Funny Farm

Chevy Chase is normally associated with the Caddyshack, Fletch and Vacation series meaning that his one-shot movies mostly fall by the wayside. Films like Spies Like Us, Nothing But Trouble and Funny Farm have went largely unseen since the advent of DVD in 1997. Neither of these movies have received widescreen releases and have been out of print for years. I was beginning to wonder what Warner had against giving them definitive releases until I discovered an HD master of Funny Farm on the PlayStation Network.

I saw it only once, when I was about 9, and remembered very little. If you're a fan of Clark Griswold then Andy Farmer isn't too far removed. Andy is a sports journalist who retires from the big city to the Redbud, Vermont hoping to enjoy and idyllic, peaceful life and finally write the great, American novel (The Big Heist). When he gets there he and his wife discover that almost everyone and everything is weirder than the last. There are giant snakes in their pond, a dead body buried in their garden, a Sheriff who can't drive, a crazy mailman and a town who basically hate them. And top of all this Andy has severe writer's block while his wife manages to churn out a successful children's novel without really trying.

With careful, measured direction from George Roy Hill (Butch Cassidy, The Sting) Funny Farm, based on a novel by Jay Cronley, manages to be a little classier than Chase's usual fare. This makes the lack of a home video version even more puzzling. It has never been released on DVD in the UK, and the 1989 VHS is long gone. If you have access to the PlayStation Network then go for it. I have a funny feeling that Funny Farm and Spies Like Us will probably be released as a Warner Blu Ray Double Feature in the near future, but nothing has been announced so far.

Don't let the mistreatment of this film put you off, it lives up to it's title and is the perfect vehicle for Chevy Chase and his goofy humour.

This movie is funny. I don't know why it has such low ratings. I like the sarcasm involved in having a married couple from the city moving out to a farm. This is a movie that I recommend to anyone who wishes to have a few laughs watching Chevy Chase and his superb timing for acting in comedies such as this one.

This film has some pretty negative and ho-hum comments. I won't say it's his best, but this is still a great film for fans of Chevy Chase. There are a number of good laughs, even if the comedy isn't nonstop like today's ADHD movie-goers demand. Every so often, someone in my family will say "Cue the deer," and we still have a good chuckle every time. Just one of the all-time classic lines in a classic comedy sequence that is really the lasting mark of this film. The telephone operator scene, and all the dog scenes are just great for laughs, too. Really, this film falls into that "Saturday afternoon on USA" sort of category, like PCU and Used Cars. You wouldn't go rent it perhaps, but if it came on TV some afternoon, it's always worth a watch.

While watching this movie, I realized that on several levels we live in a small town not much different from the Vermont one depicted. Our tourist town is located on a Channel Island in the Pacific, but the characters couldn't be more identical to those Chevy and wife deals with in the rural town they move to for serenity and quiet. Everyone tests their resolve to live in that community, and in failing to measure up to their standards, they are treated as outsiders. Once they understand the neighborhood peculiarities, everyone becomes acquainted, then accustomed to one another. While finding a common bond and learning to fit in, there is one silly misadventure after another. There are a lot of laughs in this movie that allow a person to stand back and realize that this is how small communities conduct themselves everywhere, and is a study in human behavior. Chevy's characters rarely make anything easy, which combined with a seemingly conservative personality has become his calling card.

I recently rewatched this having seen it many, many years ago and remembering nothing of it. I stumbled upon some old Siskel and Ebert reviews on YouTube, and they had very mixed opinions about Chevy Chase and his movies. They thought he was a fairly one note actor playing a smart aleck type but did occasionally get some good scripts. However their praise for this film was extremely enthusiastic saying it was Chase's best work. Chase has had a career that has been very hit and miss. His best movie work was in the 70's and 80's and during the 90's he made some very bad career choices like his failed short-lived talk show, and picking bad scripts. But knowing Siskel and Ebert's love for this film and considering it was in the decade of Chase's better work, I had to give it another try, and boy am I ever happy I did. This movie was pure joy all throughout. Every gag worked, the acting was good, Chase had a chance to show lots more range here than in some of his previous (and certainly subsequent) films and no I dont agree with other reviews that say he was just playing Clark Griswold again here. His performance in this is fine comic acting. Madolyn Smith also gave a great performance as his wife. If the movie didn't have a great joke or visual gag, it was gorgeous to look at. The scenery and camerawork are simply dazzling and beautifully done for a comedy. George Roy Hill who directed Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting directed this and does great with the material that writer Jeffrey Boam adapted from a book. This film was sadly overlooked because of strong competition in the summer of 88 when it came out. It came out on the same exact day as the Tom Hanks classic Big and suffered from competition with Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Crocodile Dundee II, The Great Outdoors, and Die Hard among others. While it may not be a "classic" like the aforementioned films, it is noteworthy as just delightful comedic filmmaking from beginning to end and the last truly great film Chevy Chase made. In the 90's he made Man of the House and Vegas Vacation and they were the only two films he did that decade that were decent and not failures. But this ranks high along with Chevy's best 80's movies like Caddyshack, the Vacations Fletch and Three Amigos! Anyone who says Chevy Chase was never funny is mistaken. This film is proof that he is a very funny, talented comic actor with the right script. He found a diamond before the rough came. This is a good, fun comedy his best after the first Vacation. If you need proof that Chevy Chase at one point was a great comic actor you must see this movie. He really shines in this one.