Crazy People

For the album by The Rowans, see Crazy People (album).
Crazy People

Warning: Crazy People are coming.
Directed by Tony Bill
Barry L. Young (commercials)
Produced by Thomas Brand
Robert K. Weiss
Written by Mitch Markowitz
Starring Dudley Moore
Daryl Hannah
Paul Reiser
J. T. Walsh
Danton Stone
Music by Cliff Eidelman
Cinematography Victor J. Kemper
Edited by Mia Goldman
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release dates
  • April 13, 1990 (U.S.)
Running time
 91 min.
Country United States
Language English
Budget $18 million
Box office $13,236,513

Crazy People (stylized as Cяazy People) is a 1990 comedy film starring Dudley Moore and Daryl Hannah, and directed by Tony Bill.

Plot

Emory Leeson is an advertising executive who experiences a nervous breakdown. He designs a series of "truthful" advertisements, blunt and bawdy and of no use to his boss Drucker's firm.

One of his colleagues, Stephen Bachman, checks him into a psychiatric hospital. Emory goes into group therapy under the care of Dr. Liz Baylor and meets other voluntary patients, such as the lovely and vulnerable Kathy Burgess. There is also George, who can only speak one word: "Hello."

By mistake, Emory's advertisements get printed and the new campaign turns out to be a tremendous success. Campaigns like: "Jaguar — For men who'd like hand-jobs from beautiful women they hardly know." and "Volvo — they're boxy but they're good."

Drucker grabs credit for the ads. He assigns Stephen and the rest of his employees to design similar new ad campaigns featuring so-called honesty in advertising, but nothing works.

Emory is approached in the sanitarium about creating new ads himself. He insists that his fellow mental patients also be involved and suitably rewarded for their work, transforming the sanitarium into a branch of the advertising industry.

They come up with wild advertising slogans, like one for a Greek travel agency that goes: "Forget Paris. The French can be annoying. Come to Greece. We're nicer." And another one called "Come… IN the Bahamas" for the islands' national tourism board.

The patients experience happiness at being needed and improve from their various illnesses. The evil Drucker and the doctor in charge of the hospital get greedy and try to separate the team. But it doesn't work. Dr. Baylor defies her boss and Emory negotiates to get new automobiles for all of the patients. Emory and Kathy, who have fallen in love, leave the hospital in an army helicopter piloted by Kathy's long-lost brother.

Cast

Reception

It received mostly negative reviews and has 33% on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert envisioned a call from the fictional Movie Police in his review:

“ "Excuse me, sir. Movie Police here. Do you have a love story in this movie?" "Uh, afraid not. There's no need for one." "But who is the female lead?" "There isn't any." "And the heart-warming romantic conclusion?" "Are you kidding? This is a cynical satire about advertising." "And do you have a lot of lovable, huggable goofballs in supporting roles?" "Only the usual demented creative types who work in any ad agency." "Then I'm afraid you'll have to come down to the studio with us. What you've done is against . . . Movie Law!" Why do I get the feeling a scene like this was played at some point early in the history of "Crazy People"? Because the two halves of the movie fit together so uneasily.[1] ”

Owen Gleiberman awarded the film a D- grade in one of Entertainment Weekly's earliest reviews. He stated:

“ All told, the film is less a diatribe against advertising than an unintentional celebration of it.[2] ”

Formats

The movie was released on VHS and Laserdisc (now out of print) in late 1990, and on widescreen DVD in 2004. The soundtrack featured the song "Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)" by Mötley Crüe and the "Hello Song" performed by Floyd Vivino.

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ Ebert, Roger (April 11, 1990). "Review of Crazy People". Chicago Sun-Times.
  2. ↑ Gleiberman, Owen (April 27, 1990). "Crazy People". Entertainment Weekly.