The Dream Team (B+ or 3/4 stars)
'The Dream Team' (directed by Howard Zieff) tells a contrived, if often hysterical story of 4 mental patients in a New Jersey sanitarium. Billy (Michael Keaton), a writer, is quick-talking, high strung, volatile, sarcastic, & prone to violence. But he's most 'with it' out of the bunch. Henry (Christopher Lloyd, of Back to the Future fame) is an ex-postal worker, fancies himself a doctor, & has OCD. Jack (Peter Boyle) is an ad executive who thinks he is Jesus Christ. And Albert (Stephen Furst) is obsessed with TV and won't talk ... to anyone. Within their institution, they make it okay. But outside, they'd never make it. Howwwwever, when they are taken by their trusting psychiatrist, Dr. Weitzman (Dennis Boutsikaris), to see a baseball game (for a sort of field trip), trouble begins.
Desperate to 'take a leak', the doctor pulls over, jumps out, runs down a side alley to relieve himself, witnesses a murder, & gets knocked out (& subsequently put into a coma) by the killers. The foursome (Dream Team) waits & waits & waits, but their doc never returns; and end up wandering the streets of NYC. Left to their own devices in a city more bonkers than they are ... hilarity ensues. But so, too, does danger; as crooked cops hope to cover up and/or SILENCE those who know of that back alley murder. Can The Dream Team collect themselves, save their doctor, bring the culprits to justice, & prove to be 'sane' heroes?
Nothing about 'The Dream Team' is groundbreaking or ambitious. Not everything works. And the whole bad guys-versus-the Dream Team-in-the-hospital showdown felt a tad anticlimactic. But on the whole, this is a successful movie because we grow to really like the 4 mental patients at the center of the story. And I laughed my as* off, as well. Since the screenplay is standard, it's up to the actors to move us/make us laugh, and boy do they ever! At the top of the line is Michael Keaton, lending a wonderfully manic performance; loved his sarcasm & furrowed-brow intensity -- nothing gets past him. Christopher Lloyd is loveable. Peter Boyle brings great deadpan to his Messiah-like character. Stephen Furst keeps you chuckling with his silent antics. And Lorraine Bracco is stellar as Billy's frustrated on again-off again girlfriend. 'The Dream Team' isn't a "great film", but it's funny, enjoyable, even touching.
Desperate to 'take a leak', the doctor pulls over, jumps out, runs down a side alley to relieve himself, witnesses a murder, & gets knocked out (& subsequently put into a coma) by the killers. The foursome (Dream Team) waits & waits & waits, but their doc never returns; and end up wandering the streets of NYC. Left to their own devices in a city more bonkers than they are ... hilarity ensues. But so, too, does danger; as crooked cops hope to cover up and/or SILENCE those who know of that back alley murder. Can The Dream Team collect themselves, save their doctor, bring the culprits to justice, & prove to be 'sane' heroes?
Nothing about 'The Dream Team' is groundbreaking or ambitious. Not everything works. And the whole bad guys-versus-the Dream Team-in-the-hospital showdown felt a tad anticlimactic. But on the whole, this is a successful movie because we grow to really like the 4 mental patients at the center of the story. And I laughed my as* off, as well. Since the screenplay is standard, it's up to the actors to move us/make us laugh, and boy do they ever! At the top of the line is Michael Keaton, lending a wonderfully manic performance; loved his sarcasm & furrowed-brow intensity -- nothing gets past him. Christopher Lloyd is loveable. Peter Boyle brings great deadpan to his Messiah-like character. Stephen Furst keeps you chuckling with his silent antics. And Lorraine Bracco is stellar as Billy's frustrated on again-off again girlfriend. 'The Dream Team' isn't a "great film", but it's funny, enjoyable, even touching.