To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar poster & wallpaper
Get movie widget Recommend it Add to Favorites

Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze, John Leguizamo, Stockard Channing, Blythe Danner ... see more see more... , Arliss Howard , Joey Arias , Naomi Campbell , Quentin Crisp , Melinda Dillon , Alice Drummond , Beth Grant , Mike Hodge , Marceline Hugot , Jason London , Julie Newmar , Jerry Orbach , Chris Penn , Keith Reddin , Robin Williams , Jamie Harrold , RuPaul , Michael Vartan

Patrick Swayze plays Vida Boheme, a classy and long-reigning drag queen. With his understudy Noxeema Jackson (Wesley Snipes), Vida wins a New York drag stage contest and an all-expenses-paid trip to H... read more read more...ollywood. But when Miss Chi Chi Rodriguez (John Leguizamo) cries at having lost the contest, soft-hearted Vida cashes in the airline tickets so the three of them can take a car out West. The film becomes a strange sort of buddy road movie, with the three cross-dressers traveling across the American heartland in a shiny yellow Cadillac. First they tangle with Sheriff Dollard (Chris Penn). He stops them for a minor traffic violation, puts the moves on Vida, and Vida knocks him out, so they flee. Later, they are stranded by car problems in a small town in Nebraska. Renting a room in a hotel, they put some life into the town and its annual strawberry festival. They provide a mousy local woman, Carol Ann (Stockard Channing), with new role models of assertiveness. They also insist on chivalrous treatment from the local good old boys and give lessons on courting to a teenage girl. This film was released on the heels of the more outrageous Australian film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, which featured Terence Stamp as a drag queen. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

Flixster Users

69% liked it

49,117 ratings

Critics

42% liked it

31 critics

PG-13, 1 hr. 49 min.

Directed by: Beeban Kidron

Release Date: September 8, 1995

Invite friends to see

DVD Release Date: January 7, 2003

Get It:

Stats: 2,518 reviews

report incorrect info

Photos

To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar To Wong Foo To Wong Foo Chi-Chi : What do you mean, Vida has befriended Carol Ann To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar Vida is worried that her driving licence is in her male name Bobby Ray and Chi Chi meet by moonlight on the verandah. Noxeema, Vida and Chi-Chi stop at a motel But Carol Ann comes out Last year winner hosting the event Chi-Chi Rodriguez. who was an unsuccessful competitor, and is now devastated at losing To Wong Foo The rednecks discover it is unwise to mix with Noxeema. The girls buy an old Cadillac and drive to Hollywood. To Wong Foo
Upload a Photo | View All To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar Photos

Your Rating


clear rating

Flixster Reviews (2,518)

  • LWOODS04
    April 15, 2010
    LWOODS04
    Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes, John Leguizamo, Stockard Channing, Blythe Danner, Beth Grant, Melinda Dillon, Chria Penn, Jason London, Arliss Howard

    DIRECTED BY: Beeban Kidron

    This is one of those movies that I can watch anytime. It's a bit disturbing seeing these well know... read moren actors dressed up as females, and it just can't be me who thinks Wesley Snipes looks crazy scary.
    But like I was saying I can watch this movie anytime. I stop and watch it every time it's on t.v. Guilty pleasure kinda film.
    The acting isn't all the great neither is the story. But its entertaining none the less. Its has funny moments and tries to tackle a serious issue of spousal abuse. But it just all ends up being a silly movie. Its great fun with a great cast and supporting cast. Give it a watch if you haven't.
  • SirPant
    September 21, 2009
    SirPant
    Good old fashion camp fun, not as good as Priscilla but still funny. John Leguizamo is fantastic!
  • purplemegan
    September 2, 2009
    purplemegan
    I was expecting something more but this just fell flat. It was enjoyable enough and fun but not a laugh-out-loud comedy. Patrick Swayze has got to be the worst drag queen ever. John Leguizamo was almost believable.
  • thmtsang
    August 10, 2007
    thmtsang
    Funny movie about three drag queen's on a roadtrip. Great cast.
  • YosemiteSamFan
    June 30, 2007
    YosemiteSamFan
    Not a terrible movie, but almost formulaic, with a Drag theme. It was fun seeing some macho actors dress up as women. It showed that Hollywood was more accepting of alternative lifestyles on mainstream movies - let's all hug and stop bashing each other, okay? The trailers and me... read moredia hype for "To Wong Foo" was annoying.

    I recall it was released around the same time as "Priscilla: Queen of the Desert", which I thought was even more screamingly-funny and less predictable. I think the title of "Too Wong Foo" caused annoyance and confusion; I didn't like it.
  • webalina
    June 6, 2007
    webalina
    OK flick, but I didn't buy any of these guys as women, even tranny women. See Priscilla instead.
  • superclerk25
    June 5, 2007
    superclerk25
    Weird movie. It's ok once you get past all the men as women thing.
  • garyX
    March 29, 2007
    garyX
    Put three second rate "stars" in dresses and hilarity does not ensue. The oh so funny wacky title (it might as well have been called "I'm mad, me...") says it all.
  • dreamfaeries
    June 14, 2006
    dreamfaeries
    Them are my type of guys... love ya baby!
  • rodriguesmatthew
    March 2, 2011
    rodriguesmatthew
    Maybe it's that I'm a little of a skeptic, but the fact that the story of "To Wong Foo: Thanks for Everything, Julie Nemar" has an incredibly unoriginal premise but manages to look so wasn't lost on me. Or the fact that despite the fact that for some of the subject matter exposed... read more here, nothing quite serious was made of it. Nevertheless, I will say that from start to finish, the movie was fun, entertaining, and quite daring if for the presence of three macho actors effectively playing drag queens.

    Like I said, the premise of this movie has been done to death: highly different people come to a small town (by accident), see the problems there, and manage in the course of their stay to get townsfolk to get in touch with themselves. Vida Boheme (Patrick Swayze), Noxema Jackson (Wesley Snipes), and Chi-Chi Rodriguez (John Leguizamo) are heading to the Miss Drag Queen Pageant in L.A., getting lost and winding in a backwoods town where not only do they stumble upon Carol Ann (admirably played by Stockard Channing) who is being abused by her husband (in two particularly uncomfortable scenes, one played off-screen), but where Chi-Chi almost gets raped by the local roughnecks, seems like this should belong in something darker, not a comedy. The fact that on both occasions nothing is resolved (satisfactorily) points towards this movie's failure to step up to the plate, examine those issues, and make something truly revelatory. That what should have been a one-scene situation in which Vida Boheme whacks Sheriff Dollard unconscious is turned into a weak showdown in which neither of the drag queens comes out to make an appearance (like they would under similar circumstances; anyone who knows or has seen drag queens knows that they have little fear of cops or men in uniform and will knock them out easily) only makes matters more false: whether or not these townsfolk were latently ready to accept "change" it is highly unlikely that it would have been played out this way. Why would Dollard even want to arrest these men in drag? It makes little sense but to force the issue that the "people" will stand up for Those Who Are Different. (And that among those "people" are the same roughnecks, now wearing pink and read boas? Something is wrong here.) Also unsatisfactorily is the way ChiChi's budding relationship with the local guy (Jason London) is handled: why not have him know she is a he and by doing so, take a huge risk that would strike the point home? Maybe it's timing. America isn't ready for men in drag and the chance someone might see through the appearance of femininity a man may have and go with their instincts.

    To Wong Foo is a movie that should have tackled these premises more upfront. It should have given all three of these men an actual sex life, real personalities. The closest thing that happens to romance is some shy flirting from Bobby Ray (Jason London) towards Chi-Chi, but even that is left flat after much exposition. The same way nothing else is said of Vida's familial relationship: all we know is that there is an estrangement, but nothing else. And Noxema gets saddled with nothing else but to be there, say one-liners, and chat with an old lady about Hollywood. And this is also, precisely, what keeps it from being a richer movie which explores its characters instead of laying them out to pasture and later dressing them in boas and fancy dresses. To see a drag queen without her make up on is to see the man underneath; since we aren't given that chance here, this is drag-lite, in which all is at surface level, messages of love run rampant as house music plays in the background, and just as it started, it ends in a beauty parade.

    Still, kudos to Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze, and John Leguizamo for stepping out of their shoes and donning pumps and wigs. All are great, in equal measure. Snipes manages to channel a lot of Missy Elliott while Swayze might as well have become Brini Maxwell with a red wig. Leguizamo, though, is my favorite. While playing a close rendition of Rosie Perez with a good deal of Jennifer Lopez, he gives his character a sweet dimension. These three are the ones who make this movie completely enjoyable despite these complaints that arise. In the end, To Wong Foo feels incomplete but because of the three leads and its message of love and acceptance, it mostly works.

    Story: C
    Acting: B+
    Direction: C
    Visuals: B-
    Overall: C+

    **1/2 out of 4 stars

View All To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar Reviews

Critic Reviews

Emanuel Levy
December 31, 2006
Emanuel Levy, Variety

A politically correct comedy about drag queens? This is the American response to the superior Aussie flick Adventures of Priscilla. Macho Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze, and John Leguizamo can't lift i... Full Review

Janet Maslin
May 20, 2003
Janet Maslin, New York Times

Kidron's direction stays flat even when the actors are funny. It doesn't help that the screenplay, by Douglas Carter Beane, is so thin that one of its biggest events is the three main characters' havi... Full Review

Edward Guthmann
June 18, 2002
Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle

Imagine, "Wong Foo" suggests, a world where people stopped judging one another and simply surrendered to the silliness that's dormant inside us. Full Review

Rita Kempley
January 1, 2000
Rita Kempley, Washington Post

Improbable as this all sounds, "Wong Foo" is a great deal of fun and a small step forward in Hollywood's depiction of homosexuals. Full Review

Joe Brown
January 1, 2000
Joe Brown, Washington Post

Screenwriter Douglas Carter Beane pilfers not just plot elements from "Priscilla," but also stirs in big chunks of "Fried Green Tomatoes," "Bagdad Cafe," "Auntie Mame," "The Music Man" and "Cinderella." Full Review

Roger Ebert
January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

What is amazing is how the movie manages to be funny and amusing while tippy-toeing around (a) sex, (b) controversy and (c) any originality in the plot. Full Review

Susan Wloszczyna
January 1, 2000
Susan Wloszczyna, USA Today

It's a glam-o-rama party until the trio hits the road. Suddenly, Wong Foo is all cross-dressed with no place to go -- but down.

Owen Gleiberman
September 8, 1995
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

Slick and amiable and innocuous as hell, it's a foam-padded farce, as laboriously packaged as its three glam-sister ''heroines.'' Full Review

Geoff Andrew
February 9, 2006
Geoff Andrew, Time Out

Leguizamo's Chi Chi is the only one who looks anything like a drag queen, let alone a woman; yet we are asked to believe that it's Swayze's breathy Vida and Snipes' squealing Noxeema who've got their ... Full Review

Kevin Carr
October 20, 2005
Kevin Carr, 7M Pictures

I was turned on, and it really confused me.

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Cast

More Like This

Click a thumb to vote on that suggestion, or add your own suggestions.

  • The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
    The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Des... (85%)
  • But I'm A Cheerleader
    But I'm A Cheerleader (69%)
  • An American Haunting
    An American Haunting (31%)
  • The Birdcage
    The Birdcage (75%)

More Movies like To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar

Facts

No facts approved yet. Be the first

To Wong Foo, Than... : Watch Free on TV

To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar Trivia

To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everythin... Trivia

  • Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze and John Leguizamo played drag queen's in which movie?   Answer »
  • What movie featured the characters Noxeema Jackson, Chi-Chi Rodriguez, and Vide Boheme?  Answer »
  • What movie did Patrick Swayze, John Leguizamo, and Wesley Snipes star in as contestants for a national drag queen pageant?  Answer »
  • Name one actor from the list below that Star in 'To wong foo thanks for everything Julie Newmar'  Answer »
More To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar Trivia

Movie Quizzes

Create a Quiz |

All Quizzes

Video Clips

Upload a Video |

All To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar Videos

Meet Other Fans

Add To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar to favorites

Recent News

No recent headlines. Got one?

Recent Lists

Make a List |

View All Lists

Most Popular Skin

No skins yet. Interested in creating one?