BEFORE: We drove upstate for my aunt's wake today - so it's weird that this film came up in the rotation. When I used to stay over my aunt's house, I used to watch films from my uncle's extensive VHS collection late at night. That could be how my insomniac habits got started. I know I've seen bits of this one before, or perhaps fast-forwarded through it, but never watched it as a film, properly from start to finish. Linking tonight is provided by Chevy Chase, who was in both "Three Amigos" with Steve Martin and "Spies Like Us" with Dan Aykroyd (last seen in "Blues Brothers 2000").
THE PLOT: A quiet man's peaceful suburban lifestyle is threatened by the new, obnoxious couple that moves in next door.
AFTER: I don't know what's weirder - watching Belushi play the straight man (when we all know he was "the wild one" or watching a movie struggle for 90 minutes without a clear direction. It's like a fish flopping on the pier, just moving in any and every direction, trying to get back into the water, without knowing where it is.
There are plenty of gags, even if they work in rather broad stereotypes - the bored husband, the nympho neighbor, Aykroyd's...um, whatever he is - but they're not assembled in a way that forms any coherent whole from the pieces. I probably understand the intent of this film more than the last time I tried to watch it, back when I was an unmarried college student - but I also understand enough to see that it's nearly impossible to figure this film out.
The problem seems to be that the comedy fires off in twelve different directions - OK, so the new neighbors are weird. But HOW, exactly are they weird? Are they swingers, con artists, serial killers, hipster city-folk, Republicans? You've got to pick a horse and stick with it. At least "Housesitter" was clear in saying, OK, THIS is a dishonest character, and THIS is the deception, and now THIS guy is in on it, so let's see what follows.
And, even in a madcap comedy, things need to progress logically. "Groundhog Day", "What About Bob?", even "Ghostbusters" - crazy things went down, but there's still a sense of logic. The story moves forward according to a set of rules, even as events spiral out of control. Here Belushi's character hates Aykroyd's character, then he's his best friend, then he hates him again, etc. - all in the course of one night! And they JUST met? Talk about snap judgments!
The wife character, Enid, is inconsistent too - since she's not a broad stereotype like "nympho", it seems someone didn't know what to write for her. It seems like she already knows the man moving in next door, perhaps even in a biblical sense. Is she in on some plot to swap husbands/wives, convincing her lover to move close by and arranging for another woman to seduce her husband? Who knows, since the movie suggests this, then drops it and moves on. What was going on behind the locked door with two women and a German shepherd? We'll never know for sure, because the movie never fills in the details.
I'll acknowledge that the early 80's were a weird time, and perhaps working in sketch comedy doesn't properly prepare people for working in long-form comedy, since inconsistencies abound. But you've got to give me something solid to hang a plotline on. If you're going to send up suburbia/disturbia, it's got to be coherent.
And what's with all the cartoon-like music and cartoon-y sound effects throughout the entire film? That made it hard to take anything seriously, even the comedy.
Also starring John Belushi (last seen in "1941"), Cathy Moriarty (last seen in "Soapdish"), Kathryn Walker, Tim Kazurinsky.
RATING: 2 out of 10 tow trucks
No comments:
Post a Comment