Doctor Detroit

This movie can be described only as silly.

When a "bad guy" is pressured by "momma" he invents a fictional character, haistily named Doctor Detriot. When momma asks to meet him he sets up Dan Ackroyd, the unlikely wimp, builds his confidence, give him some make-up and volla! He kicks some butt.

This movie has few laughs and isn't one of Dan Ackroyd's best. Neighbours, The Blues Brothers and even Ghostbusters are good so see them in preference to this.

This is not the type of movie you watch for the clever plot and well-defined characters. This is a cheap, bawdy comic romp to be enjoyed with the fellas at a weekend get-together or at a bachelor party. Where else can you see a nubile young Fran Drescher wearing next to nothing and James Brown urging a crowd of scantily clad dancers to "get up offa that thang" in the same movie?

Nothing wrong with a little mindless entertainment, especially since Dr. Detroit doesn't pretend to be anything else.

Okay, the characters are lively and likable, but the story is cartoon-like, so simplified that it is totally forgettable. One positive is the sharp editing, that keeps things moving along. Negatives would be the lack of enough laughs to recommend second viewings, and cartoon-like goings on that are seriously squirm inducing. "Doctor Detroit" comes across as a not fully developed "Saturday Night Live" skit. While the characters are certainly colorful, there is no real bite to the story. Fran Drescher and Howard Hessman try their stereotyped best, while Dan Aykroyd cavorts about trying to hold things together, but to no avail. Stick with "Trading Places" and avoid the comedic letdown of "Doctor Detroit". - MERK

As others may have pointed out, this is mostly Dan A. doing his schtick with a couple of characters that he had not entirely fleshed out. But one thing you should see (hear) this movie for is the sound track!

You have Devo, James Brown, and Lalo Schifrin (in probably his only excursion into "soul music"--and what an excursion it is).

Almost 20 years later, I still listen to this album on a regular basis.

Dan Ackroyd in his prime essays the role of DOCTOR DETROIT, a comic superpimp. In his regular life, Doctor Detroit is a meek college professor right out of a Golden Era slapstick comedy like Cary Grant in "Bringing Up Baby" or Gary Cooper in "Ball of Fire" or even Danny Kaye in the remake, "A Song Is Born." Why and how the professor turns into this larger-than-life, scratchy-voiced pimp is what the movie is all about. And in the end, the Doctor must face down Mom, a notorious gangster. Problem with the movie is Ackroyd was not scheduled to play the role. If memory serves, it was John Belushi, who had died rather suddenly. So Ackroyd steps in to save the day, except he simply isn't funny as the Doctor. He is fine as the professor, however. Ackroyd's soon-to-be, real-life wife Donna Dixon is his love interest.