Customer Reviews

Some Kind of Hero

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This movie is quite good for several reasons, based on the book it is a moving and intelligent treatment of released POW vet Eddie Kellar as played by Richard Pryor after several-years and how he tries to re-adjust to civilian life back home the pomp and media frenzy that ensue then the hardships,his wife is in love with another man,he has a daughter he doesnt know,his mother is in a nursing home from a stroke and hes broke. The Army wont pay his back-money and he falls for his only friend left in the world a sympathetic highpriced prostitute Toni(Margot Kidder),the film then changes gear into some hilarious attempt's by Eddie to turn around his luck by turning to crime. Comedy and drama this is worth watching!

Pryor appeared in a glut of movies in the five years after he blew himself up freebasing. Some were good, some kinda stunk and Some Kind Of Hero fell in the middle of those. The movie can't really decide if it wants to be a drama or a comedy, and while it contains elements of both it isn't particularly funny or particularly moving. Margot Kidder provides a sexy and effective turn as a hooker, and there are a few laughs sprinkled throughout the movie, but unless you're a huge Pryor or Kidder fan, you're not missing much by giving this one a pass.

Of all Richard Pryor's films, this one has to rank up there as one of the strangest. To begin with, it's a comedy/drama that's partly set in a POW camp during the Vietnam War. If you think that kind of set-up sounds like Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful (97) you would be wrong. The POW camp depicted in this film looks more like it was filmed around some bungalows in the Hollywood Hills. Pryor has some good (albeit minimal) interplay with another American POW (played convincingly by the underrated Ray Sharkey) and a four legged friend he calls "Spike" but eventually he is freed and the film shifts to Pryor's character trying to adjust back to life stateside. This is where the film begins to take a nosedive. One wonders what the film might have been like if it was set entirely in the POW camp and was more dramatic. Pryor was a brilliant comedian and a great actor (see him in his best film performance in Blue Collar from 1978). He was always able to handle the more serious material in his films than people give him credit for. Pryor had a dark side himself and that came through a little in each of his roles. The problem with Some Kind of Hero is that it seems like nobody trusted Pryor to play the whole thing straight. Don't get me wrong, there are a few moments when I was laughing out loud (like the scene when Pryor reunites with his wife in the hotel room and his reaction to what she tells him has happened with her since he's been away) and the movie isn't a complete stinker, but do not expect Silver Streak (76) or Stir Crazy (80) from this one. All in all, The Toy (which was also released in '82) is a better vehicle for Pryor's talents and likability. This movie takes an interesting subplot involving Pryor's character and a prostitute (played excellently by Lois Lane herself, Margot Kidder) and wastes it on a lame denouement involving Pryor stealing some money and encountering some mobsters. I digress, this could have been Pryor's Stalag 17 or to some degree his Midnight Express or The Deer Hunter. Instead, it was just another forgettable dramedy. It's still worth a watch for the performances (including Ronny Cox in a small but memorable role) and mostly for fans of all things Richard Pryor. I myself had been waiting a long time for this one to come out on DVD and I was not disappointed, but I knew exactly what I was getting myself into.

This film was intended to be a drama, but was reworked as they shot it because producers wanted humor added. The result is ridiculous. Still, Richard Pryor starts out very convincing and totally committed to his part. Pryor could have played this straight because he had the chops. It would have been great to see him in a straight drama just this once. There's a point late in the film where his character, Eddie, asks aloud, "What are you doin', Eddie?" I think Pryor was asking himself the same thing.

Pryor tried to make a POW into a laugh blast. It blew up. It does not work. Could have been done better but they went way out in left field to make him so tragic and his humor just does not pull the plot. It's like a mule pulling a house...not gonna happen. However, it is a statement of what Hollywood thought of Vets...so buy it for that reason and see how the new Vets are portrayed in 2 or 3 years...