We kind of enjoyed a John Candy comedy last week, so we queued Going Berserk (1983). They both are based on losing your mind, but this one is much more 80s.
Candy plays a limo driver, with business partner Joe Flaherty. Candy is engaged to Alley Mills, the daughter of Senator and presidential hopeful Pat Hingle. Hingle is not at all happy about his son-in-law, who is not just a lowly driver, but also a lousy drummer and not too bright. The basic plot is that a cult brainwashes Candy to kill Hingle, but that only scrapes the surface.
For instance, Candy and Flaherty are friends with sleazy impresario Eugene Levy, who cast them in a dubbed martial arts movie. He wants to film the Candy-Mills wedding. Also, Candy somehow gets arrested, and handcuffed to murderer Ernie Hudson. Hudson breaks out, taking Candy with him to his girlfriend's place, where he dies after some vigorous sex. So now Candy is handcuffed to a dead black man.
The cult is based on greed and aerobics, and brainwashes him to kill when he sees the 10 of spades. Either that or it will just make him act like a schmuck. Turns out, it makes him a schmuck.
So you've got a real mish-mash - aerobics cultists, motorcycle gangs, limos, martial arts movies, Manchurian Candidate murder plots, and a drumming subplot that goes nowhere. Really, they use it for one scene: He's practicing terribly, and Mills picks up the sticks and is awesome. I don't think it's mentioned again.
Still, Candy is just funny, and it's great to see his buddies Flaherry and Levi. I kind of wish it made more sense or was funnier, but we'll take it.
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