Going Berserk (1983)

Yes, as other reviewers have said, it does have its moments, and sure, if you were reviewing individual segments, maybe you would rate some of them better than other. Unfortunately, this isn't SCTV, and the movie has to be rated as a unified whole.

In some respects, Going Berserk is a loose parody of The Manchurian Candidate (1963). John (John Candy) is a fat chauffer driver who is preparing to marry the Congressman's daughter, Nancy (Alley Mills). The Congressman has a developed an enemy in the Cult Leader Rev. Sun Yi Day (Richard Libertini). Day and his group plan to hypnotize John and have him kill the Congressmen at the wedding ceremony.

Along the way, the movie happens. Much of it has little to do with the plot I've just described. Some of it is funny; much of it is weird.

This is Candy's first starring role in a movie. I read that he had zero acting training prior to this movie, but his acting isn't the issue here. He's a fine comedic actor. The problem is that this isn't a unified story. It tries to fit the pieces together, but I think even the reviewers who have watched this film multiple times like it for different bits and pieces and would themselves acknowledge that the overall movie isn't that great.

Rating 1.5/5 stars

Comments

"Digging for the Truth" Experiment #4 -- The Federalist Radio Hour

I first heard of Sean Davis last week. He created an online magazine called The Federalist in 2011, and he currently has about 500,000 followers on X. It was about last week that he posted something amazing. He suggested if the Supreme Court doesn't rule the way they should, not only should Trump just ignore the ruling, if they keep obstructing the administration, he should just dissolve the Court altogether. And I thought, wow. This guy is saying outrageous stuff like that, and there's an audience for it. So, I decided I'd listen to an episode of The Federalist podcast: April 17, 2025 -- Deportation, Due Process, and Deference to the American People (40 minutes) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deportation-due-process-and-deference-to-the/id983782306?i=1000703904873 In the 40-minute conversation, the host and guest discussed why due process wasn't required for illegal immigrants. The case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was mentioned for a brief second, but...

In Utero

In 1994, I wore my In Utero shirt to college. I’d walk down the hall, and people would look at the shirt. I still remember a professor looking at it, not apparently hip to the scene. She asked, “Bret, is there something you’re trying to tell us?” I had no idea what I was trying to say. Kurt Cobain had just shot his head off with a shotgun. Before that life-changing event, I hadn’t been the biggest fan of Nirvana, but I did recognize the immediate impact “Smells Like Teen Spirit” had on music, or at least on MTV. Nirvana had seemingly killed and buried Hair Metal, and they had done it single-handedly. What exactly was this “Alternative” sound? It was weird, because soon it felt like everything was “alternative,” and that didn’t make any sense. Once everything is the same, how can it be anything but standard, normal? Nirvana was okay, but at least at the time I was wearing the merch, I was much more into Offspring and Green Day and Tool. And that’s about as far as I went into...

I Must Betray You -- Ruta Sepetys

I appreciate the pacing. The author's epilogue includes her mission statement -- historical fiction as a way to keep history alive. Romanis is an obscure place, but she hopes people reading the book will take an interest in its history. She also makes the point that there are no clean endings. So, the evil dictator and his wife were killed, but the problems they created didn't magically go away, the country still had to find its way and move forward, and it was a process.

The Writer's Poke

Search This Blog