The Impostors *** (1998, Stanley Tucci, Oliver Platt, Alfred Molina, Steve Buscemi) – Classic Movie Review 1691

Writer-star-director Stanley Tucci’s freewheeling 1998 old-style slapstick comedy is engagingly silly, fast-moving entertainment.

Tucci and Oliver Platt do a Laurel and Hardy double act as Arthur and Maurice, out-of-work actors on the run – from just about everything, but especially a drunken, vain ham Shakespearean actor, Sir Jeremy Burtom (Alfred Molina).

They stow away on an ocean liner, Marx Brothers style, to hide from the actor who wants to kill them for dissing his talents. As the actor also turns up on the ship, where there’s a suicidal lounge singer named Happy Frank (Steve Buscemi), a madman (Tony Shalhoub) plots its destruction.

Tucci reassembles many of the talented cast of his Big Night movie, to joyful effect. The cast also include Lili Taylor, Allison Janney, Richard Jenkins, Isabella Rossellini, Campbell Scott, Billy Connolly, Dana Ivey, Woody Allen, Hope Davis and Lewis J Stadlen.

The cast performs a line dance during the end credits, starting on the ship set and dancing their way out of the sound stage.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1691

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