BEFORE: I really need to watch some light comedy, and what's funnier than mental patients? This is part of the "crazy people go on a road trip" chain...
THE PLOT: A group of mental patients on their way to a ballgame are stranded in New York City and framed for murder.
AFTER: OK, so most of it wasn't laugh-out-loud funny, but it managed to be heartwarming in its own weird way. Kudos for showcasing 4 entirely different types of mental defect - the aggressive psychotic, the catatonic, the religious fanatic, and the obsessive-compulsive with delusions of grandeur.
And the mental patients want to go to Yankee Stadium? Actually, that does sound about right. I was there earlier this year and saw a lot of people who'd probably qualify to be locked up in the looney bin...
Naturally, since this was light comedy, the experience of being lost in New York, arrested, and framed for murder proves to be just what these mental cases need, in a strange roundabout way. They're forced to overcome their differences, and their disorders, to work together to find their doctor, face two crooked cops, and get themselves back to the asylum.
No, it's not Shakespeare, but after the depressing week of movies I just watched, I applaud a film that doesn't take itself too seriously.
The most logical film to watch after this would be "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", but I'm saving that for my Jack Nicholson marathon in September...
Starring Michael Keaton (last seen in "Johnny Dangerously"), Peter Boyle (last seen in "Monster's Ball"), Christopher Lloyd (last seen in "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai"), Stephen Furst, Lorraine Bracco (last seen in "Being Human"), and Dennis Boutsikaris (last seen in "batteries not included"), with cameos from Milo O'Shea (last seen in "Only the Lonely"), Philip Bosco (last seen in "Blue Steel"), and Michael Lembeck.
RATING: 6 out of 10 hot dogs
No comments:
Post a Comment