The Real Howard Spitz

1998
5.6| 1h42m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 28 August 1998 Released
Producted By: The Mob Film Company
Country:
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Howard Spitz is a cranky, has-been detective novelist out of money and out of luck - until he meets eight-year-old Samantha, who convinces him he has what it takes to write children's books.

Genre

Comedy

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Director

Vadim Jean

Production Companies

The Mob Film Company

The Real Howard Spitz Videos and Images

The Real Howard Spitz Audience Reviews

Diagonaldi Very well executed
Steinesongo Too many fans seem to be blown away
Inmechon The movie's only flaw is also a virtue: It's jammed with characters, stories, warmth and laughs.
Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
jorge mario correa toro I love it! When I hear the English of this movie I can't help continuing watching this movie. The little girl is cute and smart and a wonderful actress for me. The music is great: Jazz, kinda Broadway Musical and rap, the movie includes rap, I wonder where can I find the original soundtrack and the video of the animated rap. Some scenes are really funny, I enjoy this movie a lot. The 80's style is something that makes me remember part of my life. I think this movie could be part of the inspiration of the successful movie: Despicable Me. The movie teach the importance of be real and tell the truth.I give 10 out of 10 to this movie.
bob the moo Howard Spitz is a writer of gritty detective thrillers; problem is more people have been on the moon than actually buy his books and the debts are piling up. Bitter and angry, he has a revelation when he meets Theodora Winkle – an author of children's books who sells millions of simple books at $9 each. Spitz cannot believe it could be so simple to print cash and decides to bash out a book about "Crafty Cow", get it printed and watch the money roll in. Reading books in the kids section of the library, he meets Samantha Kershaw who tells him all kids love the books and off he goes. However when his first draft is a gritty detective thriller featuring a dead cow he returns to the library and asks for Samantha's help in writing the book. In return he tells her he will look for her father – who left Sam's mother before she was born. Everything is simple until he finds out that he will have to meet the children his books sell to.Late one night in the UK, this film was screened on terrestrial television and several of the top reviewers on IMDb settled down to watch it – namely MovieCritic and Theo; what was this classic you ask? Well "The Real Howard Spitz". And what a rather uneven affair it is too, in many regards. When you look at the basic premise it sounds good and parts of the film are funny and enjoyable; but the plot is cluttered with some ideas that don't work as well as others and it makes the film feel rather messy and full of as many good moments as average/weak moments. Generally it is enjoyable but it is a very uneven film that requires you to be a bit forgiving and undemanding. The direction strangely matches this feel; mostly it is straightforward but it also throws in lots of strange angles and uses weird lenses occasionally – it doesn't take a great deal away from the film but it doesn't add anything either (although some of the camera work was pretty cool). Also, as others have seen, the use of music was strange as well.The performances are mixed. Personally I thought Grammar was pretty good – a nice step away from his usual Fraiser character but yet still with a similar dark wit to him that works. Donohue could have been anybody and was unmemorable. Tessier was pretty much an annoyingly cute kid but what makes her performance good is that her and Grammar have chemistry and go together pretty well. The support cast are so-so, not making a great impression at any point without really being "bad"; but the film is Grammar's and I enjoyed him.Overall this is a mixed and uneven affair that just about did enough to entertain me. The ideas are mostly good but the scattergun feel to it doesn't help it work and it really could have done with being tighter and more fully developed. It is quite funny, quite interesting and quite engaging – not great, but distracting and different enough to be worth seeing.
Mark Price Well I like Kelsey Grammar so I decide to watch this last night. Now I know he is not box office and my expectations were not built up so I was pleasantly surprised that I not only enjoyed it overall but laughed out loud in parts – mostly from the daughter. She had the best lines! Amanda Donohoe, normally glam personified played not quite plain but lacking self esteem very well. Kelsey Grammar plays the usual and that is not knocking him, he does that cynical but soft underneath to perfection. Yes a lot of the plot is predicable but you are hardly going to see something new. The main cast play well of each other and the one-liners are thrown away in a timely fashion.I can only think the earlier review had jet lag or bad service on his air flight. This is an excellent B movie.
MarioB Sometimes funny comedy that reminds me of the Shirley Temple pictures of the 1930's. Not great, but quite O.K. for adults, but not really for kids. It's a B movie. But I prefer this kind of B movie than big major Hollywood disgusting pictures with violence, guns and stupidity.