Crazy People
Picture: B- Sound:
B- Extras: D Film: D
Let’s face it, the 80’s
were a bizarre time in general and if there is any place that demonstrates that
best besides the music, it’s the movies that were made during this fascinating
decade. Coming out of the 80’s though
the 90’s showed some more promise and there was a new hope placed upon
filmmakers, which would certainly start with one of the greatest films – Silence of the Lambs. But for every great work there were a few
flops including 1990’s Crazy People,
which starred Dudley Moore and Daryl Hannah.
Crazy People should refer to the people that can actually sit through this film as
it misses just about every potential spot for some humor. Moore plays your typical guy that works in
advertising and his recent revelation is that ads lie to people, which we
should all realize anyway. The reason
for ads is to make people want things that they don’t need, which was certainly
coming about during the 80’s anyway and certainly seemed to be the wave that
would hit in the 90’s as well. Older
ads promoted what people needed or could use, but these new ads were just
focused on the materialistic needs of people.
So with this new revelation he decides to ‘fix’ his ads to pertain to
the truth, such as ‘Volvos, yes they’re boxy, but they’re safe’. If you find the previous statement funny,
than you don’t need to read much further because this movie is meant for you,
but if you find it about as dumb as it is, then you will find yourself in the
larger majority of people that will sit during this film wondering when it
might hit a humorous spot.
Instead of focusing on the
film, lets shift our attention to its debut onto the DVD format from
Paramount. Similar to a lot of their
catalog of average titles, Paramount has chosen to just do the basics with a
5.1 Dolby Digital mix and 1.85 X 1 anamorphic transfer, which delivers a
suitable presentation for the film. The
transfer tends to be a bit soft at times and gives the film a slightly dated
look that should not be there, but then again the laughter is even more dated,
so maybe in this case its appropriate.
Nothing overly exciting on the audio side either as the film was
originally a Dolby Surround film, which has now been isolated into a 5.1 mix,
which ends up being stronger in the front soundstage anyway.
It’s unfortunate that a
lot of talent was wasted on this film as they drudge through a tired script and
the most disappointing part is that it contains a certain potential that was
never realized or even attempted. You can tell that this is the efforts from a
TV based director like Tony Bill, who for the sake of all of us went back to TV
shortly after this flop and 1993’s Untamed
Heart with Christian Slater. Bill
was replacing writer Mitch Markovitz who was the original director for the
film. Markovitz received good praise
for his writing on Good Morning, Vietnam,
but this only proves that it was more the work on behalf of Robin Williams that
made that film work as well as it did.
The actors here stumble through the unfunny script, which is most likely
why Markovitz has not written much since, and has yet to get a directing
credit.
- Nate Goss
