jail was somewhat funny, but before jail and after during rodeo was bore - Stir Crazy (1980) Discussion

[–] jrs-8 14 years ago

Frankly I was never a big fan of the film in the first place but the second half is its weakest. The opening scenes are amusing and I like their reaction to being sentenced to 125 years in prison. But once the whole rodeo thing came to the forefront it got slow and boring like you say. SPOILER ALERT*** - It always bothered me that they were going to be pardoned because the other crooks were found but yet they escaped. Wouldn't that have made them fugitives?

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[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] YouKnowMyName68 13 years ago

@ OP

No, I didn't find any of your issues of any contention. So, could you please elaborate on the following that you ask:

Too slow for what?

How was it boring?

Why is the escape pointless?

"You know, my name..."

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[–] pianoman88-42-181922 13 years ago

I thought Pryor's scene before jail, at the dinner party, was hilarious - especially when he referred to his pot being from the motherland, etc. etc. I didn't care for Wilder's store detective scene, or the bar scene. When Pryor was counseling Wilder when incarcerated about how to act "bad" - "You gotta be bad or you gonna get *beep* was classic. The movie is just another comedy (like "Stripes") where I thought the first half was great, but the second half was a letdown, slow and boring as you said. Maybe it's tooooo difficult to keep the funny momentum going for an hour and a half, especially when the bar is initially set so high. I thought Pryor was outstanding.

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[–] KoolBlackKat 11 years ago

I agree. After gene got on the bull, the movie took a turn and went in another direction. The movie shoved richard Pryor in the background and it focused solely on gene. This movie is still a classic but I would have to say the second half was a major weakness

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[–] Sonatine97 10 years ago

I first saw this some 30 years ago in the cinema, and enjoyed it immensely from start to finish. But I watched it again on DVD just a few days ago, and am afraid I have to agree with peeps here and say that the film started off so well with great humour bouncing off between Pryor & Wilder, but then fell rather flat during the rodeo/break-out half of the film.

By that stage it had become a Wilder one-man-show, with Pryor nothing more than a prop. The prison break itself was overlong, as was the rodeo competition. I was hoping for some gags and pratfalls, but none was forthcoming. And the very end defied all logic, especially when JoBeth Williams suddenly decides to hop into the car with our intrepid duo and drive off into the sunset.

It's still a good film, but I don't think I would bother watching the 2nd half again, which is a shame because Pryor & Wilder work so well together when they're allowed to improvise outside of the box.

"One must first get behind someone, in order to stab them in the back!"

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[–] guardkid 10 years ago

I always enjoy watching Stir Crazy, but I take on board some of the comments made about the second half of the film. I guess that's why it's only a good comedy film, but not a 'great'.

The humourous moments definitely tailed off as the movie focused more on the politics surrounding the prison rodeo and Skip's role, plus the jailbreak.

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[–] boxerrebellion 8 years ago

Have any of you considered that the focus may have needed to shift after Pryor's incident with the watermelon. If he was doing drugs and that paranoid, becoming difficult to work with (or not even showing up), the focus of the movie would have to change.

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[–] MarkAntney 9 years ago

Let's see, it's the Comedy Equal to the great Drama, "Full Metal Jacket". Where the first hour was soooooooooo great, the last 30minutes looks like a Let Down in comparison.

But you could say the same for "Stripes", the young Vito Scenes in GodFather II, and the last 20minutes of Blazing Saddles.

But the first hour of Stir Crazy is worth the last 20-30 minutes.

Example, when Rich is trapped in the cell with Grossberger, he was still so funny you see Grossberger hiding his face (behind bars) because he's laughing. How many takes you think that was?

Rich was so on point in his scenes (Waiter, in court, in jail,...)

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