clue is an unfairly ignored comedy , very similar to 1976 's murder by death .
this big screen version of the classic board game ( what 's next . . .
chutes and ladders : the motion picture ? ) is filled with slapstick antics and silly dialogue .
the plot , for what it 's worth , has all the characters from the game ( in this case , the names from the game are used as aliases ) meeting in an isolated mansion to confront mr .
boddy ( lee ving ) , the man who 's been blackmailing them all .
when he turns up dead , everyone ( including the audience ) must figure out whodunnit . . .
and in what room , and with what object .
while not as witty as neil simon 's murder by death , clue definitely has it moments .
it has so many moments in fact that i use a lot of the lines from the film when i 'm joking around with my friends .
to this day , whenever someone says the phrase " well , to make a long story short " i have the follow up phrase " too late " ready to go .
the cast ( all very good comedic talents ) play well off one another , while the late madeline kahn ( as the dark and sultry mrs .
white )
sometimes steals the film away from the rest . and colleen camp , as the french maid yvette , displays some of her natural talents as well .
clue is available on dvd from paramount home video .
it includes the film in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1 . 85 : 1 ( and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions ) and features the original theatrical trailer .
a french language audio track is also available .
the trailer holds up well considering most previews from that time do not , and it even includes a scene not in the film itself ( a scene that should have been in the film , as it 's a good joke ) .
also , the trailer is scored to the music from airplane !
, which was an interesting choice .
when clue played in theaters , it ran with the gimmick of three different endings . if you wanted to see all three , you had to go to the movies three separate times .
so when the film was released on home video , rather than releasing three separate videos , all three endings were included on one tape . . .
the first two endings being " what if ? " endings and the third ending being the actual ending .
now for the dvd release you get two choices .
you can watch the film as it was presented on home video or you can select to watch it with one of the three endings randomly chosen for you .
( note : there 's an easter egg hidden in the disc pertaining to this .
after watching the film with a randomly selected ending , when you return to the menu screen you will be able to highlight the large magnifying glass and select it .
when you do , a secret menu opens , allowing you to watch any of the three endings by themselves . )
now while i applaud the effort of paramount here , as they clearly tried to do something special with the disc , it just does n't work well .
first , why not give the viewer the choice of what ending we want to watch ?
maybe someone like myself who 's seen the movie hundreds of times would like to sit down and show it to someone with the second ending only .
i 'm no technical dvd expert , but i ca n't imagine that being too hard to accomplish .
secondly , the delay between when the film itself ends and one of the endings begins is too long and too obvious , thereby becoming a distraction right when you definitely do n't need a distraction .
finally , the back of the dvd case states " and now , with this special dvd version , you can see all 3 surprise endings " .
i have no idea why they would word it that way , since that 's not a special feature in the slightest .
the video has been out for fifteen years now (
good lord , has it been that long ? )
and it 's played on television with all three endings all the time .
these are merely minor complaints however , seeing that i 've watched the home video version hundreds of times and have no problem watching the film as such on the dvd .
the picture and sound are wonderfully improved over my worn out vhs copy , and
i 'm thrilled that paramount agrees with me that clue is a film worthy of being preserved on this great digital format .
[ pg ]
Output: P