GOOD TIMES

 

Good Times was the directorial debut of William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection). In the movie Sonny signs a contract with evil Mr. Mordicus (George Sanders) for him and Cher to star in a film. The executive wants Sonny to do a script he has on hand, unless Sonny can come up with a better script before the movie starts to shoot. As Sonny thinks about different scenarios for him and Cher, Good Times has three mini-movies starring him and Cher in different scenarios (Western, Detective, Jungle).

Good Times features seven songs, all written by Sonny and six sung by Sonny and Cher and one solo Cher song: "It's the Little Things", "I Got You Babe" (two versions), "Don't Talk to Strangers", "Trust Me", "Good Times", "I'm Gonna Love You" and "Just a Name". "I'm Gonna Love You" a bluesy song sung solo by Cher is the only good song of the bunch, with of course, the exception of their signature song "I Got You Babe". All the other songs sound like something Sonny probably knocked off in a few minutes for the movie.

Good Times main crime is it's just boring. On Sonny and Cher's TV show, the duo could do a skit and if you didn't like it, well, it was over in a few minutes. The three mini-movies in Good Times are basically bad TV skits which run on 15-20 minutes, making for mind-numbing viewing. I thought Sonny and Cher's other film outing, Chasity, was pretty bad, but still better than Good Times. As a duo Sonny and Cher's best film outing is in Wild On The Beach where they appear as themselves singing one song. Sonny never had a lot of success in films; of course, Cher went on to appear in a string of great movies.