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I doubt if it's true that the clients are saner than the psychiatrists, but it is a belief much cherished by comedy writers, who love to devise stories like the one in "The Couch Trip." A rich and famous radio psychiatrist has a crackup, his agent hires a temporary replacement and the new man is actually a mental patient masquerading as a doctor.

The inmates have been taking over the asylum for years in the movies: What made this particular version sound promising was the casting. Charles Grodin , that master of self-righteous pomposity, plays the famous psychiatrist; Dan Aykroyd is the escaped mental patient, and Walter Matthau has the third important role, as a street crazy who inevitably turns out to be saner and nicer than anyone else. Alas, despite its cast, "The Couch Trip" is a disappointment, a missed opportunity.

I believe that to be really good, a movie like this has to depend almost entirely on the personalities of its characters and the actors who play them. The humor comes from the behavior, not the details of the plot - out of the moment, out of carefully observed quirks of human nature.

The best moments in "The Couch Trip" do exactly that, but there are not enough of them, and the ending is a mindless and meaningless action sequence, with Aykroyd dangling from a helicopter to talk Matthau out of jumping off the top of the Hollywood sign.

When the history of Hollywood movies in the 1980s is written, it will be the story of the disappearance of the third act. At some point about a decade ago, while no one was paying attention, there seems to have been an informal agreement among studios, writers and directors that all movies would end with a mechanical, formula action climax. In thrillers, the ending is a chase and a shootout. In comedies, it's some kind of a bizarre set piece involving stunts or special effects.

Hollywood abandoned all notions that a movie should end as it began, with the relationships of the characters.

Too bad. "The Couch Trip" begins well. Grodin, one of the most dependable comic actors in the movies, creates a small classic in his protrayal of Dr. George Maitlin, whose advice to radio listeners is concocted out of secondhand generalizations and an inflated notion of his own genius. Grodin is a master at creating characters who are deeply insecure, who stand rigidly on principle and who act as if they are smarter than anyone else because they suspect they are more stupid.

After his breakdown, he advises his attorney to hire the least-qualified replacement he can find, so that when Grodin returns he will be welcomed with relief by his listeners.

When the lawyer telephones an obscure mental health facility in the Middle West, the telephone is answered by one of the patients (Aykroyd). He accepts the job, escapes from the facility, flies to the Coast, and of course becomes an overnight celebrity. His formula is simple. He states the obvious, uses common sense and is not afraid to offend his listeners.

At the airport, he runs across a panhandler (Matthau) whose case begins to interest him. Matthau is not crazy, but he is one of those forlorn citizens whose objections to the whole insanity of society seem so bothersome that society would rather sweep him under its carpet. The two men become friends, and that leads to the elaborate and sentimental climax, which undercuts the entire movie. What "The Couch Trip" needed was less of Matthau and more of Grodin, who is exiled in London for much of the story and would have been funnier at the center of things, trying to recapture his radio program.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

The Couch Trip (1988)

Walter Matthau as Donald Becker

Charles Grodin as George Maitlin

Mary Gross as Vera Maitlin

Donna Dixon as Laura Rollins

Richard Romanus as Harvey Michaels

Dan Aykroyd as John Burns

Directed by

• Michael Ritchie

Produced by

• Lawrence Gordon

Screenplay by

• Steven Kampmann
• Will Porter

Photographed by

• Donald E. Thorin
• Richard A. Harris
• Michel Colombier

Based On A Novel by

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The Couch Trip (1988)

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The Couch Trip

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Dan Aykroyd

Walter Matthau

Donald Becker

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George Maitlin

Donna Dixon

Laura Rollins

Richard Romanus

Harvey Michaels

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Netflix has added a true story comedy movie about a hit man and it's got a 97% score on Rotten Tomatoes

Netflix has added a film about a hit man with a near-perfect rotten tomatoes score although all is not quite as it seems.

Poppy Bilderbeck

A film based on a true story has achieved a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score and it's just been added to Netflix.

If you'd already sped your way through the second season of a 'brutal' Irish crime drama which landed on the streaming service, alongside a series which left viewers 'too scared to sleep' then how about a comedy about a hit man based on a real person to lighten the mood a bit?

Granted, it seems a bit peculiar to make a comedy about a hitman, however, all is not quite as it seems.

The 2023 release - titled Hit Man - was produced and directed by Richard Linklater - best known for hits such as School of Rock and Boyhood - and stars the likes of Glen Powell ( Top Gun: Maverick), Adria Arjona ( Andor) and Retta ( Parks and Recreation).

The film focuses on the character of a man named Gary Johnson, a college professor and technology whizz who ends up pretending to be a hitman.

Why? Well, so he can catch people out who are trying to actually hire a hitman.

And the character is actually based on a real life person too.

The Netflix film is loosely based on the true story of man of the same name - Gary Johnson.

In the 1980s and 90s, the real Johnson indeed posted as a hit man for the Houston police.

A 2001 Texas Monthly article written by Skip Hollandsworth detailed Johnson's incredible story, branding him the 'Lawrence Olivier' of fake police hit men. Both Linklater and Powell ended up stumbling across it, Linklater telling UNILAD they must've discovered it '19 years apart, maybe 20'.

And it hasn't taken long for viewers to be captivated by the story too since it was released onto Netflix earlier today (7 June).

Hit Man has achieved an exciting Rotten Tomatoes' tomatometer score of 97 percent, alongside an audience score of 95 which one social media user noted is 'well deserved'.

And it's not taken long for the love of the comedy to spill over onto X too.

One user wrote: "I just finished it, this role must’ve been so much fun to film for Glen Powell. He absolutely KILLED IT. (Well, I guess not 'Kill.')."

"I woke up this morning and while I was getting ready I remembered Hit Man came out on Netflix, so I threw it on and wound up watching the first 30 minutes again. Richard Linklater and Glen Powell wrote a damn near perfect screenplay and it’s so immediately apparent," another added.

And a third commented: "Damn he helped write it? you go glen coco."

Topics:  Entertainment , Film , Rotten Tomatoes , TV and Film , Netflix , US News

Poppy Bilderbeck is a Senior Journalist at LADbible Group. She graduated from The University of Manchester in 2021 with a First in English Literature and Drama, where alongside her studies she was Editor-in-Chief of The Tab Manchester. Poppy is most comfortable when chatting about all things mental health, is proving a drama degree is far from useless by watching and reviewing as many TV shows and films as possible and is such a crisp fanatic the office has been forced to release them in batches.

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NEWS... BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

Netflix hidden gem with 94% Rotten Tomatoes rating is disappearing soon

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Each week our man Steve Charnock breaks into the vast vaults of the UK’s many streaming services, emerging with a swag bag of deserted diamonds, hidden gems and genre gold. Forget the latest in disposable ‘content’, it’s time to work on your watchlist…

Streaming services are always telling us all about their endless new films and TV shows. Some of it’s worth watching, while a lot of it is a bigger waste of time than asking Tom Hardy to just try doing a normal voice for a part.

Netflix , Amazon Prime Video , Apple TV+ , Disney Plus , NOW TV , BBC iPlayer… They’re all jammed solid with high-quality old stuff, though. Or ‘content’ as they rather off-puttingly refer to it.

When it’s not being pushed at you, it’s all rather easy to overlook. So why waste time watching potentially ropey new films and TV series, when you can enjoy excellent old ones?

Just like these…

Gone Baby Gone (2007) – Netflix

When you think of Ben Affleck, what do you think of? An extremely successful A-list Hollywood actor? The third-best Batman of the last 12 years? Or maybe you picture him as the bloke who has a quick sad-smoke when taking out J-Lo’s bins.

It’s easy to forget that Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt’s also a highly capable, award-winning director who’s made some genuinely standout films in his short career behind the camera.

There’s The Town, Argo, Air, Live by Night (alright, maybe not Live by Night…). But arguably the best of the bunch came in 2007 with his debut in the director’s chair, the impeccable crime thriller Gone Baby Gone.

In it, big bro Ben directs lil’ bro Casey, who gives a typically committed showing as a private detective hunting down a missing girl with his colleague and girlfriend, played by True Detective’s Michelle Monaghan.

It’s based on Dennis Lehane’s 1998 neo-noir novel and set in Boston (Massachusetts, not Lincolnshire), the city of The Affleck Brothers’ youth. So expect some ‘wicked’ BAAASTUN accents, plenty of seedy dive bars and a lot of dubious vest/chain/tracksuit combos.

Watch out too for top supporting performances from Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris and – in particular – Amy Ryan, who bagged an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her work here.

Holding a deserved Rotten Tomatoes rating of 94%, Gone Baby Gone is gritty, tense, and packs a weighty punch with a genuinely surprising – and clever – twist ending. Not only that, but it presents its audience with a genuine moral quandary at the end that you’ll be left contemplating for days.  

This perfectly-paced thriller leaves UK Netflix on June 14. So if you’re keen to catch it, hurry up before it’s gone, baby, gone.

If you like it, try streaming: Mystic River, Prisoners, The Pledge

Blow Out (1981) – Amazon Prime Video

In terms of his career, John Travolta came in seriously hot. The now-iconic horror smash Carrie was just his second movie, filmed as a fresh-faced 21 year-old. A year after Carrie’s release he was starring in Saturday Night Fever, a bona fide cultural phenomenon. His next role? Only Danny Zuko in Grease.

Not a bad start, eh?

Three features later and he was Jack Terry in Blow Out, a movie sound effects technician who unintentionally captures audio evidence proving that a supposed car crash that killed a presidential candidate was actually murder. Putting him in the middle of a political conspiracy. As was so often the case for the poor folk starring in films of the late 1970s and early ‘80s.

Critics of director Brian De Palma (Scarface, The Untouchables, Casualties of War) tend to dismiss him as something of a cuckoo helmsman, lifting themes, styles and ideas from his peers and predecessors. While his fans would point out that Hollywood is all about homage (a fancy way to say ‘nicking stuff’). Quentin Tarantino’s made a career of it, after all.

Blow Out is actually one of QT’s favourite flicks, and with good reason. It’s a bit of a slow burn, but films of this era tend to be. Travolta swaggers about, all impossibly young and handsome, while Nancy Allen is great as a sex worker caught up in all the intrigue. Then there’s an early- ish outing from a young- ish (and brilliantly over-the-top) John Lithgow as the bad guy hitman type.

If political conspiracies aren’t your thing, there’s still plenty to enjoy here. Especially for film buffs… From the tongue-in-cheek schlocky horror-film-within-a-film Terry works on, to the hat tips to Michelangelo Antonioni’s ’60s classic Blow-Up. That not float your interest boat? Just stream it for Travolta’s beautifully-coiffed hair.

If you like it, try streaming: The Conversation, Rear Window, Berberian Sound Studio

The English (2022) – Amazon Prime Video, BBC iPlayer

Unlike so many of the trigger-happy gunslingers, buffoonish sheriffs, poor innocent ranchers, black hat bad guys and arrow-firing Native Americans in them, The Great American Western never seems to die.

There’s something comforting about the format, style and tropes of the dusty, chewing tobacco-stained genre. Even when more modern takes on the western subvert things a tad.

This six-part ‘revisionist’ western series ‘revises’ the traditional cowboy flick by making its lead not only entirely ignorant about cows, but a girl. And an English one, at that. In the unlikely leading role is the always flawless Emily Blunt.

Western fans needn’t worry, though. The crux of the story is as familiar and consoling as your favourite old gnarly ten gallon hat, that sarsaparilla-flecked Stetson passed down to you by your pappy… Only The English is all about revenge .

Blunt’s Lady Cornelia Locke heads out West looking to heap some vengeance on the man responsible for the death of her son. It soon becomes apparent that meting out justice isn’t all that easy when you’re a well-to-do woman in the wild, wild west.

This is rough, tough watching, no doubt about it. With villains oozing untold deviance and menace. Gruelling plotlines and heartbreaking developments are soothed somewhat by the gorgeous scenery and cinematography, though.

Barbaric violence has never looked so lovely or felt so classy. And all without John Wayne’s pot belly in sight. If you like it, try streaming: Godless, Deadwood, 1883

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‘Furiosa' Box Office Puts Brakes on George Miller's Next ‘Mad Max' Movie

Forty-five years after George Miller introduced audiences to Mad Max , the auteur may have finally hit the end of the road through the post-apocalyptic wasteland unless he finds some high-octane gasoline soon.

The revered filmmaker's  Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga  bowed to a disappointing $32 million domestically for the four-day Memorial Day weekend and $32.8 million overseas, diminishing hopes for  Mad Max: The Wasteland , another  Max  installment Miller has been toying with for years.

Miller and Nico Lathouris wrote the scripts for both  The Wasteland  and  Furiosa  as part of the development process of  Mad Max: Fury Road , the 2015 Warner Bros. film that became a surprise awards season juggernaut, winning six Oscars, and which became an instant action classic.  The Wasteland  would follow Max Rockatansky in the year before Fury Road , and is said to involve a young mother - and (naturally) include plenty of action. 

In recent weeks, Miller has acknowledged much was hinging on Furiosa in terms of the possibility of The Wasteland . "I'll definitely wait to see how this [ Furiosa ] goes, before we even think about it," Miller told journalists May 16, the morning after the dystopian action-adventure played at the Cannes Film Festival to a 7-minute standing ovation. Sources agree that Wasteland's fate is complicated by Furiosa ‘s box office, but stress it wasn't even in development. For its part, Warners - where Miller is a beloved figure - says it is incredibly proud of Furiosa .

The reaction from moviegoers is likely as positive as Miller hoped; it boasts a 90 percent positive audience score rating on Rotten Tomatoes and earned a B+ Cinemascore. But in a troubling and unexpected twist, far fewer females and younger male adults showed up than came out for Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road nine years ago.

On Fury Road 's opening weekend, the split was 60 percent male to 40 percent, according to sources with access to exit surveys conducted by PostTrak. But Furiosa 's audience was 71 percent male and 29 percent female, a worrisome decline and a startling number for a feature marketed as a female-driven vehicle. And the 18-24 age group, who are the most frequent moviegoers, plummeted from 31 percent for  Fury Road to 21 percent for  Furiosa .

Observers note that  Fury Road  aside, the male-fueled  Mad Max  series has always catered to a somewhat niche audience. The first three films, starring Mel Gibson, grossed less than $70 million combined.

"IP like Mad Max and Ghostbusters is  old , and they have the fans they're going to have," says one theater chain executive. "If studios can budget to that, they might make some decent money."

Talk of making Miller's next Mad Max film could resurface if Furiosa gets a major tune up and enjoys a road trip down the box office highway, as Fury Road did thanks to a strong multiplier. But many veteran box office pundits are doubtful whether such a recovery is possible, with one rival studio saying it could have a hard time getting past $90 million domestically.

Fury Road , which successfully rebooted the franchise by recasting Gibson with Tom Hardy and introducing Charlize Theron's Furiosa, opened to $45.3 million domestically on its way to grossing$ 379.4 million worldwide - a juggernaut by the standards of the franchise, and a modest hit by Hollywood standards considering it had a net budget of at least $157 million before marketing. Still, it had an outsized cultural impact, enough for the previous regime at Warner Bros. to greenlight Furiosa , as it seemed the studio had a revitalized franchise on its hands, and it would be a way of honoring Miller and the 45-year anniversary of Mad Max. Miller, who remains a beloved figure within the studio, doesn't like to use visual effects, which pushes up production costs.  

Miller opted not to bring back Theron, as he felt that de-aging technology utilized in films such as Martin Scorsese's  The Irishman  was distracting to audiences. (Theron, for her part, was sad not to return , despite her grueling experience shooting the first one.) Instead, Miller cast Anya Taylor-Joy as a younger version of Theron's titular character, and added Chris Hemsworth as a warlord. Furiosa is also a Mad Max movie without Mad Max (save for a small cameo).  

"I think Furiosa suffered without Charlize. People who see the movie love it. The problem is getting them into theaters. She would have been able to do that," says one studio insider.

Adds a veteran Hollywood executive, " Fury Road was an outlier in the series. It also had a hot young star and a huge female star. Nine years later, it had neither."

Furiosa caps a May that will go down in infamy in box office lore. Due to the strikes, mega-tentpoles that have come to define summer were delayed, prompting moviegoing overall to plummet and theater chains hoping for a better 2025 (just survive til '25 has become a mantra for studios and theater owners) . Miller's film was never intended to be an all-audience tentpole that anchors Memorial Day - last year, The Little Mermaid debuted to $118 million - but like other recent titles, it still came in well behind tracking predictions of $40 to $45 million.

Wall Street and Hollywood knew this year was going to be tough, and say declarations that theatrical is over are overblown.

"Let's see what happens next year with Mission: Impossible and in 2026 with the next Star Wars movie," says box office analyst Eric Handler of Roth Capital.

All eyes are now on June's Inside Out 2 and July's Despicable Me 4 and Deadpool & Wolverine to energize the marketplace and help other films in the process.

"This fever will hopefully break in June and July with an over performance by at least one of the high-profile films to get the wind back in the sails of the box office," says Paul Dergarabedian of Comscore.

As for Furiosa , it has the upcoming weekend to itself and will still be playing in Imax and premium large-format screens, which ponied up a significant portion of the opening weekend gross. Then, it will have to contend with another vehicle and gun-heavy feature, Sony's Bad Boys: Ride or Die .

-James Hibberd contributed to this story.

More from The Hollywood Reporter

• Box Office Meltdown: 'Furiosa' Edges Past 'Garfield' to Win Memorial Day With Worst No. 1 Opening in Three Decades
• Box Office: 'Furiosa' Rides to $3.5M in Thursday Previews, 'Garfield' Chases Down $1.9M

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The Beauty of Embracing Aging

By Charles M. Blow

Opinion Columnist

As Evelyn Couch said to Ninny Threadgoode in Fannie Flagg’s “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe”: “I’m too young to be old and too old to be young. I just don’t fit anywhere.”

I think about this line often, this feeling of being out of place, particularly in a culture that obsessively glorifies youth and teaches us to view aging as an enemy.

No one really tells us how we’re supposed to age, how much fighting against it and how much acceptance of it is the right balance. No one tells us how we’re supposed to feel when the body grows softer and the hair grayer, how we’re supposed to consider the creping of the skin or the wrinkles on the face that make our smiles feel unfortunate.

The poet Dylan Thomas told us we should “rage, rage against the dying of the light,” that “old age should burn and rave at close of day.” He died, sadly, before turning 40.

For those of us well past that mark, rage feels futile, like a misallocation of energy. There is, after all, a beauty in aging. And aging is about more than how we look and feel in our bodies. It’s also about how the world around us plows ahead and pulls us along.

I remember a call, a few years ago, from a longtime friend who said it looked as if her father was about to pass away. I remember meeting her, along with another friend, at her father’s elder care facility so she wouldn’t have to be alone, and seeing the way her tears fell on his face as she stroked his cheeks and cooed his name; the way she collapsed in the hallway on our way out, screaming, not knowing if that night would be his last.

He survived, and has survived several near-death experiences since, but I saw my friend’s struggle with her father’s health difficulties as a precursor to what might one day be my struggle with my parents’ aging and health challenges. And it was.

Soon after that harrowing night at the elder care facility, my mother, who lives alone, suffered a stroke. Luckily, one of my brothers was having breakfast with her that morning and, noticing that her speech was becoming slurred, rushed her to the emergency room.

On the flight to Louisiana, I tried in vain to remain calm, not knowing what condition she would be in when I arrived, not knowing the damage the stroke had done. When I finally laid eyes on her, it was confirmed for me how fortunate we were that my brother had been alert and acted quickly. My mother would fully recover, but the image of her in that hospital bed — diminished from the commanding, invincible image of her that had been burned into my mind — shook me and has remained with me.

In that moment, I was reminded that my mother was in the final chapter of her life, and that I was moving into a new phase of mine.

That is one of the profound, emotional parts of aging: assuming a new familial role. Recognizing that my brothers and I were graduating from being the uncles to being the elders.

And that shifting family dynamic exerts itself on both ends, from above and below. This year, my older son turned 30. There’s no way to continue to consider yourself young when you have a child that age. He isn’t a father yet, but it has dawned on me that by the time I was his age, I had three children and my marriage was coming to an end. In fact, by the time I was his age, all of my mother’s grandchildren had been born.

No matter how young you may look or feel, time refuses to rest. It forges on. I’m now right around the age my parents were when I first considered them old.

I’m not sure when the world will consider me old — maybe it already does — but I do know that I’m no longer afraid of it. I welcome it. And I understand that the best parts of many books are their final chapters.

The actress Jenifer Lewis, appearing on the nationally syndicated radio show “The Breakfast Club,” once remarked : “I’m 61. I got about 30 more summers left.” Since hearing those words, I’ve thought of my own life in that way, in terms of how many summers I might have left. How many more times will I see the leaves sprout and the flowers bloom? How many more times will I spend a day by the pool or enjoy an ice cream on a hot day?

I don’t consider these questions because I’m worried, but because I want to remind myself to relish. Relish every summer day. Stretch them. Fill them with memories. Smile and laugh more. Gather with friends and visit family. Put my feet in the water. Grow things and grill things. I make my summers count by making them beautiful.

I have no intention of raging against my aging. I intend to embrace it, to embrace the muscle aches and the crow’s feet as the price of growing in wisdom and grace; to understand that age is not my body forsaking me but my life rewarding me.

Aging, as I see it, is a gift, and I will receive it with gratitude.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp , X and Threads .

Charles M. Blow is an Opinion columnist for The New York Times, writing about national politics, public opinion and social justice, with a focus on racial equality and L.G.B.T.Q. rights. @ CharlesMBlow • Facebook

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