Stir Crazy (1980)

Enjoyed this film starring Gene Wilder, (Skip Donahue) and Richard Pryor, (Harry Monroe) who are arrested and sent to prison for a bank robbery which they did not commit. Skip & Harry are from the East and are sent to a prison in the Western part of the country and they have to face some very difficult situations in the prison and just can't seem to adjust to prison life. One day the warden of the prison finds out that Skip has a great deal of experience in riding broncos in rodeo's and asks him to participate in a Western rodeo which is going to be presented to the prisoners and general public. There is some romance which goes on between a girl named Meredith, (Jo Beth Williams) who is attracted to Skip Donahue and obtains a lawyer for him to be able to investigate this false prison sentence and get him free. There is plenty of action with Skip & Harry trying to run away from bulls who are out to attack them and lots of great comedy.

Fmovies: the scene when grossberger meets pryor, and wilder alone is worth it! and when they are playing cards!!!!! and wilder's "back problem cure" scene is astounding!!!!! these two actors were made to work together!

Simply put, one of the greatest buddy movies of all time. Pryor and Wilder were great together. At least for their first two movies together. Pryor and Wilder are at their funniest as two guys wrongly convicted of a bank robbery.

Stir Crazy fmovies. Many people considers Silver Streak as the best Pryor-Wilder movie. I don't think so. Silver Streak is Gene Wilder's movie, Richard Pryor didn't get much of the show. In Stir Crazy both of them get equally of the show. Both of them were very funny, though (as I noticed) they were a little different from nowadays comedians, maybe that was even better. I think at that time comedy makers knew what they are doing, because all of the jokes worked, not like in most of the nowadays comedies. My favorite scene was where Gene Wilder's and Richard Pryor's characters where pretending that they are bad, you won't see such a funny stuff in nowadays movies.

Not having seen this in about 30 years, I didn't know if I'd still think Sidney Poitier's Stir Crazy was as funny as I originally thought it was. I just watched it again on Netflix Streaming and the answer is yes! I mean, from the set up beginning sequences with Richard Pryor as a waiter and Gene Wilder as a store detective, there's plenty of funny stuff here. By the time they get to prison, Pryor and Wilder try lots of crazy stuff that still got me in stitches especially when Richard's character has to deal with a gay inmate named Rory Schultebrand (Georg Standford Brown) who has a fancy for him. Fellow inmates Gene and Richard befriend include Jusus Ramirez (Miguel Angel Suavez) and Grossberger (Erland Van Lidth De Jeude). The latter doesn't talk but he does provide a nice singing voice that compliments Gene's in a later duet. Others they meet in the cell include Blade (Charles Weldon), Big Mean (Cedrick Hardman), his sidekick-Slowpoke (Grand L. Bush), and a guy who punches the former (Tony Burton). Outside of the jail are many now-familiar faces like Joel Brooks as lawyer Len Garber, JoBeth Williams as cousin Meredith, her future Poltergeist co-star Craig T. Nelson as deputy Ward Wilson, and Barry Corbin as warden Walter Beatty who has the distinction of appearing in two 1980 movies featuring the mechanical bull, the other being Urban Cowboy. Since this is Black History Month, I'd like to complete this review by citing three more African-American players other than Pryor, Brown, Weldon, Hardman, Bush, and Burton: Franklyn Ajaye-who previously appeared with Pryor in Car Wash-as a young man in hospital ward that accidentally got a nut cut off, Esther Sutherland as the cook Sissie in the beginning sequence, and Pamela Poitier-Sidney's daughter-as the cook's helper. So on that note, I highly recommend Stir Crazy. Oh, and I also noticed Luis Avalos-the guy named Chico who uses pliers for sinister purposes-from my childhood TV show, "The Electric Company" from the '70s.

Fun jail break film. I get the impression this film is mostly ad-libbed and just lets the 'comedy duo' play in each scene. In fact the scenes seem so loose that it almost suffers in some parts. Some scenes are unforgettably funny, and others are plain bizarre but i enjoy the fearlessness of both actors. It's the usual naive and optimistic Wilder versus street wise and pessimistic Pryor, but it works for whatever reasons. People seem to find this film on a comedic par with Hear No Evil See No Evil, despite them being made nearly a decade apart. There is definitely some weird magic happening on screen, and the supporting cast is at their best. Stands strong for 1980.