capone666 The Road to WellvilleThe key to getting fit is wearing athletic apparel everywhere you go in public.Others, like those in this dramedy, maintain exercise and diet is the key.Breakfast cereal magnate Dr. Kellogg (Anthony Hopkins) operates a wellness center in the Michigan woods where the world's wealthiest (Matthew Broderick, Bridget Fonda) come for treatment for an assortment of ailments.Surprisingly, most of the cures come from sexual and business liaisons with a hodgepodge of eccentrics (Lara Flynn Boyle, John Cusack, Dana Carvey) instead of coming from Kellogg's brand of abstinence and colon cleansing.But it's those extracurricular activities that threaten the retreat's existence. A star-studded affair that was both a critical and financial flop, this perverted depiction of Kellogg's clean living criteria from 1994 is more lecherous than humorous. And that includes Hopkins' cringe worthy turn as the cornflake maker. Besides, who wants to swim in a pool full of milk?Red Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

wilsonb2-157-805477 Based on T. C. Boyle's novel of the same name, The Road to Wellville tells the story of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and his famous Sanitarium at Battle Creek, Michigan. It is a very broad satire, freeing mixing fact and fiction to create a humorous take on American health practices around the turn of the century, as well as the Battle Creek cereal boom, which lasted from 1900 to 1905. Many wonder if this is based on real history, and indeed elements of it are, but as usual, the real history turns out to be far more interesting than the Hollywood version (see, for example, the new book, "Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and the Religion of Biologic Living" for an lively overview of the true story). Anthony Hopkins does a bizarre, but entertaining turn as the Dr. Kellogg, and the supporting cast (including Matthew Broderick and Bridget Fonda) gamely run through the frequently scatological and sexual situations of a rather untidy script. For those who like their historical movies broad and colorful and full sophomoric humor, this movie is for them. (By the way, The Road to Wellville was actually a pamphlet written not by Kellogg, but by C. W. Post, who for years inserted it in every box of Post Toasties.)

dannylectro-1 I have come to realize that my sense of humor is very much out of sync with mainstream film tastes. Frequently, I have seen a comedy that leaves me in hysterics, only to discover that it is loathed by the mainstream media and masses alike. "The Road To Wellville" is one of these films.When I first saw "The Road To Wellville" on Cinemax in the mid-nineties, I could not believe just how much crass and bawdy humor was packed into this film, and I could not stop laughing. Up to that time, I could not recall any other film so unashamedly filled with scatological references. I especially enjoyed the great Anthony Hopkins voicing the eccentric views of Dr. John Kellogg while defining a very strange but memorable character.Of course, the critics panned this film for the very reasons I initially loved it. Seeing it again, I can understand their revulsion. While the film is packed with many hilariously tasteless gags, the overall story is very erratic. The main plot involving Matthew Broderick's bizarre medical treatments is rather entertaining, but John Cusack's subplot is neither very funny nor well-written. By the three-quarters mark, the film loses momentum and becomes just another tedious romantic comedy. Such a shame, considering the outrageously satirical nature of the first few acts of this film. The laughs are there, but the story is not.

mrockman-1 I rate the picture highly simply because it evokes the period and attitudes so interestingly. The tongue-in-cheek narrative follows the experiences of several people in and around the Battle Creek (Michigan) Sanitarium, that was operated as a health spa by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. A member of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Dr. Kellogg was a firm believer in vegetarianism, no smoking, no drinking, regular exercise and abstinence from sexual activity as the roadmap to a healthy life. Much of what he was peddling was unscientific bushwa. But he did invent the breakfast cornflake, although it was his brother who successfully marketed it. The movie is set just after the turn of the 20th century, when the town of Battle Creek was host to dozens of wannabees who attempted to develop and market their own vegetarian breakfast foods. A well-meaning but gullible young man arrives to cash in on the breakfast food craze. A troubled young married couple visit the "San" to cure the man of his bowel troubles. Both find gratification not of the kind generally permissible under Dr. Kellogg's regime. The Dr.'s own family, that consists of he, his wife, and dozens of adopted children, is uniquely dysfunctional. One uncooperative child opposes the Dr. early on and later demonstrates peculiarly and emphatically what, exactly, in Dr. Kellogg he found repulsive. The movie is about sex. The regime is sexually repressive yet one finds sexual tension relieved at every turn. But, alas, there are no car chases.