Customer Reviews

The Man With Two Brains [VHS]

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a nice Steve Martin movie, with some good laughs. It's enjoyable and funny. Not the funniest thing ever, but certainly not bad. I'd give it 4 stars.

The DVD is the simplest I've seen. The sound is in mono (! ), there are no special features, no subtitles, nothing. There is a scene selection menu, which is entirely textual. There's supposed to be close captioning, but I have no idea how to get at that. I wish they had normal subtitles.

In short, there's a reason that this DVD is inexpensive, but this doesn't detract much from the enjoyable movie (except that I would have liked subtitles, as English is not my native language, and having things spelled out helps).

Although I enjoyed this movie, I wanted to make any potential buyers aware that the DVD is missing a few scenes from the original movie: The scene where the Bellboy in the elevator goes through puberty in 10 seconds is missing, and the whole sequence where Ann Uh-Mel-Muh-Hay's brain is damaged and she forgets the letter "Z" ("A ebra lives in a oo") is missing.

Other than that the DVD is a good transfer of the movie, and I highly recommend it.

I give this movie four stars, but three stars for the release. I don't understand why this movie couldn't be released with both wide screen and full screen format, but there you go. With this DVD, we only get the full screen release. That doesn't take away from how funny the movie is, and maybe I am just being nit picky as is my way sometimes....

Anyway, Steve Martin stars as Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr, a world-renowned brain surgeon, who has developed a new method of brain surgery called the cranial screw top method. It involves unscrewing the top of a person's skull for easy access and much faster recovery time.

Suffering the recent loss of his wife, he accidentally hits a woman named Dolores, played by Kathleen Turner, with his car. She suffers a massive head injury, and Steve Martin is the only one who can save her. She also bears a remarkable resemblance to his deceased wife. He saves her, they fall in love, and get married. Only problem is she is a conniving, cheating, lying, evil woman who's main interest is money and infuriating her husbands, making the veins stand out on their foreheads.

During their honeymoon trip to Europe, Dr. Hfuhruhurr meets a fellow scientist who has perfected a method of keeping brains alive in jars. During a visit, one of these brains, that of a woman, begins to talk to him, through telepathy of some sort, and they develop a relationship. Realizing his feelings are growing for this bodiless brain, he drifts away from his wife and even begins scheming to replace his wife's brain with that of Anne, the brain in the jar.

There's a lot more, but that's the gist. This is a very funny sci-fi comedy movie, in the vein of a Young Frankenstein, but not as good. This is what I call 'old style' Steve Martin, the more rowdy, raucous, animated Steve from the old days of SNL and The Jerk, before he became more refined and sophisticated. I still think he's funny now, but I just never got into that whole Father of the Bride/LA Story comedy. Lots of sight gags, some slapstick and profanity, and a little nudity, which give this movie an R rating. No extras, no wide screen format, but still a lot of fun. A good, stupid adult comedy with one of my favorite lines that I think only Steve Martin could have delivered as well as he did which is the quote I used in the title of this review.

Hilarious mad scientist spoof! Steve Martin is a brain surgeon (the inventor of the cranial screw-top method), who finds it difficult to love his beautiful, yet impudent wife (Kathleen Turner). Being a man of letters, he is certainly more turned on by a woman's mind than her looks, right? Nah, he is only a man after all. If he could only combine the looks of his wife with a kind and just mind! Memorable scenes and dialogue abound in this one. As with "The Jerk," Martin is again hysterical, though at least here has above-average intelligence. Kathleen Turner is so believable as the insolent wife that it is difficult to separate her from this role. If you are a fan of Martin in his Wild'n'Crazy Guy phase, check out this movie. It is not suitable for children because of language and some sexually-suggestive content. The DVD is not all that great, with no extras and a full screen format. As with "The Jerk," perhaps a 26th anniversary edition of this one? 4.5 stars for the movie, 3.5 for the DVD.

Steve Martin plays an arrogant brain surgeon who is considered the best in the world. He has recently lost his beloved wife, but his life completely changes when he hits the beautiful Kathleen Turner with his car while giving an interview. Turner is a gold-digger who marries wealthy men and then breaks their hearts. Martin falls into her trap and the two are married. But soon afterwards, Martin is introduced to "Dr Henry Necessitor" who has developed a machine that can transplant a brain into another body without opening the skull. While visiting the doctor one day, Martin realizes that he can speak to one of the brains through telepathy and the craziness begins.

Martin eventually falls in love with the disembodied brain and I'll leave my summary at that.

It is a fresh and original film that will have you rolling in the aisles. Martin is hilarious and some of the situations are so rediculous, the most you can do is laugh and wonder who came up with these crazy ideas. This is one of my all-time favorite films and I'd suggest it to anyone who enjoys a good laugh and enjoys Steve Martin flicks.

Probably the wackiest comedic collaboration between Steve Martin and writer-director Carl Reiner (The Jerk, Roxeanne) where character is more important than looks after all. Although presenting a witty analysis on relationships and what's most important in your significant other, this is probably the most tongue-in-cheek the pair would make; delving more into slapstick themes and plots than those of intellectual or situational comedy motifs.

Steve Martin is Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr, a reputed brain surgeon who can actually transplant brains by using his innovative screw-top method. The widowed doctor is lonely and eventually marries the gorgeous but heartless and money-hungry character of Kathleen Turner. The doctor soon becomes disenchanted with his cold-hearted wife and falls in love with a detached brain (voice over by Sissy Spacek) he finds in a creepy Austrian scientist's dungeon/lab. What will he do to give this sensual brain a host?

Again, although the film is still very much a humorous psychological/sociological study typical of most of Steve Martin's comedies, this is probably the closest to slapstick one will find in his films. Nevertheless, it's nothing as silly or absurd as his role in 'The Three Amigos' for example.

A few people have pointed out various failings with this DVD release - scenes deleted, fullscreen-only ratio, no subtitles, and mono-only audio.

It's the mono soundtrack that annoys me the most, because the stereo version stands out in my memory as a highlight from the early days of stereo VHS - i.e. "linear stereo". The same tragic treatment has been given to Steve Martin's "All Of Me", which is an equally fine film all-round.

These excellent films deserved a full-featured release on DVD. Universal Pictures did a great job - even at a budget price - with "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid". Warners Brothers should have cared enough about us, and about the artist, to do the same.

"Into the mud, scum queen!"

I hadn't seen this film for about ten years, and yet that line had stuck with me forever. This movie has SO many memorable moments, many of them gloriously ridiculous, many sublimely subtle. Martin, in his early films such as THE JERK, was all over the map, mining for humor. Low humor, physical humor, verbal humor, satire, it didn't matter as long as it might be funny.

This is a low budget movie with some delightfully twisted moments. Martin plays famed brained surgeon, Dr. Huffarahrr (or something like that) who marries one of his patients, the beautiful (but evil) Kathleen Turner, hot off her great role in BODY HEAT. The movie's plot is hardly important though...it mostly revolves around brain surgery jokes and humor at Martin's expense because he is so desparate for intimate relations with his wife, who is mostly hoping he'll die so she can take his money. When Martin falls in love with a disembodied brain (don't ask), things just get weirder. (The brain is voiced by Sissy Spacek, by the way.)

That summary probably doesn't make much sense, but the main thing to remember is that the movie is funny. It feels a bit like a TV movie in its production quality, and it's opening credit style and background music firmly date this movie to the early '80s. And there's a HUGE Merv Griffin joke, so you'd better know who Merv Griffin is. Much of the joke is "low" humor, but it's so well done, so over-the-top, that you can't help but smile.

Man With Two Brains is hardly a work of genius. It isn't as solid as ALL OF ME or PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES, which are slicker films with true hearts...but it is good, dirty fun for 90 minutes. Martin is very funny and we are reminded of his early "glory days" as the nation's hottest comic. Kathleen Turner is a hoot, and it's fun to remember what a bombshell femme fatale she was. The usually reserved and impeccable David Warner (Titanic, Time After Time) gets to get a little unhinged here, and that's fun too. There's a guaranteed laugh about every 60 seconds, so that's a lot of laughs. The movie is VERY inexpensive now, so I heartily recommend taking a look.

Word of warning...the DVD has NO extras. Just the movie. Also, it is "R" rated, and deservedly so...there are some funny but dirty bits here.

If you love Steve Martin in "The Jerk" then you will like this. I'm finding the more times I watch this, the more I laugh. It has an "odd-ball" humor style that only Steve Martin can do well. For the price of one admission to the Theatre you can own this! It's worth the laughs.

Both Steve Martin and Kathleen Turner are wonderful in this absolutely bizarre comedy. Martin's early films are still his best. He did some great work with Carl Reiner. This and "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" are classics.