A Very Interesting Movie About a Very Interesting Man By The Name Of Andy Kaufman

Rating: 7/10 (17 January 2007)

First of all, I must state that I'd never heard of Andy Kaufman when I seen this movie on TV a couple of years ago. Therefore I found this movie very strange indeed. Was he a comedian? Was he a crazy man? Maybe both? I done some research and discovered that Andy Kaufman was an American 'comedian', or some would say an 'eccentric'. Having downloaded some videos from the internet and done a hell of a lot of reading up on this man, I watched Man On The Moon a second time, and it did make a little more sense to me then. The movie doesn't concentrate much on his childhood, but goes straight into some bizarre performances in various famous comedy clubs, glimpses of his personal life, his sheer eccentricity through to his untimely death from lung cancer. I suppose most would say "You either love him or hate him." The truth is I just don't know. Jim Carrey's performance is pretty much spot on and very watchable if this is your sort of thing. Was Andy Kaufman a crazy man? I don't think so. Then again there's his alter-ego Tony Clifton, but that's a whole other story... I just have to summarise that I believe Andy was a very clever, brave and manipulative person. He WASN'T A GENIUS. He was just brave to be as bold as he was with his fame and celebrity. As Mr. Kaufman once said about his audience: "I just want to play with their heads." BY MARK GRANT