Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Continental Divide (1981)

1/07/2025

Continental Divide (1981) - Unpersuasive Belushi comedy

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Co-star John Belushi looks unwell in the embrace of beautiful co-star Blair Brown on this poster for Michael Apted's Continental Divide

Ernie is a star journalist in Chicago, where everybody knows him, but where his knack for exposing the powerful is beginning to threaten his safety. And so he gets sent on an assignment to a woman who lives alone in the Rocky Mountains.

Continental Divide is written by Lawrence Kasdan (Mumford (1999)) and directed by Michael Apted (The Triple Echo (1972)).

Internal logic must yield to get this high-concept romcom train on a set of tracks: - Why does forceful Ernie go so far away, when he really doesn't want to, - for two weeks!?! His work and the totally predictable, clichéd romance are both elements that are presented stiffly, SPOILER and the ending, in which a pressured Kasdan seemingly wants to have his cake and eat it, too, has him letting the two get married, but then break up, as Ernie jumps on a train back to Chicago, is really bizarre.

It is a general flaw in Continental Divide that it tonally sits between chairs: At times an honest, romantic drama with a visual nature vs. city contrast, and at other times an over-the-top comedy vehicle for John Belushi (Neighbors (1981)). Of course the film should have been the latter thing from beginning to end. What we get instead is the subversive Belushi magic sterilized for 90 % of the time here in a thin cup of tea posing as a 'good time' film.

Michael Apted: Gorky Park (1983) - Cool Hurt investigates murders in Apted's fine Cold War Moscow thriller

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 9 mil. $

Box office: In excess of 15.5 mil. $ (North America alone)

= Uncertain but likely a flop (projected return of 2.22 times its cost)

[Continental Divide was released 1 September (Canada) and runs 103 minutes. It was the first film made by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment. Shooting took place from October 1980 - January 1981 in Chicago, Illinois, Washington DC, Colorado, Washington, Los Angeles, California, Idaho, Michigan and Montana. Belushi reportedly was sober for the duration of the shoot but then fell back into a cocaine-driven production with his next - and last - film, Neighbors, which led up to his 1982 death from a cocaine and heroine overdose. The film opened #1 to a 3.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 15.5 mil. $. Its foreign release was limited to 9 other markets, and the result may have been small. A 20 mil. $ final gross is projected, which would rank the film as a flop. It was nominated for a Golden Globe. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. Apted returned with P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang (1982, TV movie), First Love (1982, TV-series) and theatrically with Gorky Park (1983). Belushi returned in Neighbors (1981); Blair Brown (Fringe (2008-12)) in American Playhouse (1982, TV-series), Kennedy (1983, miniseries) and theatrically in A Flash of Green (1984). Continental Divide is fresh at 73 % with a 6.20/10 average rating at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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1/07/2025

Continental Divide (1981) - Unpersuasive Belushi comedy

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