5/5 Best Comedy Ever!
  by Nicholas Carroll (Portland OR United States)
This film is one of the rare achievements in comedy: I can watch this over and over (and I have) and still laugh at the same parts. The jokes never wear out after a viewing or two. That's due in part to the excellent camaraderie between Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton. I simply can't imagine this film without any of those three, for they made their roles what it is and the interractions between the three of them are hilarious. Dabney Coleman as their sexist boss with an extremely naive wife is also hilarious as he gets his comeuppance.

Jane Fonda plays a mousy lady who enters the work force after her husband runs off with his secretary. Seeing her flustered by the photocopier is hilarious and it's fun to watch her transformation into a confident lady who can hold her own (gun) against the boss.

Lily Tomlin plays the lady who's been at the company for a long time and is passed over for a rightful promotion because she's a woman. I love her scene when she schemes to steal a body from the hospital, mistakingly thinking it's her boss's dead body. When she's in a doctor's white coat and a candy striper stops her and apologizes when she realizes she's interrupting a doctor, Lily says, "that's right, I'm a doctor...so why the hell am I talking to you?"

Dolly Parton plays the secretary who uses her God-given endowment to humorous effect. Dabney Coleman can't help to push pencil holders off his desk so she can bend down and pick them up while he gets to sneak a peak. It was this film that has made me a lifelong fan of Dolly Parton because I love how she rebukes her boss by telling him that she put up with his behavior because of the way she was brought up and won't tolerate it anymore and if he messes with her, she'll gladly turn him "from a rooster to a hen in one shot!" I especially loves how she tells him, "I never thought I'd live to say this about another human being, but you are evil, that's right, EVIL TO THE CORE!" Yow! She means business, but it only makes the boss more turned on, so she has to back her words with deeds, thus fulfilling her fantasy sequence.

The dream sequences are hilarious and it is interesting to see the way they each come true. I love Lily Tomlin's Disney-esque dream sequence, the one that causes the most problems. While the movie does veer off in a surprising way, and some might say outlandishly unrealistic, and while one reviewer mentioned that it doesn't end with a "big bang", I think the ending was delightfully ironic. The ladies improved the office environment, no one missed the boss, someone even higher up noticed the improvements and justice prevailed. Beautiful!

I was only a kid when I saw this film in theaters and it has been one of few films where the humor never gets old. Anytime I need a laugh, I can rely on this film to provide them despite the numerous times I've seen it. That's a credit to everyone involved in making this film, but most especially to the three actresses who really play well off each other with comedic brilliance! I'm glad they have released a special edition, as I waited to buy it on DVD for just such an edition. Now the long wait is over.

5/5 FEMINISM TURNED INTO COMEDY BUT THE POINT IS WELL TAKEN
  by Dr. Luther Wolfgang Polaris (orbiting within the Oort Cloud)
FIRST THOUGHTS - -

This movie is among the greatest 100 minute entertainment fests in existence. "9 to 5" reaches and touches everybody, both male and female somewhere personal and strangely satisfying. Though the plot is great and really moves, it is the smart "fantasy-revenge" ideas, dialogue and strong characterizations that keep this from becoming mean-spirited and thereby enable this movie to work so well for a diverse audience.

We need to salute Director/Screenwriter, Colin Higgins first. Higgins was the Screenwriter for "Harold and Maude", "Silver Streak" and "Foul Play", picking up a Golden Globe nomination for "Foul Play" in 1978. All of Higgins films have an air of sophistication and display a refreshing respect for the audience particularly in avoiding the obvious mean-spirited cliches that many of his films' topics' encompass. Also, Editor Pembroke J. Herring who was nominated for 3 Academy Awards for Editing and also edited "Ground Hogs Day", did an amazingly seamless job of keeping "9 to 5" so coherently glued together. Herring was nominated for "Best Editing" for; "Tora! Tora!Tora!", 1970, "Bound For Glory",1976, "Out Of Africa", 1985 and edited many other excellent comedies and dramas. Higgins and Herring worked together on a number films all of which turned out the better for their contribution and "9 to 5" is one of them.

The three female leads all embody some type of stereotype. Lily Tomlin, as Violet Newstead is the widow with four children, going it alone and trying to break into the male dominated executive world of big business for the past 12 years - UNSUCCESSFULLY. She is confident and capable but she is a woman in a man's world, so she is very dissatisfied with the treatment she has been getting by the male establishment embodied through F. Hart [Dabney Coleman]. Jane Fonda, as Judy Bernly, is in the middle of a divorce in which her no-good husband, Dick, played deftly by Lawrence Pressman, left her for his secretary. Judy is now entering the workforce unprepared and for the first time and especially unprepared for the living embodiment himself, F.Hart. Dolly Parton as the delightful Doralee Rhodes, who F.hart chases round and round the office and even tries getting to conventions that do not exist all for a good time - HIS, examplifies how office rumors can ruin peoples' reputations and of course by the living embodiment himself. That's F.Hart of course and he is the bane of these three "innocent women" and as we see, represents most everything that is wrong in their lives as they see it. BTW, Dolly Parton in this role was nominated for an "Oscar", "Best Song", and 3 "Golden Globes", includeing "Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy".

This film could not get off the ground without a worthy adversary to these very potent femme fatales in training. Dabney Coleman as Franklin Hart or just F.HART, delivers an oscar worthy effort in his role as the living embodiment of almost every rotten thing a man in charge can do to women under him at the office. He is "his" 3 "GIRLS" reason for being the way they are, at least throughout the film. Coleman very generously lends himself to the same type of role Carrol O'Connor did in "All In The Family" as a means of illustrating that some things are clearly and obviously wrong and need to be changed. Comedy and Cliches are powerful tools for evoking awareness and change and "9 to 5" serves that cause well, chiefly through the utterly despicable nature of Coleman's character. Man or woman, we all enjoy Coleman's comeupance and so will you.

My favorite scenes are the three completely different fantasies our heroines relay to each other while under the influence of marijuana. Naturally, these flights of fancy all involved some overdue and elaborate revenge against F.Hart. Even such animated Disney characters as "Snow White" make an appearance in Tomlin's depiction of Hart's demise. Naturally, the reality nearly repeats Tomlin's fantasy on the very next day, which leads our heroines to stealing a corpse, evading the police, kidnapping and much, much more.

The scenes and gags in this film all further the plot and just dove-tail so nicely and so entertainingly together that it is over all to soon. We are left wanting more without realizing we have just sat for over 100 minutes and the issues and conflicts motivating the characters and fueling the film's plot have been resolved.

This is a terrific black comedy. Our characters [3 female leads] gain our empathy as they enter into a kind of twilight zone where both their personal survival and convictions stretch these women and allow their characters to show what they are made of and achieve both personal growth and unexpected satisfaction. Their foil, F.HART after showing all how despicable he was, literally plunges into the abyss as if sent to purgatory and then hell for his misdeeds against women as the plot unfolds. "REEL JUSTICE", tidy and quick!! The topic and the settings have aged very well and even after a quarter century this film in no way seems dated.

--* THE CAST --* Colin Higgins - Director / Screenwriter

Jane Fonda - Judy Bernly
Lily Tomlin - Violet Newstead
Dolly Parton - Doralee Rhodes
Dabney Coleman - Franklin Hart Jr.
Sterling Hayden - Tinsworthy
Elizabeth Wilson - Roz
Henry Jones - Hinkle
Lawrence Pressman - Dick
Marian Mercer - Missy Hart

--* THE AWARDS --*

Best Song (nom) Dolly Parton 1980 Academy
Best Actress- Musical or Comedy (nom) Dolly Parton 1980 Golden Globe
Best Original Song (nom) Dolly Parton 1980 Golden Globe
New Star of the Year - Female (nom) Dolly Parton 1980 Golden Globe


DVD FEATURES:

It is widescreen [1.85:1] and much clearer than the VHS release. The Disney characters in Violet's fantasy demonstrate this obvious color and clarity improvement over the video release. It has 1 trailer and of course scene selection and is available on the same DVD in either English or French with English or Spanish subtitles or no subtitles at all [of course]. Naturally, some interviews and a neat featurette would be nice but again this is a large improvement over the old faded video releases.

FINAL THOUGHTS - - This wonderful film is highly recommended and "9 to 5s" entertainment value stands up very well to repeated viewings and the passage of 26 years.




4/5 YOU MUST HAVE THIS MOVIE ON DVD!
  by Timothy Mintline (Royal Oak, MI)
Possibly one of the best black comedies ever made, Tomlin steals the show as the murderer...I mean murderess Violet Newstead. It's not just hysterically written, it's also completely obvious that this movie was tons of fun to make. If you like dark comedies like "Death Becomes Her" and "Edward Scissorhands" you'll love "9 to 5". I've been watching a copy of a copy for 10 years & it is so great to see it as crystal clear as the day it was made. Dolly, Dabney, Jane, & Lily deliver fantastic performances throughout and all I can say is "atta girl"!

4/5 DVD is ok, movie is still awesome!
  by U2 Fan (Charlotte, NC United States)
First off, I'm a guy and I simply love this movie.

The ladies are all great and I just watched this new DVD copy last night and it still stand the test of time.

That being said (the movie gets 5 stars)

The dvd was just so-so.

First off, I was shocked that they didn't even bother to make the soundtrack in 5.1 digital audio!!! What!?!

I haven't bought a DVD in a long time that was just in stereo.

I was looking forward to hearing Dolly in 5.1 surround sound sing 9 to 5. :(

The film transfer was also dissapoiting. It looks like they didn't even bother to restore the film, they just cleaned it up a bit and threw it on the computer to be digitized.

The special features are also very lacking. The commentary with the ladies is great, the featurette is good but that's pretty much it.

There's a few other things, but come on. It's 25 years old and you just throw the DVD together? Very lazy.

Overall still a great movie that shows the struggles women had to put up with in the early 80's and how far things have come and haven't come these days.

I still can't believe we can't pay men and women the same pay for the same job.



5/5 Back when the glass ceiling was made of cement....
  by J. Arena (Williamsburg, VA)
I distinctly recall going to see 9 to 5 the day it opened in New York. After work, we headed to a theater on the upper east side. The theater was packed almost exclusively with women -- business suits and Reeboks, heels in tote bags: the office worker's uniform of the era. I felt as though we were at the clerical Woodstock!

The film began and the audience roared its appreciation of every recognized in-joke, corporate insult, character type, nuance of setting and growing comraderie of the three heroines! The laughter was so intense at times, that you'd miss the next line. There was A LOT of repeat business at the box office!

9 to 5 is still one of the funniest films I've ever seen. Times may have changed, but what made this movie great back then makes it great for the audience of today -- great writing and acting.

9 to 5 is a brilliant comedy, highly recommended!