Mr-Fusion Robert Evans' story is the stuff of fantasy. A failed actor who took Tinseltown as a producer and lived the life of a privileged playboy . . . only to be undone by drugs, one had flop and even a murder accusation. Stars rise and fall all the time in this town, but Evans' heights and depths are extremes. He's seen and done it all.All throughout "The Kid Stays In The Picture", I couldn't shake the feeling that parts were missing, and these probably aren't all that flattering. But on its own, this is a well-produced film and Evans, reading his words, puts the right emotion into it. When he's self-chastising ("How could I have been so f--king *dumb*?") he sells it. And this goes a long way; it's all delivered in that weary voice.Bottom line, this is a worthwhile look at a wild life, and it's mad me curious enough to seek out other sources and fill in the rest of the picture.7/10

SnoopyStyle Legendary Hollywood producer Robert Evans narrates the story of his own life. His movie career started in 1956 at the poolside of the Beverly Hills Hotel. He gets a few movie roles. In 'The Sun Also Rises' (1957), Ernest Hemingway telegrams Darryl F. Zanuck to get rid of Evans with most of the cast's support. Zanuck proclaims "The Kid Stays in the Picture. And anybody who doesn't like it can quit." After an unimpressive acting career, he joins Charlie Bluhdorn whose company Gulf+Western Corporation purchased the failing studio Paramount Pictures. After a string of films such as Rosemary's Baby, Love Story and The Godfather, it had become the biggest studio. He then goes on to produce Chinatown after which his marriage to Ali MacGraw ends. It's also the start of the darker times. He starts doing cocaine. Some film failures such as 'The Cotton Club', and being connected in the murder of Roy Radin would send him out of the studio that he rebuild.The stories are better than fiction. The name dropping and the movie connections are epic. It starts with Mia Farrow and Frank Sinatra. Through it all, there is the gruff voice of Robert Evans. It's hypnotic. As he falls down the rabbit hole, it becomes even personal. The addition of his movies to portray his life gives such a surreal touch. It is movie magic. One also has the sense that this is an old man telling his tales. Like all such instances, one must take these stories with a grain of salt. It is nevertheless epic.

U.N. Owen Robert Evans stars in, narrates KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE - a documentary about the career of Mr. Evans.Mr. Evans' career in the entertainment business started with noted actress, Norma Shearer, asking Mr. Evans if he wanted to portray her husband, in an upcoming film.A story like this - a story like that of Mr. Evans' life, can only happen in one place; Hollywood.KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE follows Evans' career, and, just as promoting the products he's made, so does Mr. Evans deliver a documentary that's more public relations, than anything else.To tell one's own story inevitably means you're going to gloss over certain events, while building up others. For example, Mr. Evans' 7 marriages are barely mentioned, save for that to Ali McGraw.But, that glossing over 'details' can't really be held against him. The film business is all about illusions. While Mr. Evans has been involved with 'hits,' not all of them are of the high quality of GODFATHER. He also produced SLIVER. It did make money, but, no one would put these two projects in the same category.But, making a 'successful' picture means it made money - having it ALSO have good response is a bonus, but, not the major point of making a film.Mr. Evans is a beloved character, still, in Hollywood. With his square-framed glasses, his swept hair, Mr. Evans IS a character, both literally, and figuratively. He's a Sammy Glick. As the saying goes, there's no such thing as bad press, so goes this film. It comes off more as a CV - a reumé, than, an honest, fair, no-hole barred telling of Mr. Evans' business life. Even as the end-credits role, we're given an impression of Mr. Evans, by Dustin Hoffman, in which 'Bob' speaks in that oily, faux-charming way, that is such an image of what many believe to be a 'Hollywood insider.'Like any resumé, the film's last shot is of Mr. Evans' most current (at the time this film was made) projects financial standings.As long as you take this story with a bit of disbelief, it's harmless. The memories of a Hollywood player, filtered through ones own recollections.

MisterWhiplash Robert Evans's book version of this documentary, The Kid Stays in the Picture, is still un-read by me. But I have read much about him from other movie books from the 70's, and so this film does illuminate certain aspects of him that I already knew- his huge ego, his drug addiction, his proclivity to lots and lots of women, and having some part in the more outstanding films of the 1970's. Sometimes with Evans himself narrating throughout two things become apparent as peculiarities that keep it from being great- 1) the filmmaker's style is rather repetitive and, aside from some flourishes of talent, isn't anything too grand for the material, and 2) the three sides to the story that Evans is quoted with at the beginning become rather blurred as one full-on nostalgia (for bad and good) comes out. What makes it captivating, however, is that Evans is the kind of guy who will be honest about being full of crap and will even call on himself for his past troubles. Rarely has one man's achievements gone neck and neck with his flaws, and let out in a filmic, grandiose style such as this.Evans is shown to have, basically, a lot of luck as someone getting into Hollywood (as many of these stories go). He starts out as a so-so actor and tries desperately to establish himself as a producer. He becomes more apart of the development side of the pictures, and ushers through Rosemary's Baby, Love Story, and even the Godfather to an extent. As his story includes the personal side (his rise and fall in the relationship to Ali McGraw, the cocaine, the other tabloid stuff), the other side of his professional accomplishments still gears in for room. By the end, one can see that the man has gone through enough to have his rightful reputation as Paramount's longest remaining producer, and will likely hold onto his ego of being the head-cheese kind of 'creative producer' so many directors like or dread till the grave. If anything, the film is actually too short, as at 93 minutes (a brilliant Dustin Hoffman imitation over the credits included) we only get glimpses that are further expounded in the book. Therefore its already subjective viewpoint becomes even more crunched into one all-too-simple story on such an interesting case study.The Kid Stays in the Picture, despite not being as terrific as the filmmakers might think it is by their sleek camera angles and typical interludes of montage, is as close to being as honest as it could be. Honest, in the sense that Evans doesn't hide much in his story and how his own way of speaking about it, in its deep-sounding and straight-forward Hollywood way, is what film buffs look for. He may have been and done a lot of things, but as he says at the end, "I enjoy what I do, which most people can't say that they do."