Brain Donors

A short word on Brain Donors (1992): Get it. I don't even think it was featured for a full week at the cinemas, but it made cable and that's where I found it. It is truly a great fast talking Marx Brothers movie--but made fifty years later. John Turturro is Groucho, Mel Smith is an English Chico and Bob Nelson is not quite a mute Harpo. But that's all right, we needed a new Marx Brother movie anyhow, and these guys will do. It's truly a clone of "Night At The Opera" but dressed up nineties-style and ballet instead of opera. So get it anyway and be prepared to laugh. By the way it came from the group that did Naked Gun and Hot Shots! movies, so you will know what you are in for. Enjoy!

This movie makes you cry you're laughing so hard. I've seen it countless times, and it just gets better and better each time I see it. The writing is brilliant and the acting is just as good if not better. John Turtturo was born to play this part, just like all his other roles, but excellent in this one in particular. A take off on the Marx brothers' Animal Crackers (1930), it captures a more modern feel, only being twelve years old.

So many great moments and lines it's hard to pick a favorite scene or dialogue. I think that my favorite part of the movie if forced to choose would have to be one of the last scenes, when they are at the ballet and the two guys come out on stage and start hunting swans and ducks with rifles and blood hounds! Every time I see that I think I'm going to faint I'm laughing so hard! One of the best all time movies ever made, and should have one an Academy Award for best comedy of it's time. A classic that will most assuredly go down in history!

I give this movie a 10 out of 10.

End of review.

A lot of critics moaned when this movie came out that its characters were pale imitations of the Marx Brothers. Fine, that might be true. But this movie is still hilarious. On the surface, it appears to be a very dumb comedy, but if you listen to John Turturro's constant string of dialogue, you'll realize that his insults are the most sharp-edged one-liners since Groucho died. Obviously it's not as good as any Marx Brothers comedies, but it's not bad either.

An obvious rip-off of the Marx Brothers' "Night at the Opera," but who cares? It was damn funny, with John Turturro playing the Groucho part to the hilt and the hilarious Bob Nelson doing a great Harpo, right down to the raincoat. A pity it bombed in theaters, but it makes a great "This one too" movie to rent -- an hour and a half you won't regret plopping on the couch and laughing your head off.

Brain Donors is one of the Zucker brother's best kept secrets. Featuring a great cast, this film pays tribute to the Marx and Ritz brothers and slides in a few jokes that Groucho couldn't get away with.

This movie contains about 20 good laughs per minute and a finale that rivals "A Night at the Opera" in hilarity. Anyone that doesn't hurt from laughing at the end of this film is either cold-hearted or clinically brain dead.