Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows Shop News Showtimes

Breakfast of Champions

R Now Playing 1h 50m Comedy Drama List
25% Tomatometer 48 Reviews 31% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
An unhappy car dealer (Bruce Willis) believes that a dime-store author/philosopher (Albert Finney) has the answers to life's important questions.
Now in Theaters Now Playing Buy Tickets
Breakfast of Champions

What to Know

Critics Consensus

The movie is overwhelmed by its chaotic visual effects and disjointed storyline.

Read Critics Reviews

Critics Reviews

View All (48) Critics Reviews
Edward Lawrenson Sight & Sound Structurally, the film is a mess: on screen, the novel's digressive, anecdotal narrative seems directionless and muddled. Jun 18, 2012 Full Review Globe and Mail Rated: 1.5/4 Mar 19, 2002 Full Review Kevin Thomas Los Angeles Times Rated: 2.5/5 Feb 14, 2001 Full Review Kevin Carr Fat Guys at the Movies There's an amazingness to this train wreck... It makes every mistake you could possibly make in adapting a Kurt Vonnegut book. Rated: 1/4 Feb 6, 2021 Full Review Film Threat Rated: 4/5 Dec 6, 2005 Full Review Philip Martin Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Rated: 3/5 Nov 7, 2005 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (182) audience reviews
Blu B Been a long time since I just checked out of a film midway like I did here. I think this is about Dwayne Hoover is a used car salesman in a Tim Burton/Sam Raimi crazy like world and stuff just happens. Bizarre, makes no sense, the writers were on acid type stuff happens. How they got an all star cast with the likes of Albert Finney and Hershey is just insane. I guess some poistives...well the music isn't good with the damn bongos and other boring gneric stuff but at least it's not horrifc. The editing is reall bad but I guess it could be worse. I still don't understand what Finney's characters role was and the stepping into a mirror world at the end. I feel like if you cut him completely I would be just as lost but it would only feel like I lost 90 minutes of my life versus 2 hours. But it felt like 3.5 hours I was here. Everything else is just offensively mind boggling bad. I think it's trying to go for a Terry Gilliam style Fear & Loathing but fails miserable. How this didn't kill the careers of every single person involved is a small miracle that stands with the immaculate reception for the Steelers, and Reagan suriving his assassination attempt. I'm just done. Skip This. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 07/19/24 Full Review Honest D Reading the Kurt Vonnegut book that this unfortunate movie is based on might change your life, but this movie is a big old mess. It could have been so much more. Its kind of sad really. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 11/11/23 Full Review Steve D Unfocused and not at all amusing. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/12/23 Full Review Audience Member After glimpsing potential in Rudolph's Trouble In Mind, I gave his adaptation of Vonnegut's 1973 novel a chance. Some nice touches at start which show a reverence for source, but film quickly becomes muddled. For example, in the novel, Celia Hoover is already dead by suicide. In the film, she appears to be only an apparition, but then maybe she really is still alive. Magical realism? Hallucination? Intentional ambiguity? Who knows and who cares? This film sets a manic, disjointed tone from the start and never lets up. Willis is OK as a well-groomed businessmen trying to hide his creeping insanity, and Glenne Headly as his receptionist/lover delivers a nicely restrained performance in what is otherwise an over-the-top ham fest, but a grumbly Albert Finney is miscast as Kilgore Trout and none of the characters exhibit more than a single dimension. The end radically departs from the novel with maudlin additions by the filmmaker. The sentiment fails to connect and almost all the jokes fall flat. Skip Breakfast. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Audience Member Breakfast of Champions is one of those rare movies where reading the book ahead of time makes the movie more enjoyable. Without having the context in place, Breakfast of Champions understandably baffles the sort of moviegoer who thinks there's any sanctity in Bruce Willis's repertoire. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Audience Member This movie was one of the low points in Bruce Willis career without a doubt. This piece of cinema garbage from the guy who did die hard?? wow Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 01/26/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Breakfast of Champions

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Cast & Crew

Lies & Alibis 57% 53% Lies & Alibis The Annihilation of Fish 67% 80% The Annihilation of Fish Outside Providence 52% 65% Outside Providence Pecker 52% 64% Pecker Bulworth 76% 68% Bulworth TRAILER for Bulworth Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis An unhappy car dealer (Bruce Willis) believes that a dime-store author/philosopher (Albert Finney) has the answers to life's important questions.
Director
Alan Rudolph
Producer
David Blocker, W. Mark McNair, David Willis
Screenwriter
Alan Rudolph, Kurt Vonnegut
Distributor
West Video, Ecovideo [pt], Buena Vista Pictures, Les Films de l'Astre, Walt Disney Company Ltd. [gb], Warner Bros., Argentina Video Home, Tobis Filmkunst, Mikado, Budapest Film Rt.
Production Co
Rational Packaging Company, Summit Entertainment, Rain City, Flying Heart Films, Sugar Creek Productions
Rating
R
Genre
Comedy, Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Sep 17, 1999, Wide
Box Office (Gross USA)
$175.4K
Runtime
1h 50m
Sound Mix
Surround, Dolby Digital