Review of Stir Crazy (1980) by Jesse O — 09 Apr 2014

This is a very funny movie that, unfortunately, loses some of its steam in the last half hour or so. Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor make a great team, as they have great chemistry together and I think they bring out the best in each other.

But, and this applies more to Richard Pryor than it does for Gene, but you can tell that he's pretty much being held back by the script's limitations. Richard Pryor was one of the funniest comedians who ever lived, and while he's really funny here, you don't get a sense of that.

Not that I was expecting him to do his stand-up routine in the film, as it really wouldn't make a lot of sense given the context of the film. But the restraints should've been cut off and he should've been given some freedom to Pryor-tize the film and give it a raunchier edge.

The film is rated R, but only because of language and even then it's not like it's the GoodFellas of comedy films, they're not cursing from beginning to end. As mentioned, I did find the film to be very funny once Harry and Skip go into prison.

Seeing how Skip, someone who looks at the world through rose colored eyes, he's someone that's completely unaware of the reality of prison life that's staring him right in the face. It's funny seeing how he tries to use conversation and understanding to get his point across.

It's not comedy gold, but it is quite funny. And it helps that Gene Wilder is so immensely likable. Richard Pryor is also very funny in his delivery and facial expressions but, as I mentioned, it feels like he's being held back.

Still, he and Gene make an excellent team and they definitely get a lot of laughs. Unfortunately though, just before the actual "prison" break starts, which is about 80 minutes into the film, and you still have 30 or so more minutes to go, the film really loses a lot.

While it's still funny, it really isn't as funny as everything that came before it. Perhaps that's to let the prison break stand out as a highlight, but it didn't work, at least in my opinion.

It just dragged the whole movie down to a 3 star rating instead of a 3.5 rating. And that's not even mentioning all the implications of the actual escape. They leave a lot of unanswered questions, perhaps because they had a sequel in mind, but there's still a lot of questions and legal ramifications of what they did, even if they were innocent.

Still, this ending isn't meant to create thought-provoking debates or anything of the sort, but there's still some unanswered questions. Regardless, this is a fun film that probably didn't age very well with time.

It's still a solid film thanks to Gene Wilder's and Richard Pryor's easy chemistry with each other.