Lunatics - Duell der Alpträume

What a hoot! Sort of like watching a boring golf tournament on the first tee at Florida's TPC Sawgrass and then suddenly a herd of alligators come out of nowhere and you laugh your a$$ off as everyone in the tournament tramples over each other running away from the snapping alligator jaws.

Lunatics starts off weirdly (and that is usually what dark comedies do) with the two main characters Hank (Ted Raimi) and Nancy (Deborah Foreman) showing us that they are two losers with a capital "L" and just by chance the desperate Nancy picks up a ringing pay phone on a street corner only to hear Ted's desperate voice reaching out for a girl, "any girl" to come over to his place.

Much like a Woody Allen's romantic comedies, these two main characters Hank and Nancy get to know each other under very strange circumstances rather quickly and I am surprised that this 1991 film didn't end up being a trilogy of films as their characters and their acting were top notch.

Yes it is a dark comedy. And yes it is a really quirky story. But yet the film kept me entertained throughout and it ended so quickly that I wanted more of Hank and Nancy. I tried purchasing this film but it is not available in North America but I will put this film on my wish list and hope it is released in Blu Ray format soon.

I give it a funny and respectable 7 out of 10 IMDB rating.

Lunatics: A Love Story is simply a great romantic comedy. Ted Raimi is funny as his role as a psychopathic man who thinks about spiders eating his brains, suicide, sadistic doctors, and rappers. Another thing that made this movie simply the best was Bruce Campbell. He can make a movie ten times much better.

10/10

In L. A., agoraphobic Hank Stone (Ted Raimi) has not left his apartment since moving in six months ago. He has disturbing delusions about brain spiders, a mad doctor, bad rappers, and other stuff. Nancy (Deborah Foreman) thinks that she's cursed. She gets dumped by her cruel boyfriend Ray (Bruce Campbell) and loses her hotel room. She gets chased by a gang of street thugs. A random phone call brings the two loners together.

It takes almost forty minutes to bring the two leads together. It takes too long to get going. Quite frankly, I wonder if this would be better as her story over a crazy night. He could be a part of her crazy night. 80's star Deborah Foreman faded out as she advanced into her 30's. It's an old Hollywood story. This low budget B-movie is reason enough for her to start thinking about retiring. It's not that good. Hank's surreal delusions aren't compelling or funny enough. I keep thinking about the rappers. Only weak comedies think that those guys are funny. The movie seems more interested in its b-level special effects. It needs better humor or better romantic chemistry. It needs something better.

Well, if this movie is the "epitome of Sam Raimi films", it's some kind of weird coincidence, because this is not a Sam Raimi film.

Moving on, this movie is probably really only worth watching if you're a hardcore fan of someone who's in it. I saw it for Bruce Campbell. Frankly, there aren't really any redeeming qualities. The actors all do decent jobs with what they're given, but the movie just feels really dull and empty, like it doesn't really warrant a whole movie. It also reeks pretty badly of the early '90s, which is either a reason to watch or avoid, depending on who you are. At any rate, unless your local rental store is pretty amazing, you'll probably be hard-pressed to find this movie save by spending upwards of 70 dollars to buy it online. It's definitely not worth the 70 dollars. Bruce Campbell doesn't really even get to do anything particularly Bruce Campbell-ish. No snappy one-liners or anything.

Anyway, if by any chance your girlfriend buys you this movie for your birthday, you might as well watch it since it came your way. Also watch out for the whole differing religions thing, it might be a problem in another three months.

"Xena" star Ted Raimi (Sam's brother) plays Hank Stone, a formerly institutionalized mental case who (when off his medication) suffers from rather nasty hallucinations and has a phobia that he will be attacked if he ventures outside his apartment. Sort of "Repulsion" (1966) meets "The Secret Lives of Dentists" (2002). It is titled a romance and is inaccurately billed as a comedy.

When he is not dealing with the imaginary spiders creeping around it his brain, the rappers that appear when he plays music, the "hot" billboard girl who seduces him, and the mad doctors prodding him with needles; Hank finds the time to feel lonely and impulsively invites an unseen girl he has dialed on the phone to come up and see him sometime.

The girl turns out to be Nancy, a neurotic but squeaky-clean damsel in distress (she has p....d off a local street gang). Hank is extremely pleased when Nancy arrives (not surprising as she is played by Deborah Foreman-arguably the most beautiful of all the young Hollywood actresses of the 1980's). This was one of Foreman's last films, she wasn't getting quality stuff and had begun to fade a tiny bit physically; director Josh Becker unnecessarily compensates for this by limiting her extreme close-ups.

Hank and Nancy discover they share both an interest in poetry and a tendency to lash out violently at each other during moments of mental disturbance. But Hank's love for Nancy will inspire him to face his demons and venture into the world to save her.

Josh Becker wrote and directed the film, not Sam Raimi of "Evil Dead" fame. Raimi produced the film and Becker was one of his close associates, which may account for the confusion.

The low budget special effects are actually an asset as they give a unity to the expressionistic feel of the film; as does the wonky jazz score.

While some viewers really connect with this film, mainstream viewers will be either bored or irritated. Bored because this is a minimalist movie in which what little happens does so in an unconvincing manner and without a build-up of suspense or real tension.

Irritating because the story is structured wrong. It is supposed to be a romance yet the characters do not meet until minute 42 of the 87 minutes running length. They are only together on the screen for about 20% of the film. This also means that the story be told from two separate points of view, which distances the viewer and makes it necessary to expend a lot of energy achieving a strong identification with either character.

Nonetheless, there is a lot of originality here and the overall the viewing experience is a pleasant one.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.