Another You (1991)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Written by Ziggy Steinberg
Directed by Maurice Phillips
Starring Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, Mercedes Ruehl, and Stephen Lang

Features:

• Trailers
  

Rating: R

Anamorphic: Yes

My Advice: Catch it on cable if you want to feel better about your own writing

The idea here is that George (Wilder) has done his time in an insane asylum and is now ready to rejoin the real world. Eddie (Pryor) is a con-man who, instead of keeping George out of trouble, wants to make use of the fact that George oddly resembles a missing millionaire--and some very scary other con men want to exploit that, too. Now, if extortion, mental illness, abuse of the mentally ill, and missing persons sounds hilarious to you, then you’ll probably enjoy this film. If not, you’re better off elsewhere. Just about anywhere else, in fact.

The acting attempts to make up for the rest of the film, but can’t quite do it. Ruehl, Tony- and Oscar-winner, has to be the best thing this flick has going. If you really want to see her do a wonderful role justice, though, you should instead check her out in The Fisher King, 84 Charing Cross Road, or even Married to the Mob, for Heaven’s sake, a far finer film (which should tell you something). Pryor and Wilder do their level best to be funny where there are no real jokes, but there’s only so much they can do. If you’ve managed to keep Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor from being funny, then you’ve done something. These two are usually a wonderful team, or worst case at least charming, but their previous efforts are simply far superior than this one.

Basically, part of the problem here is the fact that Pryor’s health was just too poor at this point. Instead of laughing at his jokes, his sincere attempts at being funny and gamely acting in the face of his illness just makes you sad for him, even angry at his situation that he has to put himself through this to pay his medical bills.

Another problem is the writing itself. The plot is hackneyed and contrived, full of just about every cliché in the book, and the jokes are not nearly good enough to overcome any of these deficiencies. I mean, not every comedy can be as creative and unusual as, say, Ghostbusters, but still. Any script that calls for Gene Wilder to yodel should have been burned before it left the pen. There are a few lines and scenes that are mildly amusing here, but not enough to justify watching the entire film, and I have to wonder if even these scraps owe more to Wilder and Pryor than to the dialogue itself. I realize it’s phenomenally difficult to write comedy, but still.

In essence, if you enjoyed the Wilder/Pryor team at work in such films as Stir Crazy or Silver Streak, then you’re better off hitting the bargain section of the video store and renting those again. If you didn’t even enjoy those films, then there’s very little chance in this quantum reality that you will enjoy Another You, which is rather a shame. Films can be silly, even slapstick, without insulting the intelligence of the audience and actors alike—-witness the anime Ranma 1/2 or the BBC’s highly amusing Father Ted. Comedy heroes deserve better than this, and so do we.