House Calls (1978)

Posted on November 22, 2013 | Leave a comment

house calls

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 5 out of 10

4-Word Review: Playboy tries mending ways.

Walter Matthau is by all means an incredibly talented performer and a joy to watch. However, in the looks department he rates pretty low and may be one of the ugliest leading men this side of Don Knotts. Yet this film practically shoots itself in the foot from the very beginning by portraying, with a straight face, Matthau as a doctor who has become a super hunk/chick magnet. All the hot young women are chasing after him! His locker is filled with their love letters and he actually beds a different one each night!!! Problems ensue though when he falls for Ann (Glenda Jackson) who is one of his patients. She is a middle- aged woman who is a bit ‘rough around the edges’. She wants him to drop his playboy ways and commit solely to her, yet he is not sure he can.

This is an overly smug, ‘sophisticated’ comedy that is too light and easy going and in desperate need for a fuller story and little more conflict. The comedy should have been broader instead of just being a long precession of glib one-liners. There’s a few comic set ups that are never even followed through on. However, Art Carney’s eulogy to a dead baseball owner and their subsequent burial of him underneath home plate is good.

The casting of Jackson is one of the few inspired things about this film. Her sharp British wit is a perfect foil to Matthau’s laid-back style, but it doesn’t play it up enough. Their one true ‘confrontation’ doesn’t come until the very end and although the spat is definitely contrived it does at least offer the lively fun you expected of this from the very beginning.

Another problem with this film is that it tries to mix the old fashioned romantic comedy with modern day sensibilities. The silly ‘goof ups’ at the hospital really don’t seem so funny when only a few years earlier these same problems were shown in the excellent film The Hospital with much more serious ramifications. It also looks awkward to have such ‘old school’ middle-agers suddenly jumping into the trendy ‘70’s lifestyle of casual sex and one-night-stands.

There is also the stilted habit of referring to sex as ‘humping’. This seems like a very dated, antiquated term even for back then. Let’s face it this is a slow moving comedy made specifically for adults and kids really wouldn’t want to see it anyways, so striving for the ‘PG’ rating was futile. They should’ve sucked it up, accepted the ‘R’ rating and called sex ‘fucking’ like everybody else.

Jackson and Matthau were later reunited in the 1980 film Hopscotch.

My Rating: 5 out of 10

Released: March 15, 1978

Runtime: 1Hour 38Minutes

Rated PG

Director: Howard Zieff

Studio: Universal

Available: VHS, DVD

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Posted in 70's Movies, Dry Humor, Movies with a Hospital setting, Romance

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Chan is Missing (1982)

Posted on November 21, 2013 | Leave a comment

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 3 out of 10

4-Word Review: Chan has their money.

This is a story about Jo (Wood Moy) and Steve (Marc Hayasi) two cab drivers who go throughout Chinatown looking for a man named Chan who took their money and then disappeared. If you have never been to San Francisco’s Chinatown district then this film gives you an illuminating look of what it is like. It shows you everything from its atmosphere, to the landscape, and even its people and their attitudes. At times it is almost like a documentary, which this probably should have been in the first place.

The main cab driver who we follow around in his search is fun in a sort of offbeat way. He is old, short, and very dopey looking. He goes about his investigation in a low key sort of way. After a while he starts to grow on you especially when he makes his wry observations.

Unfortunately these are the only two good things about this film, which on the whole is boring and heavy-handed. The search for Chan is merely an excuse by director Wayne Wang to show how difficult it is for Chinese to assimilate into American society and how they are always looked upon as ‘foreigners’, and the lack of opportunities. It is sort of like one of those movies you watched when you were in grade school where the flimsy plot was just an excuse to try to teach you something. This one works the same way where it seems more like a lecture than a movie.

Technically it is inadequate. The majority of the characters are non-actors who seem to be just mouthing the lines that they have memorized. There is also no action and a desperate need for some humor even the low-key kind could’ve helped the flow.

Certainly director Wang has gone on to do bigger, better, more sophisticated things. This film can best be viewed as an early student project, which it resembles in many ways.

My Rating: 3 out of 10

Released: June 4, 1982

Runtime: 1Hour 20Minutes

Not Rated

Director: Wayne Wang

Studio: New Yorker Films

Available: VHS, DVD

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Posted in 80's Movies, Black & White, Buddy Movies, Comedy/Drama, Low Budget, Mystery

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Man on the Roof (1976)

Posted on November 20, 2013 | 3 comments

man on the roof 3

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 6 out of 10

4-Word Review: Sniper shoots at police.

Police officer Stefan Nyman (Harald Hamrell) is shot and killed by an unknown gunman. During the investigation police detective Martin Beck (Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt) finds that Nyman was an officer who used brutal and sometimes unethical conduct in his dealings with suspects. Beck begins to consider this as a possible motive, but before he can decide on that the sniper climbs on top of a high rise building in downtown Stockholm and begins shooting and killing all uniformed officers.

The first hour of this Swedish production is different from just about any other police drama you’ve seen. The investigation is slow and meticulous and the identity of the killer is kept a complete mystery.  There is no heart pounding soundtrack and all the scenes are handled in a nicely subdued fashion.  The tension mounts slowly, but deliberately until it finally wraps you into it and becomes riveting.

By contrast the second hour is handled completely differently to the point that it almost seems like two movies in one. The second half becomes this high adrenaline action pic that includes an exciting helicopter crash, but it all proves jarring when compared to the first hour.

man on the roof 1

The story is also too reminiscent of the real-life Charles Whitman incident that occurred in Austin, Texas in 1966.  The ending is much too abrupt and leaves open too many loose ends and a more composite portrait of the killer would have also helped.

This film definitely has its moments both in action, drama and dialogue and is considered highly influential to the modern police dramas that we see today, but the way it comes together is a mishmash. Director Bo Widerberg was known for his poor planning and constantly rewriting scenes and dialogue sometimes while he was sitting on the toilet. The behind-the-scenes atmosphere of his productions was filled with chaos and confusion and the results can be easily detected here. Viewers that enjoy the first half may not like the second one and vice versa.

man on the roof 2

My Rating: 6 out of 10

Released: October 1, 1976

Runtime: 1Hour 50Minutes

Rated R

Director: Bo Widerberg

Studio: Svensk Filmindustri

Available: DVD (Region 2)

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Posted in 70's Movies, Action/Adventure, Foreign Films, Movies Based on Novels, Mystery, Obscure Movies, Police Drama

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Clara’s Heart (1988)

Posted on November 18, 2013 | 2 comments

claras heart

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 3 out of 10

4-Word Review: Clara dispenses her wisdom.

Leona (Kathleen Quinlan) is spending some time at a Jamaican resort trying to recuperate from the sudden loss of her infant daughter. There she meets Clara (Whoopi Goldberg) who is working as a maid there. The two quickly strike up a friendship and Leona then hires Clara to come home with her and take care of her 10-year-old son David (Neil Patrick Harris). David does not like Clara at first, but the two eventually attain a strong bond especially after his parent’s divorce.

After some box office failures with her comical films Goldberg decided to go back to doing drama with so-so results. The whole way that Clara gets hired on as a nanny seems awkward, forced and too quick and screenwriter Mark Medoff should have thought up a better scenario. Clara isn’t completely likable as she has a pushy personality and dispenses her opinions on her employers whether they ask for it or not. Eventually David’s father Bill (Michael Ontkean) stands up to her, but I think others would have confronted her sooner or even fired her.

The runtime is much too long for such slight and predictable material. The whole second half gets consumed with this deep dark secret about the death of Clara’s son Robbie and when she does finally tell David the story it is a nasty one especially for a supposedly ‘family friendly’ film such as this one. It also brings out the question that if Clara raised a son that was so very troubled why then would she be so confident about knowing how to raise someone else’s?

Harris is outstanding in his film debut and really helps to carry the movie along. The sarcastic and glib comments that he spews out is the film’s highlight.  The big glasses that he wears seemed too reminiscent to the Corey Haim character in Lucas, which came out just a couple of years before this one. I was also confused why during a school swim meet he would be the only one wearing a T-shirt when all the other swimmers weren’t.

Spalding Gray appears in support as Leona’s new boyfriend. The script though does not take advantage of Gray’s unique talents and the film would have been better served had they allowed him to ad-lib and improvise.  Also, the woman who plays Bill’s new love interest looks too much like Leona and in a visual medium such as this it is usually better to emphasize contrast.

The production values are good and I loved the large home that David’s family lives in and the by-the-lake location. However, the material is too formulaic and Clara’s and David’s bonding sessions become strained and corny. The film’s ‘feel-good’ message is lost in an approach that is sterile, mechanical, and by-the-numbers.

My Rating: 3 out of 10

Released: October 7, 1988

Runtime: 1Hour 48Minutes

Rated PG-13

Director: Robert Mulligan

Available: VHS, Amazon Instant Video

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Posted in 80's Movies, Adolescence/High School, Drama, Movies Based on Novels, Obscure Movies

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The New Interns (1964)

Posted on November 17, 2013 | 1 comment

the new interns

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 6 out of 10

4-Word Review: More interns more drama.

It’s another year and time for a new set of young interns to infiltrate the New North Hospital.  Lew (Dean Jones) and Gloria (Stefanie Powers) who became engaged at the end of the first film are now married, but Lew is diagnosed as being sterile and the couple cannot have children, which causes a strain on their marriage.  The caustic Tony (George Segal) who used to be a gang member on the streets and has worked his way up to being an intern looks to leave his troubled past far behind only to have his new girlfriend Nancy (Inger Stevens) attacked and raped by his former gang member friends, which sends him on a one man mission for revenge.

Although the film goes on a bit too long and isn’t quite as compelling as the first one I still felt it was an improvement.  The stories and themes are grittier and don’t have the fluffy or formulaic romance angle. The fact that the interns are housed in a rundown condemned building in order to save on costs allows for some amusing moments as the tenants must make due with all sorts of quirks that come with the old building. There is also a rather startling scene showing an actual baby coming out of the womb who is not crying or breathing  and the doctors attempts to revive it, which is both disconcerting and vivid.

The only story thread that doesn’t work is the rape one. The biggest issue here being that Nancy flirts and even jokes with Tony while she is in the hospital and only a few hours after being attacked, which seemed highly unrealistic as is her acting like the whole incident was ‘no big deal’ and they should just move on from it and not bother to catch the perpetrators. Then a couple of days later she attends a party and something there subtly reminds her of the incident, which sends her into an irreversible catatonic state, which seemed too extreme in the other way. However, Tony’s confrontation with the rapist inside the hospital and his later operation on him to save is life is good.

Segal is impressive. He played so many touch feely lead roles during the 70’s that he acquired almost a benign persona, but here his character is quite brash and acerbic and his confrontations with the equally acerbic Dr. Riccio (Telly Savalas) are fun. Stevens is also quite good as his love interest and it is a shame that she ended up killing herself in 1970 just as it seemed that her film career was ready to take off.

As with the first film one can spot a lot of up-and-coming stars including Barbara Eden, Dawn Wells, George Furth, Marianna Hill, and Adam Williams. One can also spot Bob Crane very briefly during a wild party segment. There is also Sue Ann Langdon as a drug addicted prostitute who speaks in a hip lingo and fakes paralysis simply to get some drugs that will satisfy her fix. This also a unique chance to see Jimmy Mathers the younger brother of Jerry famous for starring in ‘Leave it to Beaver’ and who looks just like him.

A few actors reprise their roles from the first one including Savalas who appears here completely bald even though in the first one he had hair. Powers is effective as the opinionated and stubborn Gloria a woman unhappy that she can’t have a baby and unwilling to accept adoption as the answer. Kaye Stevens reprises her Didi character and takes part in a funny vaudeville act. There is also Michael Callan reappearing as Alec who in the first film ended up having a nervous breakdown, but no mention of that here. The part where he dresses up as a woman to get into the girl’s dorm and his ‘conversation’ with his therapist offer some added levity.

My Rating: 6 out of 10

Released: June 1, 1964

Runtime: 2Hours 3Minutes

Not Rated

Director: John Rich

Studio: Columbia Pictures

Not available at this time.

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Posted in 60's Movies, Black & White, Drama, Movies Based on Novels, Movies with a Hospital setting, Obscure Movies, Sequels

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The Big Fix (1978)

Posted on November 15, 2013 | 3 comments

the big fix

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 6 out of 10

4-Word Review: 60’s radical turned detective.

Moses Wine (Richard Dreyfuss) was at one time a student radical during the tumultuous 60’s, but now it is 1978 and he is working as a private eye. Most of his cases are unexciting and even mundane, but then Lila Shay (Susan Anspach) a woman he had a fling with during his college days shows up asking for his help. She is now working for a candidate running for governor and she wants Moses to find Eppis (F. Murray Abraham) a former student radical himself who has now gone underground, but seems to be smearing her candidate’s campaign and hurting his ability to be elected. Moses takes the case on a whim, but finds it to be much more complex and dangerous than he bargained for.

The film is based on the novel by Roger L. Simon who also wrote the screenplay and it is almost like a revisionist private eye movie. Everything that we’ve come to accept in this genre gets turned upside down and for the most part with great and amusing success. Moses is not a tough, brawny, stoic figure like most detectives in these films, but instead a little shrimp of a guy that can easily get hyper and frazzled and is certainly never cool under pressure. Many times he will bring his two young sons on the case with him and even use there insight to help him solve the case. He makes mistakes and even has to write certain things down to avoid forgetting them unlike those other detectives that always seem to remember even the smallest tidbits of information. By making the Moses character more human he becomes better relatable and the viewer feels almost like they are in his shoes, which is what makes the story work.

Simon’s script also is a great character study showing how the student protestors from the 60’s have now begrudgingly and awkwardly taken on adult roles and even become a part of the dreaded ‘establishment’. This comes to a head with the Abraham character the one time head of an underground movement that now is seen living in suburbia as a ho-hum family man. His line about why so many of his fellow radicals ‘sold-out’ and became a part of the suburban culture is an excellent and keen observation.

Dreyfuss is perfect in the role as a wise-guy, cynical smart ass. Most of the times characters and actors with these traits are off-putting, but somehow with him it is always engaging. The character is also nicely multi-dimensional. He is acerbic and brash one minute, but then singing lullabies over the phone to his children the next. He acts like his has ‘moved on’ from the 60’s, but then later on tears come to his eyes when he looks at a film of some old student protests. Dreyfuss also broke his wrist just before filming began and so they wrote it into the script and it becomes a funny running gag as different people ask him how he broke it and each time he tells them something that becomes increasingly more outrageous and amusing.

Bill Conti’s musical score is bouncy and distinctive and gives the film an added kick. He also employs several different styles including ragtime, disco, electronic and even a ballad by Leon Redbone.

The mystery is full of twists and close attention must be paid, but it is doubtful anyone will figure the surprise at the end. Baby boomers that lived through the period may be more connected to this than others, but it is still entertaining and a terrific time capsule.

My Rating: 6 out of 10

Released: October 6, 1978

Runtime: 1Hour 48Minutes

Rated PG

Director: Jeremy Kagan

Studio: Universal

Available: VHS, Netflix streaming

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Posted in 70's Movies, Dry Humor, Movies Based on Novels, Mystery, Obscure Movies

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Soapdish (1991)

Posted on November 13, 2013 | 2 comments

soapdish

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 7 out of 10

4-Word Review: Comedy style soap opera.

Montana Moorehead (Cathy Moriarty) is an ambitious actress playing a supporting role on a popular daytime soap opera. She wants to move up the casting ladder, but realizes that the show’s popular long-time leading Lady Celeste Talbert (Sally Field) must go first. She fakes having an interest in David Seaton Barnes (Robert Downey Jr.) who is the show’s producer as a way to manipulate him to get Celeste off the show or do things to hurt her popularity and yet everything that they try ends up backfiring.

Although soap operas have been parodied hundreds of times before this one is genuinely funny all the way through. It hits all the right targets and has some sharp dialogue. The characters manage to successfully toe the uncomfortable line between being caricatures and real people. Celeste in particular despite being insecure and straddled with all the afflictions of a big time star is still quite likable.

The scene where the Kevin Kline character performs in the play ‘Death of a Salesman’ at a rundown dinner theater and cleans up a customer’s spilled drink while remaining in the Willy Loman character is hilarious. The ending sequence where Kline’s character tries reading the teleprompter without the benefit of his glasses and the performance of a brain transplant operation inside a restaurant is also quite funny.

Field overall is quite good in the lead and it is nice seeing her back to doing comedy as she has a certain frantic affinity for it. The only thing that annoyed me about her performance was her crying which went on too long and sounded phony while never once shedding any tear. I also thought it was strange that the character complains about having to wear a turban on her head during a scene in the show and then later on she is seen wearing one in real life. There is also another part where the character faints and falls backwards. This is something that is quite prevalent in a lot of movies and TV-shows and I don’t know why or what started it, but in reality when people faint they fall forward not backwards.

Whoopi Goldberg is effective as the soap’s head writer. The role suites her talents best because it uses her more as a common sense anchor to the zaniness around her. Elisabeth Shue is engaging as a young woman who tries anything to break into the business. Her young attractive and innocent looking face is perfect for the part and she ends up holding her own quite well with the veteran cast.

Gary Marshall again makes the most of his small bit part and this guy is so good in cameo roles that I feel he should spend more time in front of the camera instead of behind it. Attractive TV reporter Leeza Gibbons, Teri Hatcher, Carrie Fisher, and Ben Stein can also be spotted in bit roles.

Out of the entire cast the only one that I didn’t care for was Moriarty who seemed too one-dimensional and although she was supposedly playing a young woman in her twenties she came off looking a lot older.

I only have a few complaints with this one and the biggest one being the fact that it has the show broadcast live even though soap operas ceased doing that in the early 60’s and had been shown on tape for the past four decades and yet the live broadcast is very crucial to the plot, which creates a loophole. Soap operas have also decreased significantly in popularity since the release of this film, which makes the movie appear dated. I also didn’t care of the musical score, which resembled dance music at a Latin bar and didn’t fit the theme at all. Even with these shortcomings the film is still funny enough to overcome them and is quality viewing for those looking for a good laugh.

My Rating: 7 out of 10

Released: May 31, 1991

Runtime: 1Hour 37Minutes

Rated PG-13

Director: Michael Hoffman

Studio: Paramount

Available: VHS, DVD, Amazon Instant Video, Netflix streaming

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Posted in 90's Movies, Movies that take place in the Big Apple, Parody

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The Telephone (1988)

Posted on November 11, 2013 | 4 comments

the telephone 2

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 1 out of 10

4-Word Review: I liked the owl.

Vashti Blue (Whoopi Goldberg) is an out-of-work actress sitting inside her dreary small apartment and having conversations with people over the phone. She also argues through a locked door that she shares with the women next door while waiting for a call from an agent for a job opportunity that never comes.

I am all for experimental cinema, which is the best way to describe this misguided project, but to work it still needs an artistic design and focus and this has none. It pretty much comes off as somebody’s cheap home video where a camera is turned on and then someone is allowed to rant and rave without pause for eighty minutes. Some could blame Rip Torn who is an actor turned first-time director here, but in subsequent interviews he has complained that Whoopi wouldn’t listen to any advice or direction that he gave and pretty much made his presence insignificant.  You could also blame the screenplay, which was written by the very odd pairing of Terry Southern and Harry Nilsson. Southern is best known for penning the screenplay for Dr. Strangelove while Nilsson is a famous singer/songwriter whose best work was doing the song ‘Everybody’s Talking’ that was the theme for the classic film Midnight Cowboy. However, Whoopi took great liberties with the material and ad-libbed a lot, so what was originally put down on paper and what is left on the screen could be minimal.

The conversations that Whoopi has over the phone ranges from lame to ridiculous. One includes calling the police and trying to get them to arrest a video store owner because he rented her a tape of Christmas in July with a scene excised is too absurd to be even remotely amusing. The Whoopi character also incorrectly stated that Frank Capra was the director of the film when it reality it was Preston Sturges.  Goldberg puts on a variety of accents including British, Japanese, Indian, and Southern as well as a few others, but her Irish one is suspect and her impression of John Wayne is terrible.

The apartment set is dull and bleak. The viewer feels trapped and with such little visual design their eyes and thoughts are apt to wander. Cutaways are sorely needed, but there are none. An infuriating moment is when there is a sound of a loud car pile-up outside, but despite this being a visual medium the camera never cuts away to show any of it. This was probably due to budget constraints, but what is even more perplexing is that there are sounds of people screaming, police sirens and even rioting and then a half minute later it all suddenly stops for no explained reason.

The supporting cast is eclectic but wasted. Noted character actor Severn Darden, in his last film role, appears in a brief bland bit as Whoopi’s neighbor. Elliot Gould gets a few minutes as Whoopi’s former agent and seems to be seriously slumming as he was a headline star during the seventies and now sadly stuck in this. John Heard is the only one who comes off best as a caustic, brash telephone repairman.

Whoopi’s two pets upstage the human cast by a mile. Her pet owl is very cute and I dug the goldfish particularly when he gets sucked down the drain of her bathtub and she must use a plunger to save him, which is the only time there is any action in the entire movie.

My Rating: 1 out of 10

Released: January 22, 1988

Runtime: 1Hour 20Minutes (The DVD cover states it’s 1Hour 36Minutes, but it is wrong.)

Rated R

Director: Rip Torn

Studio: New World Pictures

Available: VHS, DVD

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Posted in 80's Movies, Black Comedy, Low Budget, Obscure Movies, Offbeat

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The Interns (1962)

Posted on November 10, 2013 | 1 comment

the interns

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 6 out of 10

4-Word Review: Training to become doctors.

Based on the Richard Frede novel the film looks at a group of medical students going through a rigorous first year internship at the New North Hospital. All aspects of an intern’s experience are analyzed from their various moral quandaries to dealing with deaths of patients that they’ve become attached to and even sexism. We also get a glimpse of their private lives from their relationships and stresses to even their partying.

Although the film is entertaining and well-paced it is a bit too much like a soap opera. This comes to a particular head during the relationship sequences.  The characters seem to fall in love at first glance and the word ‘love’ gets expressed excessively until it becomes as irritating to hear as nails on a chalkboard.  It also has a mentality that every character ‘must’ magically find their life mate even if it seems particularly forced like with John (Cliff Robertson) who relentlessly chases after fashion model Lisa (Suzy Parker) even though she continually gives him the cold shoulder and the two can’t agree on anything including her need for an abortion from a unwanted pregnancy she had with another man. Alec’s (Michael Callan) is the only thread in this area that works as he proceeds to try to juggle two at the same time and the way he avoids a confrontation with the two while at a party is amusing.

There are some good scenes and even memorable moments. The best is when Lew (James MacArthur) finds an interest in obstetrics and delivers his first baby. The acrimonious relationship between Dr. Riccio (wonderfully played as usual by Telly Savalas who has hair here and isn’t completely bald as he usually is) and Dr. Bruckner (Haya Harareet) who he looks down upon simply because she is a woman, but eventually learns to respect is great. I also liked the party sequence the one moment in the film that gets lighthearted especially when 37 people try to cram themselves into a small closet in order to beat the world record.

The cast is interesting and eclectic. One can spot either an older veteran actor, up-and-coming star, or famous character actor in literally every shot. Robertson who sometimes comes off as stiff gives a strong all-around performance, which may be his best. MacArthur who would later costar in the long running series ‘Hawaii Five-O’ is also really good. Buddy Ebsen does well as a wise-cracking chief surgeon and it is great seeing the very young and beautiful Stefanie Powers as a nurse. John Banner who would later become famous for playing the incompetent prison guard Shultz on the long-running sitcom ‘Hogan’s Heroes’ can also be seen, but he is not given a single line of dialogue.

The film is glossy, but still compelling and if anything gives the viewer a good taste of what life of a medical intern is like. In 1965 the film was followed by a sequel The New Interns, which will be reviewed next Sunday.

My Rating: 6 out of 10

Released: August 8, 1962

Runtime: 2Hours

Not Rated

Director: David Swift

Studio: Columbia Pictures

Available: VHS, DVD

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Posted in 60's Movies, Black & White, Drama, Movies Based on Novels, Movies with a Hospital setting

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The Jerk (1979)

Posted on November 8, 2013 | Leave a comment

the jerk

By Richard Winters

My Rating: 7 out of 10

4-Word Review: This is stupidly brilliant.

This is the type of film that looks like it was done by people that were stoned and meant for audiences that were equally stoned. The ‘story’ runs like it was conceived by someone who couldn’t come up with a real plot so they did this instead. The whole thing is as simple and mindless as the character it depicts with no real correlation to anything. Everything is thrown in haphazardly and at times looks like nothing but a very desperate and strained attempt for a laugh. This is coupled by a performance by Steve Martin that is very one-dimensional and even amateurish. He behaves like one of those annoying class clowns looking for attention and yet despite all this it still manages to be funny sometimes really, really funny.

This is a definite precursor to Dumb and Dumber and others like it and in many ways this is still the best as it completely stretches the stupidity axiom. It tests the audience’s perceptions on what is tolerable and logical. This doesn’t just have a couple of guys who are weird everybody and everything is weird. The humor works totally outside of the box. It gets you to laugh at things you didn’t think you would and also gets you to see things differently. It creates a warped world that for the first hour is consistent and fun, but by the second hour it begins to struggle and ultimately overreaches.

Martin’s ‘air head’ routine doesn’t seem too original since he had been using it previously in his stand-up acts and comedy guest stints. His character is too dumb and naive to be believable and there is never any explanation for it. He manages to give his performance a certain endearing quality, which is the only thing that saves it. The opening segment has him growing up a white boy amongst a poor black family, which borders dangerously close to being racist and stereotypical.

There is a good supporting cast, but they seem wasted and many of them only have a few lines. Bernadette Peters, as his love interest, really doesn’t add much however Jackie Mason is pretty good as Martin’s boss at a gas station. Maurice Evans is also fun as Martin’s butler and has an amusing way of responding to his wife’s sudden death. Rob Reiner, the director’s son, appears in a cameo as a truck driver who gives Martin a lift ‘up to the end of the fence.’

Overall this is pretty goofy stuff, but only for those who are in the right frame of mind for it. It’s a simple, scattershot formula that produces some genuine laughs.

My Rating: 7 out of 10

Released: December 14, 1979

Runtime: 1Hour 34Minutes

Rated R

Director: Carl Reiner

Studio: Universal

Available: VHS, DVD, HDDVD, Blu-ray, Amazon Instant Video

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Posted in 70's Movies, Farce, Movies that take place in the South, Offbeat

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