(Spoilers.)
If I may quote Crow T. Robot: "This is the movie that has everything... all wrong!" Unfortunately, this turd of a movie was never on MST3K, which is surprising, because this is one of the worst I have ever seen (and I've seen "Omega Code" AND "Nightmaren on Elm Street part 2"). It fails on every conceivable level.
First off, this movie takes a huge steaming dump on it's source material, Kurt Vonnegutt's clever and hilarious book 'Slapstick', filming only the first chapter or so, leaving out 90% of the story and slapping on an clumsy "ending" that continues the strained attempts to turn this into "E.T."/"Close Encounters". The parts of the story that are present are screwed up and toothless- for example, in the book Wilbur and Eliza end up snuffling each other's crotches while taking the IQ test. Here they just... start to kiss.
To make matters worse, they cast the imminently unlikable Jerry Lewis in the lead. He always stinks, so it's no shock to see him acting terrible (in two roles!), but this movie also features the ususally not-sucky Madeline Kahn (also in two roles)! Kahn and especially Lewis are just two old to play the parts- you know, in a movie called Slapstick, you think they'd cast actors capable of doing actual slapstick. Marty Feldmen, Pat Morita, and Sam Fuller are watchable, at least, but even they can't rise above the terrible script. Jim Backus puts in an appearance as the president, probably so he could say he was in a movie worse than "Angel's Revenge".
All the blame rests squarely on writer/director Steven Paul. This movie is just incompetently made. Instead of blocking scenes, Paul decided he'd have people just run around to "wacky" music for minutes on end. There's no "jokes", just simulations of jokes. The effects are subpar, and the editing is terrible. During the terrible ending where Wilbur & Eliza leave under cover of night, their parents drive up and wave goodbye. Not only are the shots of their parents lifted from previous scenes in the movie, they're shots of DAYLIGHT.
It's amazing to think this movie got made. Didn't the actors read the script? Didn't anyone suggest that they put jokes in this alleged comedy? Didn't Kurt Vonnegut have a heart attack when he saw the final results? And why wasn't Steven Paul punished? I mean, he was allowed to go on and create the abominable "Baby Geniuses"! What kind of world do we live in?!?!?
If I may quote Crow T. Robot: "This is the movie that has everything... all wrong!" Unfortunately, this turd of a movie was never on MST3K, which is surprising, because this is one of the worst I have ever seen (and I've seen "Omega Code" AND "Nightmaren on Elm Street part 2"). It fails on every conceivable level.
First off, this movie takes a huge steaming dump on it's source material, Kurt Vonnegutt's clever and hilarious book 'Slapstick', filming only the first chapter or so, leaving out 90% of the story and slapping on an clumsy "ending" that continues the strained attempts to turn this into "E.T."/"Close Encounters". The parts of the story that are present are screwed up and toothless- for example, in the book Wilbur and Eliza end up snuffling each other's crotches while taking the IQ test. Here they just... start to kiss.
To make matters worse, they cast the imminently unlikable Jerry Lewis in the lead. He always stinks, so it's no shock to see him acting terrible (in two roles!), but this movie also features the ususally not-sucky Madeline Kahn (also in two roles)! Kahn and especially Lewis are just two old to play the parts- you know, in a movie called Slapstick, you think they'd cast actors capable of doing actual slapstick. Marty Feldmen, Pat Morita, and Sam Fuller are watchable, at least, but even they can't rise above the terrible script. Jim Backus puts in an appearance as the president, probably so he could say he was in a movie worse than "Angel's Revenge".
All the blame rests squarely on writer/director Steven Paul. This movie is just incompetently made. Instead of blocking scenes, Paul decided he'd have people just run around to "wacky" music for minutes on end. There's no "jokes", just simulations of jokes. The effects are subpar, and the editing is terrible. During the terrible ending where Wilbur & Eliza leave under cover of night, their parents drive up and wave goodbye. Not only are the shots of their parents lifted from previous scenes in the movie, they're shots of DAYLIGHT.
It's amazing to think this movie got made. Didn't the actors read the script? Didn't anyone suggest that they put jokes in this alleged comedy? Didn't Kurt Vonnegut have a heart attack when he saw the final results? And why wasn't Steven Paul punished? I mean, he was allowed to go on and create the abominable "Baby Geniuses"! What kind of world do we live in?!?!?