By William Rudolph
Siaff Reviewer
Get out the wolverine traps, Vern. A passe! of
cityslickers has moved to the countryside for some
peace and quiet. Chevy Chase’s latest movie, “Funny
Farm,” can best be described as “Newhart” meets
“Please Don’t Eat the Daisies” and “The Grass is
Always Greener Over the Septic Tank.” And like the
bovine bouquets that frequently decorate wide open
rural spaces, “Funny Farm” stinks.
As the movie opens, Chase has left his job as a
sports writer for a New York paper to write that Great
American Novel in the charming New England cot
tage he’s purchased with his pretty teacher wife,
Madolyn Smith They expect friendly neighbors,
peaceful surroundings and marital/creative harmony
with nature. That alone should warn you to get up and
leave the movie before the television movie compli
cations begin. And, oh gee, the plot's awfully unique:
the movers get lost, the mailman ’sa hellion in a pickup
truck and the sheriff can’t pass his driving test, not to
mention the dead guy buried in the flower garden. Ha
ha ha!
Chevy’s literary opus, “The Big Heist,” a comedy
mystery about some poker buddies trying to knock off
a casino, stinks, of course. Wifey, meanwhile, be
coafos a succevss writing children’s stories about Andy
the Squirrel andi his forest friends. Chevy gets frus
trated. Wifey gets frustrated. And k goes on and
on...
Don’t be fooled by Chase as the lead and a big
screen. “Farm” is really nothing more than a rotten TV
movie in Dolby sound. The only difference between
the two forms is that a TV movie has commercials to
perk things up; you can’t turn “Funny Farm” off. U
also doesn’t have a laugh track. And because it’s rated
PG, the producers can’teven throw inany stray breasts
or racy language to make up for the $4 we wasted to
get into the film.
Chevy Chase turns in another apathetic perform
ance like his work in "The Three Amigos.” You can’t
tell whether he's aware the movie stinks ami acting in
key or, more ominously, if he’s really serious. Life isf
lough on the way down.
Madolyn Smith, who brightened up the 1^86uashy
miniseries "If Tomorrow Comes,” spends her time on
screen flaring her nostrils and c lenching her teeth. The
rest of the cast were probably picked from “Newhart”
rejects.
Nice, innocuous movies like "Funny Farm” that
can be shown without cuts on local television stations
-—..—...... , n I i U l —■■■■ .1 ■.
worked in the 1960s with Dons Day and David Niven.
But for better or worse, audiences of today are some
what more jaded and have come to expect a little more
low humor, or even humor, during our summer vaca
lions. If movies like “Funny Paim” are any indica
tion, the summer slump in movies is already here. It’s
going to be a Uvo-o-n-n-nng summer.
01’Croc should’ve f
just stayed home 1
By Geoff McMurtry * §
Senior Editor
■ "' “ [.m
One can’t help but feci a mixture of admiration and
pity for Paul Hogan.
Pity for taking one of the mostunsequelablc movies f
ever made and forging ahead with one in spite of
himself. Admiration for making it occasionally funny
in spite of itself.
After all, taking a rough, quick-thinking adventurer
from the most uninhabited and hostile pans of the
Outback and dropping him into the middle of Times
Square so we can snare in his muddled bemusement is
certainly an idea with some promise, and Hogan pulled
it off pretty well. But having done that, where else can
you take him? Detroit?
The idea only works with an untarnished innocent,
and can he still be an untarnislted innocent after
ljeoCRdc^%
iigifD .—. .- -----V
Plays scheduled this summer
EQUITY from Page 6
young people from the Midwest have
been employed to work as Journey
men and Chorus members with the
Rep’s professionals, according to
Miller. Also three Nebraska high
school interns and three apprentices,
selected through a statewide audition
process, will also join the summer
Rep company, Miler said.
The interns and apprentices will
stage a performance of “Alice in
Wonderland” in the Temple
Building’s Studio Theatre July 30and
31.
All shows begin at 8 p.m. “Pippin”
and “Noises Off’ are staged in the
Howell Theater and “Voice of the
Prairie” is going lobe staged in Studio
Theatre.
For ticket information, contact the
Temple box office at 472-2073.
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