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Still in search of a funny movie yesterday, I rented A SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM, the most recent Michael Caine movie. It was marketed as a black comedy. While it starts off pretty funny, and maintains a strong parody of pecking order in a New York company, it runs out of gas once Caine starts committing the murders he'd previously only thought about.
This movie is at its best when it's a comedy of manners. When you watch the way people's co-workers suck up to them, it's quite perceptive. The relationship between Caine and his spendthrift wife (Swoozie Kurtz) is amusing because her shrewishness is understated.
But the movie just stops being interesting once it starts taking itself too seriously. Michael Caine, at times, comes across as being deadly serious which added lead to the movie. Elizabeth McGovern gave a very sweet performance as Stella, Caine's smitten co-worker, but that too muddied what could have been a sharper movie.
A disappointing 4 on the movie scale.