a_chinn Bland 80s romantic comedy about weatherman Make Harmon betting his friend that he can get three different women to accept his proposal of marriage, on camera no less. That's not really all that funny or clever of a plot set-up, but I suppose it's serviceable enough. The women Harmon pursues include Madeleine Stowe, Lesley Ann Warren, Andrea Martin, and Maria Holvoe, so three of the four actresses are quite respectable, well known, and certainly better than this very unoriginal of material. I think seeing the usually serious Stowe in such a light film was the most amusing part of the film. Overall, "Worth Winning" would be completely unwatchable if it wasn't for the cast and 80s nostalgia value.

Python Hyena Worth Winning (1989): Dir: Will MacKenzie / Cast: Mark Harmon, Madeleine Stowe, Lesley Ann Warren, Maria Holvoe, Mark Blum: Insincere yet amusing romantic comedy about what one pursues in relationships. Mark Harmon stars as weatherman Taylor Worth who is an egotistical ladies man whose friends witness him constantly dumping women after about two months. Central plot has Taylor's friends roping him into a bet that has him video taping three proposals to three different women within a specific time limit. This is a hilarious concept marred extremely by repetition and an ending that lacks sincerity. What does work is Harmon's cocky charm as Taylor as he confidently endures this bet without threat of consequence. Maria Holvoe plays target number one, Erin Cooper whose body guard is a local celebrity football player. She loves cats and can also hit a nifty football tackle herself. Target number two is Veronica Briskow, played by Madeleine Stowe. She is a pianist who takes an immediate dislike to Taylor but withstands his counter charm. Lesley Ann Warren plays Eleanor Larimore, a sexually repressed married woman whose desires are awakened when Taylor pursues her. Mark Blum plays Taylor's married best friend who issues this bet at high stakes. Theme regards relationships verses playing the field and whether any of it is worth winning in the end. Score: 7 / 10

sarastro7 So, it's about five o'clock in the morning and I'm about to put a tape in the VCR to watch some Asian action movie, but decide to channel-flip for a few minutes first. I come across the beginning of Worth Winning, an obvious cheesy '80s half-heartedly tongue-in-cheek "bad boy" romance, seemingly targeted for daytime soap audiences. I usually never watch stuff like that. All the horrible light-blue and pink sweaters the characters wear instantly give me a bad taste in my mouth, but in this case I keep watching because Madeleine Stowe catches my eye. Young, cute and sophisticated, and many leagues above this material, she is delightful to watch. So I watch the whole movie.Apart from its bad taste in clothes and generally preposterous premise, shallow characters and completely unrealistic situations, it's not that bad. It has a classic structure, actually. As seen in many other stories, we have a guy going through three stages, or in this case, three women. The middle-aged rich aristocrat (loosely representing monarchy), the virginal romantic maiden (loosely representing the romantic ideals and rituals aspired to in the conservative bourgeois lifestyle) and the intellectual artist (loosely representing the realization of the full human potential for independent thinking and self-expression). These three, on the symbol level, represent three different social orders: old and obsolete royalist aristocracy, current republican bourgeoisie and a future liberal utopia. As it ends with the attaining of the latter, the story actually does have some redeeming artistic and social value, in that it - in a very subtle and non-literal way, of course - urges the audience to embrace a new, better and freer social order. This storytelling structure is actually very literate, and I'm not surprised the storyline came from a novel.Now, if only the movie wasn't thoroughly suffused by that insufferable Barbara Cartland air, it might garner a higher rating than a 6 out of 10.

Pepper Anne Worth Winning is one of those cliches about a group of guy friends making bets about women, with the one guy engaged in the bet falling in love with the women of his game. In Worth Winning, hot shot playboy weatherman Taylor Worth's (Mark Harmon) buddies bet that he can't get three women to marry him within a given number of weeks. This seems easy for a guy like Taylor because of his playboy nature, but the guys picks the three women, and he seems to be irked by some quality in each of them: Veronica Briskow (Madeleine Stowe), Eleanor Larimore (Lesley Ann Warren), Erin Cooper (Maria Holvoe). One is a traditional, but rather bubbly blonde. One is a bored nympho housewife. And one is a pretentious artsy fartsy type who actually turns out to be one of the better of the characters--personality wise--as she seems to be the most 'real' of the three, and the most needed to break Taylor's overestimation of his power over women. It proves no easy task, particularly the finale when he learns that he starts to fall in love with one and soon, must reveal his bet. The movie isn't really that funny. The idea may seem quite comical, but there seems to be too much of Mark Harmon as an overconfident ass and not enough as Mark Harmon, the witty charmer. And for something with Mark Harmon in the leading role, it makes it a little less enjoyable. That, and the fact that this story is far too redundant, and possibly, only outrageous comedy could compensate where the novelty has worn out.