BEFORE: I've been hitting a lot of comedies lately, the list of them is dwindling fast - especially ones starring ex-SNL stars. Tonight, some respect paid to ex-SCTV stars. For those not in the know, SCTV was like Saturday Night Live's Canadian cousin in the 1980's, a sketch comedy show that produced talents like John Candy, Martin Short, and Catherine O'Hara. Linking from last night's film, Adam Sandler was in "Grown Ups" with Chris Rock, who was in "Down To Earth" with Eugene Levy, who appears here playing a character very similar to his "Bobby Bittman" SCTV character, a showbiz-weasel type.
THE PLOT: A drummer/chauffeur engaged to a congressman's daughter encounters a sleazy film director, the leader of an aerobics cult, and other crazed characters during the days leading up to his wedding.
AFTER: This plays out like an extended SCTV sketch, minus a few of their regular actors. It's like their take on "The Manchurian Candidate", with an unsuspecting man programmed to assassinate a prominent politician. However, the programming doesn't really work right, and when the poor dupe sees the trigger (why is it always a playing card?) he instead turns into a horny lounge-lizard type.
The movie also riffs on "The Blue Lagoon", dubbed kung fu films, fugitive-on-the-run films, bikers, punks, and yes, an evil cult whose members all do aerobics (I KNEW it!). As such, the film is very disjointed, and more often than not, forgets to be funny.
The wedding scenes remind me of my favorite recurring SCTV skit, a soap-opera spoof called "Days of the Week". It had all your standard soap plot-lines, like the rich man with amnesia, the crook impersonating him to win his inheritance, the evil doctor, etc. The various plotlines all came to a head in a wedding scene, when terrorists attacked - leading to a cliffhanger ending. I thought they should have just ended the skit right there, confounding everyone's expectations, but unfortunately they persisted and drove the gags into the ground. Check the clips out on YouTube and see if you agree.
As for this film, the ending seems extremely rushed, as the main character's programming is broken (somehow) and he is awarded a limo service in Africa (where there are no limos - huh?)
Starring John Candy (last seen in "Armed and Dangerous"), Joe Flaherty (last seen in "1941"), Alley Mills, Dixie Carter, Ernie Hudson, Pat Hingle (last seen in "Maximum Overdrive"), Richard Libertini (last seen in "Lethal Weapon 4"), with cameos from Kurtwood Smith (last seen in "A Time to Kill") and Paul Dooley (last seen in "Sixteen Candles").
RATING: 2 out of 10 male strippers
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