600 and going strong!
It's hard to believe, but this marks my 600th movie review.
100 Monty Python and the Holy Grail
200 Duck Soup
300 Super Troopers
400 Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein
500 The Odd Couple
"A hundred and twenty five years... Oh God, Oh God... I'll be a hundred and sixty one when I get out."
Writer Skip Donahue (Wilder) and actor Harry Monroe (Pryor) decide to move to California to start new lives. Along the way they stop in Arizona to get jobs, and get framed for a bank heist. Despite their lawyer's, Len Garber (Brooks), best efforts, they are sentenced to 125 years in jail.
Skip and Harry have a hard time adjusting to life in a maximum security prison. They become friends with bank robber Jesus Ramierz (Suarez) and murder Rory Schultebrand (Brown), while avoiding prison "top dogs" Blade (Charles Weldon) and Jack Graham (Jonathan Banks) and mass murderer Grossberger (Van Lidth). Their situation changes when Warden Walter Beatty (Corbin) Deputy Warden Wilson (Nelson) discover Skip has a natural talent for bull riding and want him to compete in the annual prison rodeo.
Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder starred in four films together: Silver Streak (1976), Stir Crazy (1980), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989), and Another You (1991). But their first collaboration was Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles. Pryor co-wrote the script and was the first choice to play Sheriff Bart, but the studio refused, and Cleavon Little played the role with Wilder as the Waco Kid. Despite their strong on-screen chemistry, Wilder and Pryor did not get along. This film was their most successful collaboration.
Everything about this film works. Pryor and Wilder have an undeniable chemistry on screen and play off each other well. Both shine in the film, getting funny lines and reactions. If you watch closely, their co-stars have difficulty keeping a straight face during some moments. It starts slow, setting up both characters before sending them to jail. There are good moments, but the story really comes alive when they are confined. I look forward to watching the other film collaborations of Pryor and Wilder.
Stir Crazy (1980) 111 minutes
Rating: R for Language, Nudity and Some Drug Content
Director: Sidney Poitier
Starring: Gene Wilder as Skip Donahue
Richard Pryor as Harry Monroe
Georg Stanford Brown as Rory Schultebrand
JoBeth Williams as Meredith
Miguel Suarez as Jesus Ramirez
Craig T. Nelson as Deputy Warden Wilson
Barry Corbin as Warden Walter Beatty
Joel Brooks as Len Garber
Erland Van Lidth as Grossberger
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