The introduction is aces! That must've been how it went down, I will accept no other explanations.
I also grew up watching this film, and I also can't believe it was made. It's a bad look all around. It sort of reminds me of Pryor popping up in one of the Superman movies. Not in the cringe racist sense, but in a 'this film is wasting Pryor' sense. He's good because he's a genius, but it was still less than him. Ah well, we'll always have See No Evil, Hear No Evil... :)
Brilliant analysis! Looking forward to more Boris and Natasha! :D
You nailed it, Eric. There were some things I had to leave on the cutting room floor of this one, but if it wound up in a longer form I'd be able to flesh them out. One was that Pryor said after his health scare (putting it lightly), he had medical and other debts and just needed to WORK. The Toy was definitely a flick he took for the paycheck. And he was under utilized in SuperIII--they could have had a gold mine with him. And there is much more to say about this time in 1980s cinema in general. If you haven't, I recommend dipping into the book Wild and Crazy Guys by Nick de Semlyen. He tracks the rise of Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, and Chevy Chase (mainly) through that whole era where studio execs saw these guys (and they were pretty much all dudes) as kerching-kerchang..money printers....the FILMS they made....other story :) Good stuff...and yes, Boris and Natasha are waiting in the wings...stay tuned! :)
Enjoy! It does a really, really good job of taking a sweeping look at the careers of those heavy hitters..and made me want to go back and watch a BUNCH of stuff! :)
Great work. And also WTF!!!!? We consumed so much bad. I thankfully missed this one, but it had loads of company. I love your studio exec scene: now that should be a movie!
HA! Thanks my friend. Yeah...the 80s was kind of the wild west in terms of let's be as insensitive as possible because COMEDY! As you said--loads of company. Frankly, both Pryor and Gleason look rather miserable to saddled with the film. And Pryor said in an interview that after getting out of recovery he REALLY needed the work, so he took basically any project that came his way. It's a fascinating snapshot of the moment--politically, racially, artistically. Thanks for reading :)
The introduction is aces! That must've been how it went down, I will accept no other explanations.
I also grew up watching this film, and I also can't believe it was made. It's a bad look all around. It sort of reminds me of Pryor popping up in one of the Superman movies. Not in the cringe racist sense, but in a 'this film is wasting Pryor' sense. He's good because he's a genius, but it was still less than him. Ah well, we'll always have See No Evil, Hear No Evil... :)
Brilliant analysis! Looking forward to more Boris and Natasha! :D
You nailed it, Eric. There were some things I had to leave on the cutting room floor of this one, but if it wound up in a longer form I'd be able to flesh them out. One was that Pryor said after his health scare (putting it lightly), he had medical and other debts and just needed to WORK. The Toy was definitely a flick he took for the paycheck. And he was under utilized in SuperIII--they could have had a gold mine with him. And there is much more to say about this time in 1980s cinema in general. If you haven't, I recommend dipping into the book Wild and Crazy Guys by Nick de Semlyen. He tracks the rise of Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, and Chevy Chase (mainly) through that whole era where studio execs saw these guys (and they were pretty much all dudes) as kerching-kerchang..money printers....the FILMS they made....other story :) Good stuff...and yes, Boris and Natasha are waiting in the wings...stay tuned! :)
Just bought Wild and Crazy Guys, thanks for the reference!! :)
Enjoy! It does a really, really good job of taking a sweeping look at the careers of those heavy hitters..and made me want to go back and watch a BUNCH of stuff! :)
Great work. And also WTF!!!!? We consumed so much bad. I thankfully missed this one, but it had loads of company. I love your studio exec scene: now that should be a movie!
HA! Thanks my friend. Yeah...the 80s was kind of the wild west in terms of let's be as insensitive as possible because COMEDY! As you said--loads of company. Frankly, both Pryor and Gleason look rather miserable to saddled with the film. And Pryor said in an interview that after getting out of recovery he REALLY needed the work, so he took basically any project that came his way. It's a fascinating snapshot of the moment--politically, racially, artistically. Thanks for reading :)