Amazon.com

Actually, this comedy is one of the more enjoyable films to examine midlife crisis in the 1980s. Written and directed by Alan Alda, it examines the effects of middle age on a group of married couples who are longtime friends. Each season they go away on a vacation together, but the dynamic gets skewed when one of the men dumps his wife for a younger woman. Though some may find the characters' self-satisfaction and upscale neuroses a shade cloying, they are more than matched by Alda's solid, often funny writing. The couple with the biggest laughs: the hilariously paired Jack Weston and Rita Moreno (although Alda and Carol Burnett also strike comic sparks). --Marshall Fine ... Read more

Reviews (22)

A movie to watch again and again.
The characters in this movie are so genuine! Light-hearted humor that is so real that we can all relate to it...very typical Alan Alda. It is a true examination of relationships.

Four seasons
Why isn't this wonderful movie on dvd? I've been waiting a long time. I have it on tape, but wouldn't it be great on DVD, with audio comentary.

Release The DVD Already!!!!!!
I saw this movie as a young child, I have loved it ever since. I just do not understand why it is not on DVD yet. It is one of the best as far as I am concerned, and Alan Alda is amazing. Please Release it ASAP!!

Really Fun
I liked this film a great deal. three couples meet for vacation during each season of the year. Each one is totally different. Alan Alda is the intellectual that thinks too much. Jack Weston is the cheap dentist that fights with his wife (Rita Moreno) all the time while she keeps saying that she can't help it because "I'm Italian." The other couple is kind of sexually adventurous and the wife is a big flirt, especially with Alan Alda.

The couples go through all the ups and downs that real friends do, from big fights to real touching moments.

Best mid-life crisis movie ever
It's like something our friends would do - go someplace together every few months, then fight and backbite and love and hate each other. That's what friends are for. Not for the faint of heart - you may see your friends (or your spouse) in this movie. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Alan Alda wrote, directed, and starred in this lightweight comedy about a wedding and the havoc it causes in one family. Dad (Alda) wants it big and splashy; Betsy (Molly Ringwald), the one who's actually getting married, wants something small and personal (and is even considering eloping). As the momentum shifts back and forth between lavish and intimate, other comic tussles are played out in the background--such as how Dad is going to pay for all this. The best moments belong to the odd couple of Ally Sheedy and Anthony LaPaglia: She's a cop and the bride's sister and he's a Mafia underling who discovers he has a thing for a woman in uniform. Even if it doesn't add up to much, it's painlessly entertaining nonetheless. --Marshall Fine ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Wonderful, Warm and Funny!
I love this movie. It's so funny and warm. Stevie D is hilarious, and of course Alan Alda is stupendous. If it was available to purchase, I'd own it!

Very funny. Alda comes off as the typical dad.
I've always been a fan of Alan Alda's work. This movie is one of his best. When he's eating dinner with the mafia gang and the bodyguard starts to shoot, I laughed to bust a rib. Alan Alda sure hasn't lost his touch.

One of 1990's most popular films
In Alan Alda's "Betsy's Wedding",he is Eddie Hopper,a construction foreman and architect. His daughter Betsy(Molly Ringwald) and her boyfriend Jake Lovell(Dylan Walsh) announce their engagement at a family gathering. Betsy's sister Connie(Ally Sheedy) is happy herself but jealously upset because she can't find herself a man. The late Madeline Kahn is Lola,Eddie's wife. At the gathering Lola's sister Gloria Henner(Catherine O'Hara) tells her she plans to get even with her husband Oscar(Oscar winner Joe Pesci) for all his inept schemes. Gloria says "Someday,when I have my nice little nestegg,I can take a walk and he can go f--- himself." Anthony LaPaglia is Stevie Dee,a guy who would later in the film become Connie's boyfriend. Stevie Dee's uncle Georgie(Burt Young) is a business associate of Oscar's. There's once scene where when Betsy and Jake meet with the man performing their wedding ceremony,the Dixie Cups' CHAPEL OF LOVE is played. They want to be pronounced "husband and wife" instead of "man and wife" and they have "obey" omitted from "love,honor and obey". The late Julie Bovasso plays Rose,Eddie's mother and Joey Bishop is Eddie's deceased father. The father,as a ghost,is seen and heard only by Eddie. The wedding was somewhat disasterous. It took place in a rented tent on a rainy evening. The tent was made of cheap,not-too-strong materials so a hole in the roof where the rain fell into increased to the point where it caved in. After a heated argument between Gloria and Oscar at the reception also in the tent,Gloria pulls a loose thread causing the growing hole and the dowse of fallen rain. So Connie and Stevie Dee can be together more often,Stevie Dee applies to the police academy,since Connie's a cop. Unbelievably,the wedding dinner was pizza! By the way,Oscar planned to divorce Gloria and become romantically involved with his secretary,who also attended Betsy's and Jake's wedding. That was one of the things that led to the argument. The wedding ceremony was performed in the Jewish style. Jake stepped on a wine glass wrapped in a cloth napkin. This film was Alan Alda's most successful and not a minor hit like "A New Life",another one of his personally scripted films.

ITS SO FUNNY I LOVE IT
ITS A FUNNY MOVIE ALAN ALDA DID A WONDERFUL JOB ACTING WRITING DIRECTING IT I CAN WATCH IT 10 TIMES OR MORE AND NEVER GET BORED WATCHING IT.

FROM A BIG ALAN ALDA FAN FOR 4 YEARS NOW KIRSTEN

Underrated Comedy about Family and Being Married.
When a family man (Alan Alda-Also the Film`s Director) tries to make the best situation of his daughter (Molly Ringwald) wedding, because he trying to created a old fashioned expensive wedding, but he`s needs the money, he needs but he caught between his complicated family and his gangster friends.

Directed by Alan Alda made a often uproarious comedy. This film has a great supporting Cast including:Madeline Kahn, Oscar-Winner:Joe Pesci, Ally Sheedy, Burt Young, Joey Bishop, Catherine O`Hara and Anthony La Paglia, this is a light-hearted film. Grade:B+. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Alan Alda's follow-up to the hit comedy The Four Seasons, Sweet Liberty is an intermittently successful and lighthearted comedy that imagined what would happen if the past and present collided via Hollywood. It also provided a blueprint for David Mamet's State & Main, which took a similar premise and satirically ran amok with it. A local history professor who writes a surprise bestseller about the Revolutionary War, Alda is a man contending with a fairly mundane life until a Hollywood film crew shows up in his hometown to turn his book into a movie--one that’s filled with loads of sex and violence, unlike the scholarly tome it's based on. And the drama that's being filmed soon spills over to real-life, as Alda falls in love with the actress playing his book's heroine, and his fiancée (Lise Hilboldt) becomes enamored of the movie's leading man. Alda and Hilboldt may be the film's central couple, but it's the movie stars they're fascinated with who will catch your eye: Michael Caine, right before he embarked on his career renaissance, and a young Michelle Pfeiffer, who for the first time got to show off her beguiling comic side. As the lothario leading man with eyes for any woman who crosses his path, Caine is the kind of charming cad you can never really hate for too long. And Pfeiffer, who gets the benefit of playing both the innocent maiden of the movie-within-the-movie and her neurotic, real-life counterpart, neatly tucks the movie into her bodice and saunters off with it. --Mark Englehart ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Pulling the leg of Hollywood movie making
Alan Alda plays Michael a history teacher and author of the book "Sweet Liberty" which is meant to bring American history to a broader audience. Holllywood is now making a movie based on the novel shooting on the original scene of an important battlefield of the Independance War next to Michael's home town. But Michael's material is turned into a comedy completely ignoring the historical details. He ist told that to make a movie sell at the box office you need to show three things: rebellion, destruction of property and people taking their clothes off.

Michal tries to save his novel by trying to gain the confidence of the leading lady (Michelle Pfeiffer) and the leading man (Michael Caine) by a) making love to the former and b) practicing fencing with the latter. Embeded into the subplot of Michael's family affairs the story ends in a hillarious reenacting of the historical battle including Michael and the villagers acting as extras. And they give the Hollywood people what they asked for: rebellion, destruction of property and people taking their clothes off.

This movie is a must for everybody who likes Alan Alda. Unfortunately he is not often the leading man - but here we can enjoy his acting to extend. The fencing scenes with Michael Caine are simply wonderful!

If you want to see how Hollywood REALLY treats history...
This movie made Alan Alda the patron saint of living historians and re-enactors of the American Revolution. It shows, quite clearly, how Hollywood distorts reality and factual information to create and sell what is simply a product like any other. The humor is subtle, the give-and-take in the dialog is quick and usually very witty. The bottom line of the film is that, to Hollywood, history means entertainment and if the facts have to be changed or embellished to make what they might consider to be a more entertaining product, then so be it. If you want to learn about history, watch the History Channel. If you want to be entertained by "history", watch "The Last of the Mohicans", "Braveheart", and "The Patriot". If you want to watch an entertaining, humorous version of how Hollywood treats history, watch and enjoy "Sweet Liberty".

Really Hopeless Film
Alan Alda really missed the mark with this film where he plays a history teacher whose book is being turned into a brainless comedy by a no talent film maker.Michael Caine's performace is also below average here. If you want to see Alan Alda's better work as an actor/director, watch MASH.

Idea is worthy, but movie goes nowhere
Overblown comedy about movie studio arriving in a small town to shoot a film there based on the local university professor's book on the American Revolution. A terrific cast tries their best with the flat and predictable script. Just plain unfunny.

Going back to Korea
Though now an obvious companion piece to THE PATRIOT, I think SWEET LIBERTY was really Alda's chance to revisit M*A*S*H. It must've occurred to him during the production of M*A*S*H that he often took "sweet liberties" with the history of the Korean War in order to get a laugh, and I think the collective guilt of his many affronts to history must finally have caught up with him. Sure, SWEET LIBERTY is set in South Carolina, but really I think it's about Korea. And maybe that's one of the reasons it's not as funny as it might've been. It's allegory, when Alda probably had something more direct on his mind. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

A new life with new love
Alan Alda,the star of the hit TV sitcom M*A*S*H,wrote,dircted and starred in this romantic comedy where his character Steve Giardino never wanted a divorce. Steve's wife Jackie(Ann-Margret) decided to call it quits. Jackie studied for a degree in special education. Steve,a stocktrader on Wall Street,finds a new love,his doctor Kay Hutton(Veronica Hamel). Steve is referred to Kay after falling ill during a tennis game. Steve receives advice from his buddy Mel(Hal Linden) how to score with women. Steve colors his hair and beard and buys some new clothes and shoes. The clothes and shoes are stolen by a male robber in drag whom Steve meets in a bar. Jackie meets a sculptor who goes by the name "Doc"(John Shea) at a party that she and Steve both attend. Of course,Jackie and Steve have an argument after they leave the party. Also,the Giardinos' daughter Judy(Beatrice Alda,Alan's daughter) gives birth to their grandchild. Steve and Kay,after falling in love,get married and Kay becomes pregnant despite Steve's belief he's too old to become a father again. In one scene,Steve and Kay are taking a shower together and Kay removes the black dye from Steve's hair and beard(the hair is permed),revealing the natural gray and white combo with little remaining black. In another scene,Mel meets the robber in drag,"Sybill", in the same bar that Steve was at in an earlier scene. This film received mixed reviews. It was not a major hit nor a flop. Personally,I loved it.

Falls flat somehow
Ann MArgaret is really not a very good actress. And it shows in this film. The storyline is acceptable and Alda does well as usual, but something is just missing in this film. It lacks the ooomph to pull you in and make you care about what's going on.

Yes, he can direct, yes he can write (we knew he could act)
There is a feeling among film critics that Alan Alda is somehow weak or lightweight as an actor and even more so as a director. I can't see it myself. After spending some of his best years in the M*A*S*H ensemble cast, but being more of a leading man than any other player, Alda re-defined himself with this story of middle-aged people finding love and taking their lives in new directions. Although he seems to be trying to be Woody Allen, but Alda succeeds in his own right and the result is a good performance in an enjoyable, romantic movie.
As always Ann-Margret defies all the natural laws of ageing and looks so beautiful here you wonder how she can be the same age as Alda, here attempting to turn the clock back with a dreadful perm!

Alda best
Maybe Alan Alda has yet to have success in the movies that would rival his television popularity, but it can't be from lack of quality work. A NEW LIFE is perhaps as good as any film he's made outside of his roles in Woody Allen's flicks.

One reason A NEW LIFE stands out is Alda's will to let others steal scenes. Hal Linden proves up to the task, playing a dead-honest happily divorced middle-ager dating women half his age in this comedy about life on the romantic rebound.

Portraying Alda's ex-wife, Ann-Margaret stands out in A NEW LIFE. I don't want to spoil the story, but as her woman-who-loves-too-much character realizes her problem, you will be rooting for her to find herself.

As for Alan Alda, who wrote and directed A NEW LIFE, he has the courage to portray someone as flawed as, well, the rest of us. He deserves even more applause for creating an engrossing, funny film without resorting to nudity (A NUDE LIFE?) and profanity (A RUDE LIFE?). See A NEW LIFE! ... Read more

Reviews (4)

A new life with new love
Alan Alda,the star of the hit TV sitcom M*A*S*H,wrote,dircted and starred in this romantic comedy where his character Steve Giardino never wanted a divorce. Steve's wife Jackie(Ann-Margret) decided to call it quits. Jackie studied for a degree in special education. Steve,a stocktrader on Wall Street,finds a new love,his doctor Kay Hutton(Veronica Hamel). Steve is referred to Kay after falling ill during a tennis game. Steve receives advice from his buddy Mel(Hal Linden) how to score with women. Steve colors his hair and beard and buys some new clothes and shoes. The clothes and shoes are stolen by a male robber in drag whom Steve meets in a bar. Jackie meets a sculptor who goes by the name "Doc"(John Shea) at a party that she and Steve both attend. Of course,Jackie and Steve have an argument after they leave the party. Also,the Giardinos' daughter Judy(Beatrice Alda,Alan's daughter) gives birth to their grandchild. Steve and Kay,after falling in love,get married and Kay becomes pregnant despite Steve's belief he's too old to become a father again. In one scene,Steve and Kay are taking a shower together and Kay removes the black dye from Steve's hair and beard(the hair is permed),revealing the natural gray and white combo with little remaining black. In another scene,Mel meets the robber in drag,"Sybill", in the same bar that Steve was at in an earlier scene. This film received mixed reviews. It was not a major hit nor a flop. Personally,I loved it.

Falls flat somehow
Ann MArgaret is really not a very good actress. And it shows in this film. The storyline is acceptable and Alda does well as usual, but something is just missing in this film. It lacks the ooomph to pull you in and make you care about what's going on.

Yes, he can direct, yes he can write (we knew he could act)
There is a feeling among film critics that Alan Alda is somehow weak or lightweight as an actor and even more so as a director. I can't see it myself. After spending some of his best years in the M*A*S*H ensemble cast, but being more of a leading man than any other player, Alda re-defined himself with this story of middle-aged people finding love and taking their lives in new directions. Although he seems to be trying to be Woody Allen, but Alda succeeds in his own right and the result is a good performance in an enjoyable, romantic movie.
As always Ann-Margret defies all the natural laws of ageing and looks so beautiful here you wonder how she can be the same age as Alda, here attempting to turn the clock back with a dreadful perm!

Alda best
Maybe Alan Alda has yet to have success in the movies that would rival his television popularity, but it can't be from lack of quality work. A NEW LIFE is perhaps as good as any film he's made outside of his roles in Woody Allen's flicks.

One reason A NEW LIFE stands out is Alda's will to let others steal scenes. Hal Linden proves up to the task, playing a dead-honest happily divorced middle-ager dating women half his age in this comedy about life on the romantic rebound.

Portraying Alda's ex-wife, Ann-Margaret stands out in A NEW LIFE. I don't want to spoil the story, but as her woman-who-loves-too-much character realizes her problem, you will be rooting for her to find herself.

As for Alan Alda, who wrote and directed A NEW LIFE, he has the courage to portray someone as flawed as, well, the rest of us. He deserves even more applause for creating an engrossing, funny film without resorting to nudity (A NUDE LIFE?) and profanity (A RUDE LIFE?). See A NEW LIFE! ... Read more