Stir Crazy
1980 Directed by Sidney Poitier
Synopsis
Two jailbirds who just want out of the cage.
New Yorkers, Skip Donahue and Harry Monroe, have no jobs and no prospects. They decide to flee the city and find work elsewhere, and land jobs as woodpeckers to promote the opening of a bank. When their feathery costumes are stolen and used in a bank robbery, they no longer have to worry about employment -- they're sent to prison!
Cast
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I thought the film started very strongly. Like every sane person in the world, I'm a fan of Richard Pryor's. The chemistry between him and Wilder is just fantastic, they are the perfect foil for each others comedy. You can tell that some of the scenes are improvised; either that or someone really knew how to write dialogue between the two of them extraordinarily well.
The problem with this film is well documented. That is, half way through, after a sublime 40 minutes of hilarious quips, witty dialogue and strong visual gags, it just gets more and more diluted until it's just no longer funny. I'm not sure whether it was something that happened in production, or if it was…
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This was a first-time watch amazingly since I remember quite a few details about this film. Like the bird costumes and the rodeo and the jail scenes.
Well I figured the comedy geniuses of Pryor and Wilder would be awesome. Some of their other work together has been pretty funny, but this was not very funny. Actually I would say that this was pretty unfunny and more boring than I thought it would be. I laughed maybe 2 or 3 times, and really couldn't stay engaged with the story. There were some funny aspects of the film, but as a whole it just didn't grab me. The cast is pretty good on paper, and that's kind of why I was…
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After the first fifteen minutes, the movie starts to really work. The last scene isn't needed but at that point it really doesn't matter. Once they get to prison this movie takes off.
The two stars are a joy to watch together and while the jokes aren't groundbreaking comedy, they work well for this movie. The best laughs come from how Wilder and Pryer react to those around them. I also liked the scenes where they try to break Wilder's spirit. I had a good time.
Recommend.
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*Didn't actually finish this.
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Although it zigzags between a few different settings as it moves through its plot, the transitions always seem natural. Part of this is Poitier's direction, but a lot of it is simply because Pryor and Wilder play so well off of each other, the audience is laughing too much to question the transitions. Read full review.
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The many gay jokes in particular haven't aged well, and there's a sweetly pokey air. Gene Wilder wanders about with his trademark beatific-crazed face, and Richard Pryor matches him for compulsively watchable mugging: there's no point to the scene where the two freak out, act crazy and pretend to sedate each other with pills except the pleasure of trading hysteria. Hard not to admire the semi-conscientiousness of a script which gives a reason for its strip club scene: JoBeth Williams has to get a job there because of course a lot of guys with tattoos hang out there, and the real criminals have tattoos on their hands. Easy to sink into, and has the hard-to-pinpoint aura of an instant basic cable, easily dividable into comic sequences and stand-alone bits without requiring any straining to keep up.
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i love mr pryor, i want him to be my daddy
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I thought the film started very strongly. Like every sane person in the world, I'm a fan of Richard Pryor's. The chemistry between him and Wilder is just fantastic, they are the perfect foil for each others comedy. You can tell that some of the scenes are improvised; either that or someone really knew how to write dialogue between the two of them extraordinarily well.
The problem with this film is well documented. That is, half way through, after a sublime 40 minutes of hilarious quips, witty dialogue and strong visual gags, it just gets more and more diluted until it's just no longer funny. I'm not sure whether it was something that happened in production, or if it was…
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Not the strongest of the Wilder/Pryor trilogy, but still a film worthy of viewing nearly a quarter-century after its debut. I still launch uncontrollably when Pryor attempts to teach Wilder to be tough for prison life, and I hope that never stops
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http://didyouseethatone.com/2012/07/23/stir-crazy/
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This is a hard to explain Pryor/Wilder film. Its everyone's favorite, but still, nothing has came close to beating See No Evil, Hear No Evil with the exception of Another You. This is a Pryor/Wilder movie that I like, but I dont think it lives up to its hype. Now sure its good and some jokes in it are hysterically funny. It just is not my favorite. Some would agree, but I think its because of all the problems Ive heard about it like Pryor deeming things as racist and how the duo didnt get along on the set of this. I believe and blame those reasons why I didnt enjoy it to the fullest extent. Just hear me out,…
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This was a first-time watch amazingly since I remember quite a few details about this film. Like the bird costumes and the rodeo and the jail scenes.
Well I figured the comedy geniuses of Pryor and Wilder would be awesome. Some of their other work together has been pretty funny, but this was not very funny. Actually I would say that this was pretty unfunny and more boring than I thought it would be. I laughed maybe 2 or 3 times, and really couldn't stay engaged with the story. There were some funny aspects of the film, but as a whole it just didn't grab me. The cast is pretty good on paper, and that's kind of why I was…