Slapstick (Of Another Kind) (1982) Online

This movie is so tragically bad; that you feel sorry for those involved. Adapted from a Kurt Vonnegut story, with some big name talents in the cast, the story is destroyed by a lame script, no slapstick or any comedy of any kind, and stars given nothing to work with. Jerry Lewis and Madeline Kahn play aliens who have a message for the world, and encounter evil everywhere--a depressing premise to start with. Versatile Pat Morita is wasted on a mean-spirited, stereotypical little loudmouth character that isn't the least bit funny--only irritating. Marty Feldman, Orson Welles, and Jim Backus have parts they probably hid from their resumes too. One recurring joke is that excrement is a new fuel source; this sad attempt at humor was as close to a laugh as you get. The film has only one worth while moment: a touching scene near the end where you actually get a chance to feel something for the two characters who have been mercilessly hurt throughout the movie. An unfunny comedy that will just leave you feeling empty.

With huge talents such as Jerry Lewis & Madeline Kahn I thought this movie was going to be gas, sitting in my favorite chair ready to laugh...NEVER DID. Movie made me ill, The directors & producers of this film should be arrested for letting this "VOMIT" on the screen.

The concept of having Jerry Lewis as a space alien could have been funny (See Visit to a Small Planet) which wasn't that funny either, but it wasn't crap like this. I've seen bad movies, like "Manos Hands of Fate", "Gigli", "Plan 9 From Outer Space", and many other terrible films, but with the exception of "Gigli", this is the worst movie I have ever seen, I truly had to take Maalox after this one. How in the Hell did they get The KING of Comedy, Jerry Lewis, and one of the funniest ladies to ever live Madeline Kahn to star in this bag of Dung?

They must have owed favors to the producers or something, because this movie really bit the big one.

Pardon My French, but It Sucked!

Recently I've been re-reading the Vonnegut catalog. All the books brilliant in their own way. I picked up Slapstick and started reading it again when everything clicked. The horrible movie I saw on cable as a kid was based on this book. I never connected the two because of how the movie takes the book, shreds it, puts a hollywood sheen on it, dripped slime on it, then pooted it out unto the world. Horrifying. I have very vivid memories of my mother watching this film and commenting on how horribly sad it was. I responded that the book was sad. She then responded that the book was good. No fault lies with the cast. It's just another example of the old connundrum, Vonnegut books don't translate well to film.

Despite the consensus that Jerry Lewis hasn't been funny in decades, I opted to watch this painful farce out of my reverence for the great book which 'inspired' it. And it had Marty Feldman -usually a real hoot. What unforgivable tripe! Lewis and Khan play Wilbur and Eliza (giant, ugly twins who are a genius collective genius when together, but idiots when apart) and their aristocrat parents terribly. Sadly, I'll concede that it sticks to the book fairly well -THE FIRST HALF! All the best portions are ultimately lost due to a cop-out screenplay which aims to get laughs from caper-style bumbling and mess-making by over-aged comedians sadly better suited to telethons. Read the novel -it's brilliant; Wilbur becomes the last (and tallest ever) President of the United States just before a plague kills off the majority of its population (wildly suspected to be due to inhalation of microscopic Chinese). His recollections of his better years and falling-out with Eliza are signiature bitter-sweet Vonnegut. The best part of the movie was Pat Morita as a prototypical 3" Chinaman ambassador.

I got this movie really cheap at blockbuster and we watched it a few years ago. REALLY BAD! When I first saw this movie I thought it was the worst movie possible. Not only was the acting and the story and the jokes HORRIBLE but it gave me a headache to watch. I have not read the book and supposedly that is good, I don't see how it could be with a story like that though. There was nothing good about this movie. I rate it a 1 out of 10. I don't see how it is possible to make a movie like this and believe that in any way it will be successful or even entertaining. I cant even imagine how people were at the premier of this movie.

(Spoilers.)

If I may quote Crow T. Robot: "This is the movie that has everything... all wrong!" Unfortunately, this turd of a movie was never on MST3K, which is surprising, because this is one of the worst I have ever seen (and I've seen "Omega Code" AND "Nightmaren on Elm Street part 2"). It fails on every conceivable level.

First off, this movie takes a huge steaming dump on it's source material, Kurt Vonnegutt's clever and hilarious book 'Slapstick', filming only the first chapter or so, leaving out 90% of the story and slapping on an clumsy "ending" that continues the strained attempts to turn this into "E.T."/"Close Encounters". The parts of the story that are present are screwed up and toothless- for example, in the book Wilbur and Eliza end up snuffling each other's crotches while taking the IQ test. Here they just... start to kiss.

To make matters worse, they cast the imminently unlikable Jerry Lewis in the lead. He always stinks, so it's no shock to see him acting terrible (in two roles!), but this movie also features the ususally not-sucky Madeline Kahn (also in two roles)! Kahn and especially Lewis are just two old to play the parts- you know, in a movie called Slapstick, you think they'd cast actors capable of doing actual slapstick. Marty Feldmen, Pat Morita, and Sam Fuller are watchable, at least, but even they can't rise above the terrible script. Jim Backus puts in an appearance as the president, probably so he could say he was in a movie worse than "Angel's Revenge".

All the blame rests squarely on writer/director Steven Paul. This movie is just incompetently made. Instead of blocking scenes, Paul decided he'd have people just run around to "wacky" music for minutes on end. There's no "jokes", just simulations of jokes. The effects are subpar, and the editing is terrible. During the terrible ending where Wilbur & Eliza leave under cover of night, their parents drive up and wave goodbye. Not only are the shots of their parents lifted from previous scenes in the movie, they're shots of DAYLIGHT.

It's amazing to think this movie got made. Didn't the actors read the script? Didn't anyone suggest that they put jokes in this alleged comedy? Didn't Kurt Vonnegut have a heart attack when he saw the final results? And why wasn't Steven Paul punished? I mean, he was allowed to go on and create the abominable "Baby Geniuses"! What kind of world do we live in?!?!?

Wretched. Kurt Vonnegut's very funny novel translates to a miserable movie and a very excruciating viewing experience. Is it the casting of Jerry Lewis and Madeline Kahn in dual roles? They've both been hung out to dry in this insipid venture. A real case of the un-filmable being filmed (and the results are dire). The supporting cast is a half-hearted assemblage of talent that should know better: Jim Backus; Pat Morita; the voice of Orson Welles. And what is Marty Feldman doing in this dreck? Vonnegut is clearly not the easiest author to adapt to the movies. His books bend time and space and require a lot of thought that the makers of this movie in particular just do not capture. It's gross when it should be satiric, cringe-inducing when it should be fun. To quote a famous critic..."if it were any more of a dog, it would shed!"

"Slapstick of Another Kind" is a surprise to watch. After all, I've never seen it included on a list of the worst movies ever made...but clearly it deserves to be there. Obviously SOMEONE thought the film was god-awful, as the studio shelved it for two years before ultimately releasing it! This is because this film is super- bizarre, totally unfunny and an awful chore to watch. Rarely have I ever seen anything THIS tedious and awful!! And, as far as entertainment goes, I think it's preferable to stare at vomit for 90 minutes than watch this movie.

When the film begins, there is a really crappy outer space scene where disembodied beings talk about sending twins to the United States to help them out. Apparently, they sent two to China but with poor results. As for the Chinese, they are all just a few inches high and fly about in UFOs!

When the children are born to their rich and sophisticated parents, they are hideous and the doctor (Frankenstein...ha, ha?!) advises the parents to abandon them to his care. And for 15 years, they are pretty much left on their own while the servants just party. During this time, on their own, they learn a billion and one things and are very bright--but they look and act really stupid much of the time. In fact, it's insultingly awful, as the film appears to make fun of the intellectually challenged.

Later, the President of the United States arrives in Air Force One (powered by chicken crap) because the Chinese tell everyone the twins are 'America's greatest resource'...and things don't go very well during the visit. What happens next? Who cares....but see this film if you must!

Not one bit of this film is the least bit funny or worthy of your attention. It's loud, boorish and annoying from start to finish. A god-awful mess of a film that NEVER should have been released and marks one of the lowest points in cinematic history. While almost no one has seen Jerry Lewis' "The Day the Clown Cried" (as he refuses to allow it to be released because, presumably, it's THAT bad), it cannot be as awful as this film he and Madeline Kahn made- -presumably because someone was holding them captive or threatening to shoot their families.

Air Force One, apparently, isn't the only thing running on chicken crap!

I don't have much to say here except that I don't understand this movie's ultra-low rating. It's much better than that. It's a decent sci-fi comedy with lots of funny things and plenty of laughs. The whole deal with the Chinese as the smartest people in the world is a hoot.

I'm sure the original Vonnegut novel (which I haven't read, but would like to) is better, but as it is, the movie isn't bad. Granted, a lot more could have been done with the concept, and they never really did get around to solving "the gravity problem", but I still enjoyed the movie a great deal. It was a bit long-winded in places, and it may not be an immortal classic, but for fans of sci-fi comedy, it's definitely worth watching.

7 out of 10.

This film by the great Jerry Lewis rates in my top three worst films of all time. It is up there with Vanilla Sky and Mothman Prophecies. Oh how the mighty have fallen. A good gift for a relative or work colleague that you HATE. At least that way, you will associate some laughs with the movie! The Great man looks tired and distracted and the once razer sharp "slapstick" Lewis built his career on is ironically that of another kind. The film has a look that makes a shoe-string budget look like something to aspire to, and the direction gives the film a "fragmented" feel. Indeed, it is difficult to reconcile Lewis' efforts here in light of his earlier works, the bulk of which are above average, with some, such as "The Bellboy" being works of true comedic genius. One might think that with time and the "honing" of ones skills, and the hindsight that allows one to look back and see what "works" and what does not, Lewis should never have, or have been allowed to have, made this movie. Thankfully, he has enough work of substance in the genre to keep this aberration an ugly footnote to his career.

I had to see this movie because I had no choice. I was taking a trip in a bus and they put this movie on the bus's TV. I never get asleep on a bus specially when there's a movie playing but in this case I better tried to sleep because I couldn't stand watching this movie. The worst movie I've ever seen. I got headache and felt dizzy when it finished.

Slapstick of Another Kind (1982)

1/2 (out of 4)

Jerry Lewis and Madeline Kahn play a married couple who give birth to a twin boy and girl (also played by Lewis and Kahn). Sadly for the parents, these two kids are really ugly, stupid and deformed. It turns out that an alien took control of the pregnancy to try and force these two kids to teach the world something because when the twins but their heads together they become super smart.

Wow, what a complete and utter misfire this thing turned out to be. It's rather shocking to see how awful SLAPSTICK OF ANOTHER KIND is and it's even more shocking to see Lewis on The Tonight Show in 1984 trying to sell the movie. It's easy to see why they didn't spend too much time on that show discussing this movie because it's quite awful and even Lewis didn't do a very good job at selling it. The film was released in Europe two years before it's American debut but I doubt even this thing could fool fans over there.

There are all sorts of problems with this movie including the fact that it just looks downright cheap and poorly produced. I really don't know what they were going for or what they were trying to do but the screenplay is just one giant mess. I mean, there are some below-the-belt jokes that I personally didn't find offensive but it's funny to think that anyone would have read them on the script and thought that they would have worked. What's even worse is the fact that I only laughed twice throughout the running time.

How does a movie with Lewis, Kahn, Marty Feldman, John Abbott, Samuel Fuller, Pat Morita and Merv Griffin go so terribly wrong? It certainly proves that no matter how great a cast you get if the screenplay is bad your movie is going to turn out the same way. Both Lewis and Kahn get an A for effort but there's just nothing here for their talents. Feldman is completely wasted in his role but I will say that Abbott gets a couple decent moments as Dr. Frankenstein as does Fuller as Colonel Sharp.

SLAPSTICK OF ANOTHER KIND tries to mix comedy and sci-fi but it's really an awful picture from start to finish.

A couple of years back, I was shopping in a flea market, and came across a VHS tape. It was entitled "Slapstick of Another Kind", and it starred Jerry Lewis and Madeline Kahn. It was selling for only 50 cents. So, I bought it. After all, a Slapstick comedy starring Jerry Lewis and Madeline Kahn had to be good.

When I started watching it, I was shocked at what I saw. It was not funny. It seemed to be trying to be a comedy, but it wasn't. It was boring, unfunny, and so loony that it gave me a headache. You see, it is set in a future where the average IQ is 1, unruly children are sent to military school and there forced to read books with blank pages (if they look away, they get an electroshock), cars run on chicken manure, and the Chinese have all shrunk themselves to two inches tall and fly around in UFOs that look like fortune cookies. Adding to this craziness, Jerry Lewis and Madeline Kahn's characters, two giant, hideous twins, are born to to a wealthy (and supposedly beautiful) couple (also played by Lewis and Kahn), and turn out to be aliens who are idiots unless they literally put their heads together, in which case they are smarter than Albert Einstein. Did I mention that they are two feet tall when they are born? The plot is incoherent, there is no humor, and the characters make Dr. Insano look normal. The characters, especially Lewis and Kahn (as both the parents and children) have makeup jobs that make them look like they are made of wax.

As if it were not enough that Jerry Lewis and Madeline Kahn signed up for this piece of trash, the cast also includes Marty Feldman, Jim Backus, Merv Griffin, and narration by Orson Welles. Yes, that's right. Orson Welles, the man who made "Citizen Kane" and "The Third Man", and who created the "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast that terrified America, lent his golden voice to "Slapstick of Another Kind". As if it were not enough to disgrace the dignity of living actors, director Steven Paul (who went on to produce such masterpieces as "Ghost Rider", "Bratz", and "Baby Geniuses 2") went a step further - he put in a pair of Laurel and Hardy imitators.

The horrible attempts at humor make the movie even more unbearable than it already was. There were horribly unfunny jokes about the Chinese, castration, the economy, and too many other things to mention. I will admit that I did laugh once. There was a running joke about automobiles running on chicken manure because gasoline was about $10,000 a gallon. all throughout the movie, it was completely unfunny - except once. In one scene, a character asks the butler (played by Marty Feldman) where some other characters are. He replies: "They're at the Exxon chicken-s*** station". That's the only time in the movie that I laughed, and that joke probably only seemed funny because it the rest were so bad that it seemed funny in comparison.

After I finished watching the movie, I felt cheated out of my money. I had paid 50 cents for this??? I could have bought a root beer, a postage stamp, or a pint of chicken-s*** at Exxon. I've been gypped! I will give the movie some credit where it's due. Some of the special-effects work was decent, and....well, that's it.

1/10.

I stumbled on a mention of this movie after Jerry Lewis died. Based on a Vonnegut book, I expected something different and was not disappointed in that respect. It really impressed me as something that they just threw together in real time, just figuring out what to do next in between shooting scenes. I'm extremely surprised at caliber of some of the name involved in the project, Jerry Lewis (two roles!) and Orson Welles?!?! I give them some credit for trying to make a film out of the crazy book Slapstick, even though it is a colossal failure and only covers the beginning of the novel. A few scenes remind me of typical Tom Green comedy schtick, nothing but noise and mess, but just noise and mess doesn't make something funny, it's just infantile. I watched it yesterday and I think it is like trying to get the smell of burnt milk out of your nose, the ridiculously bad scenes just hang around in my memory. Someone would literally have to pay me $500 to watch this again, it is that painful.

I went looking for something about what Kurt Vonegut himself must have thought of this film adaption of his novel Slapstick. I could find nothing attributable to him, but I sure found plenty of people who thought this film was horrid. I have to say I agree.

If someone like Steven Spielberg had made Slapstick it probably would have turned out something like Close Encounters Of The Third Kind or Cocoon. It should have been a fantasy like those two films. But someone possibly Jerry Lewis saw the title and was taken with it. And we got a slapstick version of Slapstick.

Jerry Lewis and Madeline Kahn play a wealthy married couple who have fathered a pair of grotesque looking boy and girl twins also played by Lewis and Kahn. They're not human, these the product of alien seed put into Kahn by some far superior alien race in the hopes of saving the planet. Previously they've tried with two other twins in China which has now progressed technically far beyond the rest of the planet. But they're taking selfish advantage. Time to even the odds.

The Chinese under the leadership of Premier Pat Morita have solved their population explosion and in turn all the problems that has brought with it. Wait till you see how they did it. President Jim Backus of the USA wants to do the same thing for America. Can Jerry Lewis and Madeline Kahn be the answer?

The secret is that together they're at an intelligence level light years beyond anyone human even Stephen Hawking. Apart they're some of Mack Sennett's best comedians for real. Useless apart and together they can outsmart the world, what to do?

Maybe some day someone will do this novel over again in the proper genre.

Aliens posess the bodies of two children in this spoof of "Close Encounters", "2001", et. al.

This is not the BEST parody film, but one of the better ones. Kurt's novel is rather poignant in places and is captured in the film rather well.

Worth renting if you are a Lewis, Vonnegut, or Kahn Fan!