The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990)
38%RT Audience Score: 26%
Awards & Nominations: 1 win & 5 nominations
The Bonfire of the Vanities is a vapid adaptation of a thoughtful book, fatally miscast and shorn of the source material’s crucial sense of irony. Add it to the pyre of Hollywood’s ambitious failures
The Bonfire of the Vanities” movie adaptation was a hot mess according to critics. They say it’s a far cry from the novel and that it’s a tedious farce. Some even compared it to the Three Stooges, which is not a compliment. It seems like the filmmakers tried to cram too much into a short amount of time, resulting in a hectic pace that made the movie feel weightless and unreal. It’s a shame because the book was widely read and anticipated, but the movie just didn’t live up to the hype. Maybe stick to the book on this one.
Production Company(ies)
Twentieth Century Fox,
Distributor
NA
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
346 E 59th Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
MPAA / Certificate
Rated R for language
Year of Release
1990
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:NA
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Language(s):English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Streaming): Aug 10, 2010
Genre(s)
Comedy/Drama
Keyword(s)
starring Tom Hanks, Melanie Griffith, Bruce Willis, Kim Cattrall, Saul Rubinek, Morgan Freeman, directed by Brian De Palma, written by Michael Cristofer, Comedy, Drama, box office bomb, R rating, reviewed by Jay Boyar, Steven Rea, Peter Travers, John Hartl, Sheila Benson, Gene Siskel, David Nusair, Ralph Novak, Gary Thompson, Roger Hurlburt, David Sterritt, Stephen Hunter, produced by Brian De Palma, Wall Street, tabloid reporter, scandal, trial, adaptation, Tom Wolfe, vapid, miscast, irony, pyre, Hollywood, failure
Worldwide gross: $15,691,192
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $36,174,307
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,485
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 3,944,854
US/Canada gross: $15,691,192
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $36,174,307
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,208
US/Canada opening weekend: $4,216,063
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $9,719,667
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 964
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $47,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $108,353,300
Production budget ranking: 359
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $58,348,252
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): -$130,527,245
ROI to date (est.): -78%
ROI ranking: 1,867
Bruce Willis – Peter Fallow
Melanie Griffith – Maria Ruskin
Kim Cattrall – Judy McCoy
Saul Rubinek – Jed Kramer
Morgan Freeman – Judge Leonard White
Director – Brian De Palma
Producer – Brian De Palma
Writer – Michael Cristofer
Director(s)
Brian De Palma
Writer(s)
Michael Cristofer
Producer(s)
Brian De Palma
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
1 win & 5 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (51) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (8) | Rotten (43)
If you’re interested in a faithful visual adaptation of Wolfe’s novel, be assured that this isn’t it.
June 28, 2013 | Rating: 3/5
Jay Boyar
Orlando Sentinel
TOP CRITIC
What a mess.
June 28, 2013 | Rating: 1.5/4
Steven Rea
Philadelphia Inquirer
TOP CRITIC
On film, Bonfire achieves a consistency of ineptitude rare even in this era of over-inflated cinematic air bags.
June 28, 2013
Peter Travers
Rolling Stone
TOP CRITIC
If you loved Wolfe’s book, you may very well hate the movie. If you simply liked the novel, you may be simultaneously entertained and disappointed by what De Palma and Cristofer have done to it.
June 28, 2013 | Rating: 2.5/4
John Hartl
Seattle Times
TOP CRITIC
Certainly Wolfe’s canvas might lend itself to a broad approach, but broad like Dr. Strangelove, not broad like the Three Stooges.
June 28, 2013 | Rating: 1/5
Sheila Benson
Los Angeles Times
TOP CRITIC
The film was cast wrong and written shallowly.
June 28, 2013 | Rating: 1.5/4
Gene Siskel
Chicago Tribune
TOP CRITIC
It’s ultimately not difficult to see why The Bonfire of the Vanities was (and still is) regarded as an epic big-budget bomb…
May 10, 2016 | Rating: 1.5/4
David Nusair
Reel Film Reviews
Brian DePalma lapses into idle, slapsticky digressions. You don’t get angry at what he’s attacking, or defensive; you just get weary.
June 28, 2013
Ralph Novak
People Magazine
Tom Wolfe’s widely read satire becomes a tedious farce, turning one of the year’s most anticipated movies into one of the most disappointing.
June 28, 2013 | Rating: 1.5/4
Gary Thompson
Philadelphia Daily News
Brian DePalma`s The Bonfire of the Vanities is a perfect example of how a best-selling book can be carefully altered, perceptively pruned and converted into an intriguing motion picture.
June 28, 2013
Roger Hurlburt
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Even as they’ve smoothed the novel’s rough edges… the filmmakers have tried to cram a maximum number of its incidents into about two hours of screen time. This gives the picture a hectic pace that adds to its feeling of weightlessness and unreality.
June 28, 2013
David Sterritt
Christian Science Monitor
Call it Bonfire of the Calamities.
June 28, 2013 | Rating: 1.5/4
Stephen Hunter
Baltimore Sun…
Plot
Financial “Master of the Universe” Sherman McCoy sees his life unravel when his mistress Maria Ruskin hits a Black boy with his car. When journalist Peter Fallow enflames public opinion with a series of distorted tabloid articles on the accident, the case is seized upon by opportunists like Reverend Bacon and mayoral candidate D.A. Abe Weiss.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Tom Hanks stars as powerful Wall Street executive Sherman McCoy in The Bonfire of the Vanities.
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