Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 20, 1990 TAG: 9004200505
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Roanoke Times and World-News movie reviewer Chris Gladden had a bit part in the movie and thus excused himself from reviewing it. Mike Mayo, Gladden's fellow reviewer, admitted a possible lack of objectivity in reviewing a movie so closely tied to the region.
So what do others from outside the region have to say about the movie?
The reviews are mixed.
As are the first-week box-office results: The movie opened with a gate of $3.4 million for sixth place among all movies last week. An Associated Press story calls the results "weak."
Among the generally positive reviews:
\ Malcolm L. Johnson of The Hartford Courant: ". . . This new spring comedy, warmly directed by Tony Bill from a clever, tender screenplay by Mitch Markowitz, re-establishes Dudley Moore as a bright and lovable leading man.
"In his best comedy since `Arthur,' Moore brings impish wit to Emory Leeson. Dealing with Charles F. Drucker, the corporate strangler played by J.T. Walsh, has made this leprechaunish Madison Avenue man a bit mad, and Emory's wife has walked out, too. Yet all this makes Emory more humane, not less so. Thus is his insane idea of truth in advertising born.
"There is nothing particularly new about a crazy man on Mad Ave., just as there was nothing revelatory about a rich, funny drunk. These are Manhattan archetypes. But Markowitz brings good-natured humor touched with black to his portrait of a copywriter who begins to see products in a new, true light. And Bill, who replaced Markowitz as director early in the shoot, shows a deft touch and communicates his affection for his characters.
"It's crazy to consider what `Crazy People' might have been with Markowitz as director and John Malkovich [who was originally cast] in the Moore role. Another `Making Mr. Right'? The producers seem to have done the right thing. "Crazy People" never feels like a picture in trouble, a movie that lost its way. Its only glaring flaws come when Daryl Hannah, the love interest, is photographed by Victor J. Kemper (who replaced Bill Butler) against a white wall. Hannah's pale complexion and white-blonde hair give these scenes an unearthly glow."
\ Variety magazine: "Crazy People combines a hilarious dissection of advertising with the warmest view of so-called insanity since `King of Hearts.' Paramount has a potential word-of-mouth goldmine in this clever film, assuming audiences have not overdosed with TV satire of the "SCTV" and "Saturday Night Live" ilk.
". . . Moore, in his best screen acting since `Arthur' a decade ago, toplines as a burnt-out ad man. . . . Hannah projects the type of innocence and wonder that made her a star in `Splash.' "
\ Bob Thomas of the Associated Press: "It's fun to go along with the joke and imagine seeing a TV commercial proclaiming: `Buy a Volvo - they're boxy but they're good.' Or a newspaper ad for United Airlines: `Most of our passengers get there alive.' Such ads are the premise for `Crazy People' and the source of its biggest laughs.
" `Crazy People' is the inspired work of writer Mitch Markowitz (`Good Morning, Vietnam') who started as director but was replaced by Tony Bill. Markowitz's script is bright and original, suffering only in the late portions when the plot has to be tidied up. Bill, whose directing (`My Bodyguard,' `Six Weeks,' `Five Corners') has had mixed results, demonstrates a fine touch with comedy.
"Moore is the one who keeps the champagne bubbling. He is in top form, a delightfully demented leprechaun. Hannah is decorative as always, but she struggles with the vagueness of her character. Reiser of TV's `My Two Dads' makes an excellent foil, and Mercedes Ruehl is warmly sympathetic as the psychiatrist."
Some other reviewers were not quite so enthusiastic:
\ Stephen Wigler of The Baltimore Sun: "The ad campaign for `Crazy People' carries a cautionary warning: `You must be in the theater to see this movie.'
"No, you don't, for two reasons. The first is that it's terrible and the second is that you've seen it before.
"The author of the screenplay, Mitch Markowitz, is best known for having written `Good Morning, Vietnam.' One's suspicions that `Good Morning, Vietnam' would have been lame without Robin Williams' extraordinary performance are validated by `Crazy People.' This screenplay stinks - there is no other word."
"[But] these are not the worst things about `Crazy People.' Even more heartlessly than `The Dream Team,' which was at least amusing, it perpetuates the myth that mentally ill people are inherently funny and that, given sufficient attention, they can be easily cured. This is not only an artistically incompetent movie, it is a morally bad one."
\ Vincent Canby of The New York Times: " `Crazy People,' written by Mitch Markowitz, is a feature film equivalent to those commercials that pretend to be sending themselves up. Its upside-down ad campaigns wouldn't rate a smile in a college humor magazine, at least in part because they knowingly celebrate the system they are supposed to be satirizing. The concept is high but fraudulent.
"The movie's attitude toward the mentally and emotionally disturbed is even worse. If `Crazy People' displayed an ounce of real wit, one wouldn't care, but it's so smug in its ignorance that it begins to look elitist."
\ Tom Jacobs of the Los Angeles Daily News: " `Crazy People' is a comedy about an advertising executive who achieves great success by writing totally honest ads. As such, it only seems appropriate that Paramount promote the film using a similarly straightforward approach.
"May I suggest the following copy?: `Crazy People' contains one genuinely funny idea. We didn't bother to build a satisfying movie around it, but we're counting on you not to notice.
"Or how about this, for a quote ad: `Two stars. Thoroughly mediocre.' - L.A. Daily News"
". . . For a film that extols the virtues of honesty, `Crazy People' is dishonest in some fundamental ways. It portrays serious mental illness as a condition that is essentially harmless and easily cured. It portrays all authority figures as small-minded, manipulative and essentially evil.
"Finally, it's more of a 90-minute string of commercials than a movie. Emory and his friends create ads for actual corporations, including AT&T, Porsche, Metamucil, Sony and many others."
\ Lou Cedrone of The Baltimore Evening Sun: " `Crazy People' is a movie that seems to know where it isgoing one minute, then is lost the next. It has its laughs, but it has its dull patches, too. You might call it a crazy quilt.
"The film, written by Mitch Markowitz (`Good Morning Vietnam') and directed by Tony Bill (`Five Corners'), uses a mental institution as a source of humor. It also uses the advertising world, which is really its prime target. When it is kidding Madison Avenue, the film is on reasonably sure ground. When it goes to the institution, it is less sure of itself and is, therefore, less funny.
"A nice, fairy-tale ending is fitting, because the movie, in essence, is fairy tale. As such, however, it is only partly successful. It is easy enough to sit through, but there are times when you will wonder if the comedy is ever going to shape up and get along."
\ Peter Rainer of the Los Angeles Times: "The satiric idea behind `Crazy People' deserves a better movie. Dudley Moore, looking a bit haggard and bored, plays Emory Leeson, an ad executive who, on deadline pressure, has a brainstorm.
"Ad men lie for a living, he reasons, so why not cleanse the air and level with consumers? Emory's resulting `truth in advertising' binge lands him in a loony bin, but, by accident, his brutally frank prototype ads are printed up and widely circulated. In the wake of their success, he's hailed as a marketing genius.
The satire pretty much stops right there, which is a shame. In fact, things get progressively gooier. Mitch Markowitz, who also wrote "Good Morning Vietnam," has come up with some sharp jabs at Madison Avenue, but the film itself is an example of ad-promo hard-sell disguised as soft soap. Tony Bill's direction lacks zip.
". . . Basically, "Crazy People" is yet another variation on the we're-all-sane-in-here, they're-all-crazy-out-there game plan of, say, `One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' or, more recently, `The Dream Team.' We are supposed to applaud Emory and his gang for leveling with consumers and exposing the hypocrisy of advertising. But the aims of their own ad campaigns are just as mercenary."
by CNB