Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that while this movie's absurd premise might seem to make it pretty kid-friendly, its full of cussing and shouting, and unpleasant good guys. People are killed, hostages are taken, cars are driven irresponsibly and stolen. There are a few graphic jokes about sex and a female nudity is shown.
Families can talk about the experiences of handicapped persons, how the blind and deaf cope and compensate for their diminished senses. Wilder's character says that people don't want to touch him, fearful that it his deafness is contagious. Families can discuss prejudices and fears about disabled people. Another conversation might center around whether it's good form to find humor in people's disabilities.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Erika Milvy
Richard Pryor is blind, Gene Wilder is deaf and the two are on the run from the cops and the robbers. When a man is shot and killed at Wilder's newsstand, together the two add up to one unreliable witness. The numskulls then do all the wrong things and wind up as the chief suspects in this murder case. Assuming that the pair hold the murdered man's priceless coin, Kirgo (Kevin Spacey) and Eve (Joan Severance), the actual killers, pose as their lawyers, spring them from jail, and the repeatedly botch umpteen attempts to rub them out and retrieve the coin. This gives the disabled duo ample time to participate in car chases (excitement amplified by the blind man driving) steal police cars, and impersonate Swedish doctors.
This film represents the dregs of comedy from these '70s stars who, by 1989, are passed their prime. The premise of the deaf leading the blind and the blind leading the deaf has about a two-minute sketch's worth of humor. Not to mention that such a politically-incorrect comedy about disability would most likely not be made today, at least not by comedy legends like these.
There are minor flashes of comic absurdity, most notably in a scene in which Pryor, posing as a Swedish gynecologist, is asked to present his research on the orgasm at a medical conference. Such silly zaniness is a stab at the classic humor of Mel Brooks. But even Wilder's attempt at a silly German accent falls flat and reminds us that this is no Young Frankenstein.
Better zany comedies starring Gene Wilder include Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles.
Rate It!
| Content | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CS | adults | kids | ||
Sexual ContentIn one creepy scene, Wilder's Dave points a gun and the sexy killer who must drop her towel to put her hands in the air. She is helpless and naked (breasts are shown) and Dave ogles her with lust and kisses her -- at gunpoint. Later the blind Wally cops a protracted feel when he is attempting to capture and apprehend Eve. |
 |
|||
ViolenceCharacters are shot dead, punched, smacked, and knocked out. Guns are wielded and fired, hostages are taken. |
|
|||
LanguageGratuitous and ubiquitous bad language with a whole lot of the "f' word. |
 |
|||
Message |
|
|||
Social BehaviorOf course this comedy is terribly un-PC to make light of disabilities, but it's also a product of another time. Nobody displays good behavior, least of all the hapless heroes, who are rude, crude, and imbecilic. And disrespectful to women. The police are not much better behaved and, in fact, the villains are the most polite, courteous, and sophisticated of the whole lot. |
 |
|||
Commercialism |
 |
|||
Drug/Alcohol/Tobacco |
|
|||
