I had a lot of fun watching this, and that is all you can ask from a film which tries to give people a feeling of fun.
Dan Aykroyd stars as a mental patient with skills who outmaneuvers the head doctor and pretends to be him to take a job elsewhere, with the ensuing mayhem that follows until the eventual discovery (sort of) of the deception, a story which has been told before but never with as much fun.
Aykroyd is brilliant as the mental patient along the way he bumps into Walter Matthau who adds to the mayhem, Matthau does a good job in the role but is not trying to hard to upstage Aykroyd, and Charles Grodin as another shrink who has gone a bit crazy himself is pretty good. The support actors are generally good, Donna Dixon ( the real life wife of Dan Aykroyd) is a bit wooden but the others are ok, but it doesn't matter as Aykroyd, Grodin & Matthau are running the show.
The story is a bit implausible and its well over the top, but deliciously funny. Michael Ritchie directs very well and the pace is kept moving quite well. Its only 1hr 37 min long, you could have added another 10-20 mins on and it would still be as funny if not more. One of the better comedy films of the 80's.
When writing it has a 5.8 rating on here ? But it is much better than that.
