This started off very promising, but quickly turned into a very unfunny and rather ugly comedy where Richard Pryor, as Mr. Every Man, gets the old bamboozala when he accepts a job in Boise Idaho and goes out of his way to buy a beautiful home complete with swimming pool indoors and doors that for some reason are not there when he arrives. It turns out that his horrible neighbor from New Jersey (Randy Quaid) has a brother who happens to own the house next to the one that he bought, and the moving company that he hired decided to go someplace else other than the address he gave them. Certainly some things like this can happen, but the way it is presented become so bizarre and totally ridiculous that after a while the tongue-in-cheek mentality just goes a bit too far.
The lovely Beverly Todd has one very funny moment involving Pryor's swear jar when she finds out where they're moving to, but that's just one rare moment that had me chortling loudly. A guest appearance by Rodney Dangerfield sets the tone for what kind of humor is to follow, and a supporting part by Dana Carvey just becomes ultra obnoxious every time his character changes personalities, and by this time, the film has started outwear it's welcome. It's trying too hard to emulate films like "The Out of Towners", but goes overboard into the metaphorical swimming pool with no water. Pryor was obviously trying something different, and something ended up being missing in the process. The kids are not well-defined characters, and a scene where the two well-behaved boys end up pulling a prank in their new school really makes absolutely no sense like most of the stuff happening. The only place this is moving in like election is into the trash.
The lovely Beverly Todd has one very funny moment involving Pryor's swear jar when she finds out where they're moving to, but that's just one rare moment that had me chortling loudly. A guest appearance by Rodney Dangerfield sets the tone for what kind of humor is to follow, and a supporting part by Dana Carvey just becomes ultra obnoxious every time his character changes personalities, and by this time, the film has started outwear it's welcome. It's trying too hard to emulate films like "The Out of Towners", but goes overboard into the metaphorical swimming pool with no water. Pryor was obviously trying something different, and something ended up being missing in the process. The kids are not well-defined characters, and a scene where the two well-behaved boys end up pulling a prank in their new school really makes absolutely no sense like most of the stuff happening. The only place this is moving in like election is into the trash.