Is this supposed to be a comic mash-up of "Sleeper" and "Network"? Whatever it is managed to get a Razzie type nomination for most unfunny comedy of 1980. I do not think it is as bad as that, but it took me a good half an hour to get into it, and there were several sequences that were truly hysterically funny. The comic genius that is Alan Arkin turns this into something that had me puzzled yet amused, perplexed but satisfied. I certainly can see the comparisons to Woody Allen and Mel Brooks films, with perhaps a bit of Neil Simon and Blake Edwards added in. Marshall Brinkmann has had an impressive career, and this is a film that has slipped through the cracks but deserves to be somewhat of a cult film.
I never thought I would hear the Campbell Soup theme song as a church hymn, but that's what happens and is indeed one of the genuinely funny moments of the film that may not bring loud laughs but will fill you with the intended irony. Arkan plays a scientist who somehow ends up as an experiment where he is manipulated to believe that he is an alien from outer space. Arkin is truly memorable in one sequence where he shows the advancement of man from neanderthals to modern day, a sequence that you might find yourself rewinding just to see again. Later on, when he believes himself to be an alien, he makes several speeches of how society should change, and in light of the current state of affairs, that makes the film all the more funny simply for that.
Among The Supporting Cast are Austin Pendleton as the scientist in charge of the operation, Wallace Shawn as his assistant, Madeline Kahn as a doctor who seduces him strictly as research, Adolph Green as the head of a religious cult and Fred Gwynne as an overly stern Pentagon general. Judy Graubart plays Arkin's confused girlfriend in a droll manner that is very amusing. This is the type of comedy that is a mixed bag, and one that will be funny to some and silly or stupid to everybody else. But hopefully anybody who watches his obscure film will find a few amusing moments and some truth that perhaps society doesn't want to admit.
I never thought I would hear the Campbell Soup theme song as a church hymn, but that's what happens and is indeed one of the genuinely funny moments of the film that may not bring loud laughs but will fill you with the intended irony. Arkan plays a scientist who somehow ends up as an experiment where he is manipulated to believe that he is an alien from outer space. Arkin is truly memorable in one sequence where he shows the advancement of man from neanderthals to modern day, a sequence that you might find yourself rewinding just to see again. Later on, when he believes himself to be an alien, he makes several speeches of how society should change, and in light of the current state of affairs, that makes the film all the more funny simply for that.
Among The Supporting Cast are Austin Pendleton as the scientist in charge of the operation, Wallace Shawn as his assistant, Madeline Kahn as a doctor who seduces him strictly as research, Adolph Green as the head of a religious cult and Fred Gwynne as an overly stern Pentagon general. Judy Graubart plays Arkin's confused girlfriend in a droll manner that is very amusing. This is the type of comedy that is a mixed bag, and one that will be funny to some and silly or stupid to everybody else. But hopefully anybody who watches his obscure film will find a few amusing moments and some truth that perhaps society doesn't want to admit.