 40 year career. Tiffany Haddish, in previous roles, can come off as an over the top, stereotypically black-woman-with-an-attitude. But in this movie she plays the perfect new-age comedy yin to Crystals's tried and true 80s/90s classic comedy yang. My wife, I, and the other couple we watched this movie thoroughly enjoyed it and I think you will too.

This is a comedy that turns into a Hallmark sticky goopy. Billy Crystal stars as a comedy writer who works on an incredibly unfunny cable TV sketch comedy show that ads tell us is #1. He has dementia but drugs are enabling him to function. He meets a woman (Tiffany Haddish) who won a raffle to have lunch with him. They form an unlikely friendship. Much of the film entails flashbacks that show us his life with his wife from 40 years ago. He's sort of a Neil Simon writer with hit movies and Broadway plays but he's been writing for this lame SNL clone for decades. He's hidden his dementia from his kids and they are resentful of his friendship with the younger woman. And that's about it. The last third of the film turns maudlin as Crystal gets the expected bad news and we go all sticky goopy. Crystal is fine (and co-wrote the script) but Haddish is a bit much at times. Supporting cast is unremarkable as are cameos by Sharon Stone and Kevin Kline. There's a brief look at a photoshopped picture of comedy legends Imogene Coca, Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, and Howard with Crystal added in, supposedly from his early writing days. But I'm afraid their prime time on TV was long before Crystal's character would have been a writer. Anyway.

Highly recommend. A few bits where you have to look past some poor acting but eneded up being a must see movie.

This is a very charming and funny movie, with two great leads. The kind of movie that we all need right now. I really enjoyed this, hopefully more moviegoers will seek it out.

Tiffany Haddish is so overrated and just annoying. I get her character is supposed to be the loud black girl but shes not funny as that cast type in this either. Was excited to see Crystal but she just ruined too many scenes.

Here Today is a modernized throwback movie. It's typical Billy Crystal and that just fine. It's a nice combination of comedy and drama, with just a couple of big laughs, numerous chuckles and tearjerker drama. The update is Tiffany Haddish (calling to mind Billy's team-up with Gregory Hines) who is great. There's a real chemistry between Billy and Tiffany and that makes it all more fun. It's old fashioned Hollywood and it was a very good time!

Not fun, funny or entertaining. I was bored 10 minutes in but stay with it with another 30 minutes but it is a dull boring movie. Lucky I bailed out at the 40 minute mark.

This sad saga was balanced well with just the right degree of humor. I smiled, laughed & related with these marvelous characters. Everything about this film filled me with joy...even the downside boosted my spirits. An honest, heartfelt portrayal of something that might eventually touch everyone in some way. Billy Crystal was hilarious as always but he also displayed his "acting chops" within the drama. Tiffany Haddish was excellent as well and her chemistry with Billy was evident. I can't think of time better spent!

509. Here Today. Directed by, written by and starring Billy Crystal, tells the coming-of-old age story of Charlie Burns, a famous writer, who is now suffering from dementia and all the fun that seems to entail. It feels like this was probably a labor of love or a passion project for Billy Crystal, however, to me it felt like a 1990's cable movie, with Crystal in old man make-up and more than likely Queen Latifah co-starring, maybe even Woody Allen doing the Charlie role. Main story is this, Charlie is meeting someone for dinner, a fan, who won the chance to meet Charlie at a charity. Instead, the fan's ex-girlfriend Emma, played by Tiffany Haddish shows up, cause well she's getting even. She's loud, over the top and funny compared to Charlie's quiet and subdued manner, remember that 90's vibe I was talking about? Well, there it is. At dinner, Emma orders enough seafood to feed a small nation, seafood that she is also allergic too, which results in face swelling hijinks and a trip to the hospital. And this incident locks the two in a close, kind of unbelievable friendship that only really happens in movies. First half of the movie is decent, has some laughs. Second half, kind of fell apart for me. Felt it rushed in all the family drama stuff to fast and all at once, and it just lacked believability, I honestly thought at one point Emma was a figment of Charlie's imagination and he probably did something awful to her in the past, it just had that vibe to it. Well, that's just my opinion. Tiffany Haddish is really funny in it and performs some great songs in it. Although her flirting with 70+ year old's while singing Janis Joplin's 'Piece of my Heart' at Charlie's nieces bar mitzvah was a little odd, but oh well. It wasn't awful, it just wasn't anywhere near great either. It'll be on Lifetime soon...

My wife and I chose this movie to be our 'first' movie date at a cinema since the start of the pandemic; great choice! My wife liked most the friendship portrayed in the two main characters (Haddish and Crystal). I ask myself after a film if I would see it again; I would because the time flew by, keeping me riveted in my seat (quite the feat for a 70 year old drinking soda pop with his popcorn!). Having revealed my age, I would say there's a lot to take from this film for anyone, at any age, because of the strong performances that truly make you see the two leads become friends. If you're about to return to a theatre after streaming for a year, this picture is a LOT better choice than either seeing a monster flatten a city or game characters fight. Real life situations, but with heart. If you go, ENJOY!