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A smarmy, smirking guy (Miles Chapin) enters a theater, early in the day. An annoying little white dog comes yapping up to him. He stops, looks at it, looks around to make sure no one's watching--and then he drop-kicks the dog into the balcony. We cut to a closeup as he smirks, freeze-framed, and the subtitle "The Villain" flashes on the screen. How can you not love a movie like this?

One of the great joys of B-movies is we film freaks get to know about them before the rest of the world does. (I'm *really* looking forward to when everyone catches up to "Bubba Ho-Tep" in a few years.) Well, Get Crazy is in that category. What I can't figure out is why this gem isn't as well-known as it ought to be, even among cult fans.

Set during an incredibly eventful New Year's Eve concert/party at a legendary rock theater, the plot is just an excuse for the gags and bits that make up the movie. Since it isn't really concerned with plot, it makes up for that by throwing non-stop energy into its gags. The stars of the rock show are thinly (very thinly!) veiled parodies of Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, and Muddy Walters, among others, and this provides a lot of fun as the movie makes fun of them.

The biggest scene-stealer is Malcolm McDowell as "Reggie Wanker," based on Mick Jagger--he even does the chicken-walk at one point, on stage. The scene after he drinks the drug-spiked punch and has a conversation with his own penis ought to have ensured the cult classic status of Get Crazy; it is definitely memorable. If MTV ever wants to have a parody Mick Jagger in one of their specials, McDowell is da man.

Daniel Stern is the central character, the stage manager who is one step ahead of any disaster as he tries to keep the show on track, romance a stagehand he's got his eye on, and keep the villain from blowing up the theater, all at the same time. Stern has never been better, mostly because he relaxes, and doesn't give way, here, to the screeching and over-acting which have made him so irritating in films like Home Alone.

I'm not being overly specific, because I don't want to give away its jokes. But I've been thinking about this film a lot, because I happened to catch it on a latenight cable channel a few weeks back--and it's still as funny as when I first saw it. How many comedies from 1983 can make the same claim?

If sex, drugs, rock'n'roll and low taste humor are for you, JoeBob says check this one out.

link directly to this review at https://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=6370&reviewer=301
originally posted: 11/21/02 06:58:15
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