See No Evil, Hear No Evil

This pairing of Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor, while not "Silver Streak" and not the first half of "Stir Crazy", is still an amusing comedy with some absolutely hilarious moments. I mean, let's face it...the second half of Stir Crazy is as boring as it gets. This film lags in spots, but the chemistry of Pryor and Wilder does satisfy. Stay away from "Another You" (as I did). I figured that this film was as good as we were going to get from Pryor and Wilder. Was I right? I dunno. I stayed away from "Another You".

Not quite as good as Silver Streak and Stir Crazy but this Gene Wilder & Richard Pryor outing never fails in putting a big smile on my face.Seen it loads of times now and it's as funny as the first time, brilliant stuff.

Wally Karue (Richard Pryor) is blind and he doesn't like it. Dave Lyons (Gene Wilder) is deaf, and runs a newspaper stand. Wally gets a job from Dave, and quickly becomes fast friends. One day, a man comes in. After an argument with Eve (Joan Severance), she kills him. Both Wally and Dave only partly witness the incident. The incompetent police arrests the duo but then they escape. Eve and Kirgo (Kevin Spacey) are after the duo for a valuable coin.

Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder are always fun together. The gimmick allows the guys to have some hilarious back and forth. The mug shot scene was gut busting funny. While the joking around is funny, the caper doesn't work as well. In the end, the movie works as an excuse for the guys to go crazy.

"See no evil, Hear no evil"; a perfect title for an hilarious script that was brilliantly portrayed by Gene Wilder (Dave) and Richard Pryer (Wally). The tale of two "handicapped" (as Dave remarks at the end of the film, "I'm not handicapped, I have you") individuals who come together to be ones eyes. The hilarious duo get caught in a crime they did not commit and do everything in thier power to rid them of the accusation.

I have to say that I really enjoyed this movie tremendously. I remember watching it when it first came out in 1989 and thinking, "wow...what a funny flick". Being only 11 at the time, I didn't really understand the hilarity of all the jokes that was in it. The reason why I watch it again now... 13 years later is because of one Kevin Spacey (Who plays Kirgo, the crook). I'm in the process of collecting all of his movies... and this one just happens to be one in that list. I'm glad that it is. I find the script to be wonderfull, the acting brilliant and the time spent watching it a definate fun time. Great movie!!

I remember first seeing this movie when I was about five years old, and I found it hilarious. I caught the movie a couple more times on network TV, but this is the first time I watched it again in its unedited form.

Needless to say, Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder are both wonderful talents with an irreplacable chemistry, and that chemistry is utilized very well throughout. Of course, the brilliantly original premise helps as well. A blind guy and a deaf guy who pair up to solve a murder? Classic! That premise is used wonderfully. There's a great line where they're interrogated and angry officer screams out, "Between the two of you, you saw and heard everything!"

There's a lot of great fish-out-of-water humor involving Pryor's blindness and Wilder's deafness. One of the most hilarious gags, along with the car chase, is when Pryor helps another blind man to walk across the street, and they end up in the back of a truck. Now that's a literal example of the blind leading the blind. Each gag is delivered and timed very well, thanks for the great actors and veteran director Arthur Hiller, who has directed the two leads before in "Silver Streak."

This isn't a perfect comedy. A few gags fall flat, but the key word is "few." Some reviewers and audiences have regarded this as the low point in Wilder's and Pryor's careers. I think of "Another You" as the low point, which is a horribly forgettable comedy that unfortunately was the last film they did together.

A good deal of the gags are far-fetched, but this is a slapstick farce and you have to expect that. That's why I always say that this is a very tricky sub-genre and if not done correctly, the audience will totally stop suspending disbelief and simply scoff at its foolishness.

Fans of Pryor and Wilder should not be disappointed. Also, if you want to see an early (comic) performance by Kevin Spacey, it's also worth checking out. Speaking of worth checking out, Joan Severance provides great eye candy, and she has a couple of nude scenes to boot. I was born in 1982, so this was the first movie where I saw the two comics together on screen, so "See No Evil" is more unique to me than it probably is to others. But come on! With scenes like a high-speed car chase involving a blind man and a deaf man trying to escape, how can this not be regarded as a "unique" comedy?

My score: 7 (out of 10)