| | | | Switching Channels
(1987) |
he past few reviews I've written have been about heady movies dealing with heavy topics. For my latest summary, I've decided to switch up the game plan. Here now is a romantic comedy with a breakneck pace to it. It's a little movie called "Switching Channels".
It's the tale of a woman named Christy Colleran (Turner), an ace reporter for Satellite News Network. Covering everything from SWAT raids to marathons, she's a kinetic being. She finally snaps one evening, breaking down into laughing hysterics after reading a story involving kazoo players and the President of The United States of America. She's sent on vacation by her ex-husband John L. Sullivan IV (also known as Sully, and played by Reynolds). While in the pristine woods of Canada, she meets a dashing, handsome multi-millionaire sporting goods manufacturer who goes by the name of Blaine Bingham (Reeve). After several passionate evenings, Colleran and Bingham decide to get married, and Christy decides to ditch the world of hard news. Colleran's decision will affect quite a few people, but chiefly, her ex-husband.
You see, this news is most distressing to Sully, who secretly still carries a torch for Christy. When faced with Blaine, a man who lives at the U.N plaza, Sully, a guy who practically lives in his office and eats Domino's Pizza for breakfast, is a little bitter, but trying to be a good sport, he offers Colleran and Bingham a lunch on his dollar. They take him up on the offer, but not before Sully rushes back in to SNN headquarters to get the drop on Blaine ...BIG TIME. Booking every flight out of Chicago to New York, Sully is set on winning Christy back.
While eating at a sports bar, Sully makes Colleran a deal. If he provides a gym for SNN headquarters with Bingham equipment, then she'll cover one more story for him. That story is the tale of Ike Roscoe (Gibson), a gentle man pushed to the extreme of murder after gunning down a crooked cop who hooked his kid on heroin. Sitting on Death Row, Roscoe is being used in a series of maneuvers between a popcorn-guzzling political stain named Roy Ridnitz (Beatty) and a Governor (Kimbrough). Ridnitz is shooting for the top, even if that means electrocuting a man who committed justifiable homicide.
We now go back to our main story, which finds Blaine getting news of booked planes and instead scheduling a train (I love poetry... Don't you?). Trying to distract the man, Sully sends his young assistant to guide Bingham downtown to pick out silver candlesticks for a train picnic. Getting to the store is one thing...Getting in the elevator is another. You see, Blaine is afraid of heights, and having gleaned this knowledge earlier, Sully put it to his own personal gain. Oh, what we do for love...
Finding out of Bingham's elevator antics, Christy makes a rush to the mall and gets her fiancee calmed down with some pillow talk and tongue kissing. With an Ike interview on the tape and a fearful fiancee by her side, Colleran heads back to SNN headquarters to go on the air... also to give Sully a ration of (bleep) for screwing around with the both of them. The time for that grows short after an editorial by Christy leads to the pardoning of Roscoe. Roy will have none of that, and so he gets the prison warden to move up the execution.
Will Christy choose Sully or Blaine? Will Ike go free or be electrocuted? Will Roy get what's coming to him?
Stay tuned...Don't go "Switching Channels"...
 Don't forget that Switching Channels is now available to order on DVD using our special 80s Retro Assistant...
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This movie (made in 1987, but released theatrically in 1988) is as close to perfect as they come. It's a kinetic, frenetic tale with machine-gun dialogue, great slapstick comedy, and people doing things we all wish we could do (Jumping on satellite dishes, pulling king-size phone pranks, eating junk food for breakfast).
This is a must-see, although it's rarely available now. Track it down... You won't be disappointed.
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You can now correct/update any item of trivia by clicking the "Update" button next to it...
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This movie stands as the 6th variation on Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's classic play "The Front Page". The 5 previous versions were the 1931 movie of the same name, a 1940 remake called "His Girl Friday", a British TV movie (one of the first ever) in 1948, a 1974 adaptation by Billy Wilder and the classic 80s series "Moonlighting". 
Charles Kimbrough, who plays the governor, would later go on to a long run on the series "Murphy Brown", where he played a news reporter.
In an appearance to promote the film on NBC's "Late Night with David Letterman", Kathleen Turner (Christy Colleran) was asked if it was like "Broadcast News" (1987), she said that it was better than "Broadcast News"! -Thanks to Robert Baum
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Rediscover your favorites! If you like
Switching Channels or 80's Romantic Comedy classics, then be sure to
check out this list: ..... Can't Buy Me Love ..... Say Anything ..... Some Kind Of Wonderful ..... Sixteen Candles ..... Valley Girl ..... Grandview, U.S.A. ..... Dance 'til Dawn ..... Don't Tell Her It's Me ..... Mannequin ..... Teen Wolf ..... Secret of My Success ..... Secret Admirer ..... Pretty In Pink ..... She's Having a Baby ..... Dream A little Dream .....[More]
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Michael Caine originally had the lead role but was held up by production delays on Jaws: The Revenge (1987).
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|  |  |  | | Switching Channels
Locations |
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This movie filmed all over the place, with scenes being filmed in Chicago, Illinois; Miami, Florida; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Can you help? Do you know any of the filming locations used for Switching Channels? [Please send them in]
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The score, at times jazzy, at times moving, was composed by Michel Legrand. The title theme, an instrumental, was composed by Legrand and Neil Diamond. I don't know if this was ever available.
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Soundtrack Available:
Unknown
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