George Segal ( Just Shoot Me ) and Ruth Gordon (Harold and Maude) give the funniest performances of their careers in this outrageous comedy that 'stomps gleefully on the idea of devotion to Mom above all (Newsweek)! Featuring some of the boldest gags ever to hit the screen, Where's Poppa? is a riotously funny film (The New York Times)! Attorney Gordon Hocheiser isa man with a problemhis mother. Gordon promised his late father that he d take care of her, but when Gordon finally meets the girl of his dreams, his batty, eccentric mother is intent on turning his dreams into one huge nightmare. Soon Gordon becomes obsessed with getting rid of her before she gets rid of his girlfriend!

Product Details: : George Segal, Ruth Gordon, Ron Leibman, Trish Van Devere, Barnard Hughes

Directors: Carl Reiner, Writers: Robert Klane, Producers: Jerry Tokofsky, Marvin Worth,

Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC, Language: English

Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.),

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1, Number of discs: 1, Rated: R (Restricted), Studio: MGM (Video & DVD), DVD Release Date: December 3, 2002, Run Time: 82 minutes, Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (34 customer reviews)

Average Customer Review: ( 35 customer reviews )
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This is a signature movie of the 60's, a companion piece to that other iconoclast comedy of the period, Harold and Maude. Only here, the counter-cultural message is less noticeable, limited pretty much to mock face-offs with a deranged army general and a marauding football coach. The screenplay is richly inventive, trading on the unexpected in often highly provocative ways. The film however belongs to Segal whose comedy instinct proves flawless, his hang-dog deadpan growing ever longer as the gallows grow ever closer. We want him to win, get control of life, and escape mom's clinging grasp. But can he.The film is not so much an attack on aged parents as a healthy plea for adult independence--old lady Hocheiser has few redeeming qualities while Gordon's irrepressible girlishness, unlike her role in Harold and Maude, resembles that of a demented kewpie doll. Admittedly, the movie is not for everyone, many scenes being as outrageous as they are funny. Yet the social commentary remains lively and incisive, and despite fashions of the day, retains a distinct relevancy. (Consider the old age home operated as a zombified warehouse by Paul Sorvino looking and acting like a mafia capo.) (My copy, incidentally, contains a humorously satisfying conclusion of a car exiting in long shot.) So, if you're curious about what even the permissive and freewheeling 60's found controversial, then take a chance on this one.

8 of 8 found the following review helpful:

Not for faint-of-heartAug 24, 2000
By Nathan Southern
It's incredible that Carl Reiner made this film, with perhaps the darkest sense of humor in cinema history, almost thirty years ago.. and dared to go much farther than any contemporary "gross out" comedies. It might be described as the 'ultimate litmus test' for those with a twisted sense of humor... shock gags abound, about military barbarism, racism, homosexual gang rape, transvestism, and incest. And the results are astounding... not only that so much of this works, but that screenwriter Klane managed to create characters with whom we empathize, while we're laughing with disbelief at the anarchic world they inhabit. "Poppa" surely packed a wallop with audiences when it was released in 1970. Much of the humor is sidesplitting, particularly an outrageous court sequence involving a psychotic war general and a disgruntled hippie (Rob Reiner). And Ruth Gordon, as usual, is a gem. But the film is horribly dated, and filled with long, slow, humorless stretches... several scenes feel insecure, as if nothing is happening. (For instance, Reiner includes two back-to-back driving montages). The audience shouldn't be forced to spend time waiting for the next set-up; it undercuts the comic pace of the film. "Poppa" definitely isn't for all tastes, but it remains a curio. Viewers who love deliberately offensive comedic material will find themselves in hog heaven.

6 of 6 found the following review helpful:

George Segal Kills in The Most Underrated Movie EverMay 31, 2000
By Stephen M. Kerwick
Anyone who doubts George Segal's place in the first rank of American actors over more than a generation needs to see Where's Papa. As a totally hapless, deadpan character he is far funnier in this hour and a half than lots of celebrated comics (Robin Williams, Chevy Chase)have been throughout their whole career. The courtroom scenes are the wildest ever of their type, as are the ones where Ron Leibman runs through Central Park trying to elude the gang of muggers. They can be likened to a Three Stooges comedy with profanity replacing the slapstick. This humor is more than black and certainly not for the sensitive (or the elderly), but almost 30 years after I first saw it, Robert Klane's script and Segal's performance still leave me incapacitated with laughter.

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