Road Lawyers and Other Briefs

This movie was the star attraction of Stupid Movie Wednesday when it first came out on video. The Road Lawyer's never ending string of cheesy puns delivered with deadpan expressions got a few laughs from the gang once the proper amount of alcohol was applied.

Escape from Heaven was a decent film school concept but wasn't too memorable. It tried to be more than it was. The dubbed sci-fi short at the end was inspired in the days before anyone knew of Mystery Science Theater 3000. It can't hold up since MST3K has shown us all how it's done.

This is a film to watch when you're in the mood for a dumb movie that is well in touch with it's dumbness.

My review was written in December 1990 after watching the program on AIP video cassette.

This compilation of short subjects for the video market offers some yocks but there's no award-winning material here.

Punning title is derived from the leadoff entry "Road Lawyers", a 1987 spoof of the Mad Max films that is presented here with a 1990-made prolog set in a boardroom. Made by Robert Rhine, who also stars, it's a labored, overlong riff on the pun, with legalese and the more venal characteristic of the legal profession grafted onto the George Miller opus.

Shot mainly with pixillation techniques to have Mild Milt (Rhine) scooting along the landscape in his easy chair, film never achieves the intended "SCTV" level of satire (especially disappointing because of Rhine;s physical similarity to "SCTV" maven Eugene Levy).

"Escape from Heaven" is a more imaginative spoof of religion that also gets bogged down. This 1989 University of Southern California student short is styled like a women's prison film with the Catholic religion mildly lampooned, as in a wisecrack: "What we have here is a failure to excommunicate".

"Radar Men from the Moon" is an extended excerpt from that 1952 Republic serial (introducing jet-packed Commander Cody) with a quartet of comics writing and voicing over silly dialog. Firesign Theater did a better job in this mode over a decade ago with "J-Men Forever".

Finale is another one-note pic made in 1982, "Hairline", about the nightmares of a guy obsessed with his thinning hair. Punchline is an anticlimax.

Whomever wrote this was a total genius. Perhaps because I've had experience in the legal field I thought it was very funny. It looks like a Grade B or C movie, but it was so intelligently written that I was rolling on the floor laughing hard. For a lot of you though it might go over your head and you won't be able to understand it. This movie was so unforgettable for me I decided to go online to purchase it. Good luck to you if you can find it. If you have any experience with law, an Ex-Con, Lawyer, Judge, or Prosecutor, you'll find this to be the most hilarious movie you've ever seen in your life. It's very Bizarre, and so are the other shorts that come with it, but it's worth every penny.

This "cult classic" contained four short films consisting of "Road Laywers", "Escape from Heaven", "Radar Men on the Moon", and "Hairline". Now, Hairline was a bomb, nothing really great about it. It had its moments and so did Escape from Heaven, but Road Lawyers and Radar Men on the Moon made up for it. Clearly, the previous comment has no idea what comedy is. This isn't the most intelligent comedy, but that doesn't make it bad. They have corny lines, puns, randomness and everything you could want.

Now, If you are not the kind of person that laughs at random comments or inane humor, I wouldn't go for this. It does have its moments of comments bearing some intelligence, but most of it is just silly and outright hysterical.

I'd give "Road Lawyers" a 3 by itself but there are other shorts on the tape. It barely makes sense and the "special effects" aren't very special. Escape From Heaven isn't a much better film about what heaven is really like (5 out of 10). Radar Men on the Moon made me laugh pretty hard because it is done like a Mystery Science Theater 3000 show but it seems like it took little effort to make aside from writing the jokes (8 out of 10). The final short Hairline was my favorite because it has some humor and some drama as it shows a middle-aged man coping with the lose of his hair (8 out of 10). If you fast forward through the first two shorts, this is an enjoyable tape. I have no idea why they headlined with Road Lawyers, but that is the reason it has such a low rating. I wish I could separate the votes for this movie, but as a whole I gave it a 6.