I wanted to like "The Atomic Kid", really I did. It had a lot of the same elements as the old Abbott/Costello and Martin/Lewis movies and it had Mickey Rooney, and it had that distinctive character actor from "Stalag 17". But what it didn't have was any common sense or any forward momentum or any believability - by which I mean that no human beings would act the way these guys do after the early events, comedy or not. After a fairly promising start (Rooney's character survives a nuclear blast at ground zero with only mild dishevelment - although his peanut butter sandwich is now toasted, which is a nice touch) the movie bogs down in an endless series of dull, unfunny scenes using radiation as the comic gimmick (when Rooney gets excited, his "neutrons change" and the radiation he emits goes up, causing him to glow in the dark, etc.And of course by "get excited", the movie means "flirts with the nurse who is taking care of him". Radiation = sexual excitement, what a novel idea,aaagh. )
The cast is actually the best thing about the picture, although they aren't enough to save it. I blame the director for this one. He lets the movie dawdle along in places where it should be snappy and crisp, and doesn't seem to know when to stop being "funny" after we've gotten the joke.
Worth seeing once a) to see Rooney still trying to be a leading man and b) to help you appreciate how hard it actually is to make a good "buddy picture".
The cast is actually the best thing about the picture, although they aren't enough to save it. I blame the director for this one. He lets the movie dawdle along in places where it should be snappy and crisp, and doesn't seem to know when to stop being "funny" after we've gotten the joke.
Worth seeing once a) to see Rooney still trying to be a leading man and b) to help you appreciate how hard it actually is to make a good "buddy picture".