Slapstick of Another Kind (1982)
1/2 (out of 4)
Jerry Lewis and Madeline Kahn play a married couple who give birth to a twin boy and girl (also played by Lewis and Kahn). Sadly for the parents, these two kids are really ugly, stupid and deformed. It turns out that an alien took control of the pregnancy to try and force these two kids to teach the world something because when the twins but their heads together they become super smart.
Wow, what a complete and utter misfire this thing turned out to be. It's rather shocking to see how awful SLAPSTICK OF ANOTHER KIND is and it's even more shocking to see Lewis on The Tonight Show in 1984 trying to sell the movie. It's easy to see why they didn't spend too much time on that show discussing this movie because it's quite awful and even Lewis didn't do a very good job at selling it. The film was released in Europe two years before it's American debut but I doubt even this thing could fool fans over there.
There are all sorts of problems with this movie including the fact that it just looks downright cheap and poorly produced. I really don't know what they were going for or what they were trying to do but the screenplay is just one giant mess. I mean, there are some below-the-belt jokes that I personally didn't find offensive but it's funny to think that anyone would have read them on the script and thought that they would have worked. What's even worse is the fact that I only laughed twice throughout the running time.
How does a movie with Lewis, Kahn, Marty Feldman, John Abbott, Samuel Fuller, Pat Morita and Merv Griffin go so terribly wrong? It certainly proves that no matter how great a cast you get if the screenplay is bad your movie is going to turn out the same way. Both Lewis and Kahn get an A for effort but there's just nothing here for their talents. Feldman is completely wasted in his role but I will say that Abbott gets a couple decent moments as Dr. Frankenstein as does Fuller as Colonel Sharp.
SLAPSTICK OF ANOTHER KIND tries to mix comedy and sci-fi but it's really an awful picture from start to finish.
