This is probably the most difficult movie for me to critique. The cast includes several of the greatest comedic talent of the twentieth century, and the material is to die for. In addition, I find the Jewish humor of both Arkins, both Reiners, Sid Caesar, Woody Allen, etc. to be some of the best available in cinema. I soooo wanted to love this movie!! Unfortunately, I cannot wholeheartedly recommend it, and beyond saying simply that it isn't as funny as it could have been, I would have some trouble explaining why. Leonard Maltin gave this a 1-star review, calling it "truly unbearable." And yet Keith Bailey, one of my personal favorite reviewers, stated on his website www.badmovieplanet.com that he absolutely laughed himself silly with this movie, calling it a "comic masterpiece." Other reviewers on this website are similarly at polar opposite opinions, and this made me insanely interested in seeing it for myself. Though it has mysteriously never been available on video or DVD, I did find a quality bootleg copy on ebay. As far as I'm concerned, neither of the two reviewers is correct - my appraisal is more of a middle ground between the two.

It seems to me that Robert Klane had a fantastic script, which pulled out all the stops, balancing almost six wacky subplots surrounding a dysfunctional Jewish family. The multiple-subplot structure of "Seinfeld" episodes most certainly takes its inspiration from this movie. Several individual lines are magnificent, the ideas are completely original, but the execution was inefficient. For one, the cinematography is some of the worst I have ever seen - the whole movie is too dark due to insufficient lighting. Second, the timing of most of the jokes is way off. The best example is a scene involving the simultaneous asthmatic attack of both Rob Reiner's character and his father. On paper, this could have been a wonderful bit of dual comic overacting, but the actors underplay it, as if they are embarrassed by the whole thing. And director Arkin makes the unwise decision to prolong the scene for what seems an eternity.

Similar sloppiness pervades the movie, and as such, I found the IDEAS of the movie downright hilarious, but I just couldn't laugh while I was watching it. This is one of those movies that seem a lot more entertaining in hindsight than while you were actually viewing it. That might be the reason why so many reviewers here have fond recollections after so many years. Mind you, I'm not saying it is a bad movie, and that you should steer clear of it as Maltin suggests. But what I am saying is that it has been overrated for two reasons: 1) It has basically disappeared from the public for 28 years, giving it a cult movie mystique, and 2) People have overly nostalgic memories after not having seen it for many years.

Because I love the type of comedy this movie aspired to be, I would like to make a recommendation. Instead of seeing this movie, I suggest Larry Cohen's 1981 horror spoof "Full Moon High," also starring Arking and his son Adam. That movie had similarly anarchic Jewish humor, but the difference is that that movie pulled everything off magnificently, and additionally its is much easier and cheaper to find on video. That film was, indeed, a comic masterpiece.

Four stars? - give me a break!

I was thrilled and amused when I saw this as a kid - so many unconventional scenes, so many people who don't behave ...

Alright this is not that entertaining for people of today who have lost any attention span. And it's not as brilliantly made as "Where's Poppa?", also written by Robert Klane, but it does have its moments, i.e. most scenes that Arkin and Gardenia are in. Reiner is pretty inept here as usual, though. Kay Medford is very good as a Mother out of touch with reality. A good cast in general.

Some scenes lack a better execution but on the whole this is an original idea that has several subplots which are nicely tied up. Greed, ineptness, dysfunctional families, madness and irritation manifest themselves in many different ways.

Most locations are pretty "awful" by today's viewing habits but that is the exact charm of this movie as opposed to all the slick and sterile over-produced forgettable comedies of today. The settings make this movie look "real" and might tend to make people uneasy about the story because it seems people don't really get their way - no matter how they try. That makes for good comedy because this is how life is when you constantly overreach: You make a fool of yourself.

The main problem with this seems to be that the ideas are funny but better production and direction would not have hurt. This could very well be remade but I doubt people today want to see anyone on the screen who is over 40 years old... And that is pathetic.

After reading the positive comments here and seeing the 1 star rating on my digital cable guide, I decided to give it a chance (plus, I'm a big Alan Arkin fan after seeing him in 'Catch-22', 'Glengarry Glen Ross', and 'Little Murders'). And I have to say that it's not as bad as it's made out to be. It's actually really really funny--if you have a certain sense of humor. I was dying with laughter during the scene where Arkin and Rob Reiner started fighting on the father's bed--on top of the father! There were other good scenes: the kids throwing the rocks through the windows, Arkin approaching the basketball player on the court, the crazy Jewish mother throughout the whole movie, "Keep Out Putz!" written on the office door and the scene with the comatose dad and the insurance guys. I could go on because I really liked this movie. The only thing that kinda bugged was Rob Reiner's attacks, but eh. What are you gonna do?

I think that you have to enjoy a certain type of humor to find this movie funny. During the whole thing I found myself drawing parallels to my favorite sitcom, Arrested Development. Crazy dysfunctional family? Check. Adopting a kid of a completely different race for personal gain? Check. Buring down a business for money? Check. (Episode 2 of Season 1--Top Banana!) Multiple story lines that culminate into one big finale? Yup. And there was even a big wacky ending involving all the family members. Both are very slapstick-y comedies with both dry and over the top jokes. If you love that kind of humor, then you'll really like Fire Sale. If you're more into standard comedies, then you'll probably become very easily annoyed and change the channel.

I'd love to see a cheap DVD of this movie out in a letterbox format. I remember Fox Movie Channel used to run some kind of promo trailer/short documentary before showing it, so I'd love to see that as well. Plus, some of the scenes are very dark. I'm not sure if this is the print of the movie or Arkin's intention, but it would be nice to see this movie remastered and released in the future, but that probably won't happen. A girl can dream though!