Détraqué

In this screw loose screwball comedy, Mel Brooks is on a roll. Bernardo (Ezio Greggio) "opens" for Mel Brooks with his memorable parking lot shtick, then...

Elderly Guido Puccini has a large "natural" foods factory in Italy. When he suffers a severe heart attack he summons his inept and browbeaten son, Bernardo, to his bedside. He tells Bernardo that in WWII, a statue fell on him, pinning him to the ground in battle. An American soldier, Jake Gorden, removed the statue and helped Puccini get away and survive. Now Puccini wants Bernardo to go to America, get Jake, and bring him back to Italy so Puccini can see him once more before he dies. He intends to give Jake half the company out of gratitude for Jake's having saved his life.

Dutifully, Bernardo sets off to America. He finds Jake in a mental institution.

That's only the start of the insanity as Bernardo tries to get Jake to Puccini's bedside before the old man dies.

Okay, a number of the jokes and gags are pretty shopworn. We even swipe Herbert Lom's famous facial and eye tics. But what the heck! It's such a pleasure to watch Mel Brooks in action, and his buddy Ezio Greggio keeps up in excellent fashion. Between them, they came up with a sort of buddy film that will keep you rolling in laughter at the zaniness.

Ya gotta love that Mel Brooks. The man behind Nude Bomb, Dracula Dead And Loving It, Space Balls, Robin Hood Men in Tights, and many others. The master of parody is funny in this one, as he stars as a WWII veteran now a complete nut in the funny farm. And now the son of his friend takes him all the way back to Italy, only to have him cause a lot of mayhem, and the results are complete chaos! At the same time, a doctor is trying to bring him back to the nut house for he is dangerous. And by golly she is right! There are many funny scenes, and lines that left me laughing for hours, I like the part where the guy gets arrested and shares a cell with a man who likes to strip himself naked. Or the part with the cathedral, and another one I find funny is when they visit his friend finally, check it out yourself. Anyways, this is recommended to all fans of Mel Brooks and his works. Watch it. You'll love it.

Written and starring Ezio Greggio, Mel Brooks as his sidekick in off-target comedy. If you've seen "Silence of the Hams", this Greggio movie is only a step higher on the laugh meter. Like the aforementioned picture, most of Greggio's jokes are recycled (some even from the Brooks arsenal) and the gags therefore get to be very predictable. The highlight of this film is Brooks himself, and (although his trademark, hilarious brand of humor is missing from this picture) it is an interesting vehicle in that he fills shoes under someone else's pen. It's refreshing to see Brooks in a newer picture, being that his most recent film was 1995's "Dracula: Dead & Loving It". But if you are looking for another hilarious Brooks satire, this is not the film to see. However, it is worth a look, and possibly a near-laugh or two.

I found this film a disappointment, especially since I usually like Mel Brooks as well as Ezio Greggio. Sure, the film is fast-paced and it never gets boring but the story is paper thin. It's a very forgettable film, I wouldn't recommend you to see it unless you are very young (aged under 13/15) and fond of slapstick humour like people throwing food on each other or a die hard fan of Brooks or Greggio.

I knew this was going to be no work of art when I saw it. I only saw it because I am a die hard fan of Mel Brooks and have seen almost all his other movies. I expected something very stupid after reading these comments. I tried to refrain from laughing at the movie. And...I couldn't! Some of this stuff was funny!

I still think that this movie is no work of art, but it's not as bad as you might think. Rent it if you want to laugh at a movie but don't feel like thinking too much. However, I agree with the previous comment - they could've edited the nudity (and one f-word) so that this film will appeal more to kids.