This movie runs too close to the vein of "Repossessed" inasmuch as the bad jokes nearly out number the good ones. Some of them are stolen from Benny Hill,Airplane and the Naked Guns while the rest of the movie relies heavily on prop jokes and sight gags. The only semi-appealing trait of the movie is how it is filled with numerous recognizable faces such as Lana Scwab from "Repossessed," John Landis, Bubba Smith, Nedra Volz, Peter DeLuise and Wilhelm Von Homburg,Vigo from "Ghostbusters 2." There's also some dead-on lookalikes for George Bush and Bill and Hillary Clinton. Unfortunately, Billy Zane is trying to be too much like Frank Drebin, even stealing his parking style of running into things, while walking around doing his role in a dull trance and jumping into his emotions. He does provide some comic relief as he shows he's more interested in the money than his girlfriend. She's played by Charlene Tilton in an unflattering hair-do and heavy make-up. She also seems to be allowing her figure to do her acting for her. In one of his last roles, Martin Balsam replays his famous scenes from "Psycho." He says,"I feel as if I've been here before." We all have. Larry Storch is stuck doing his old "F-Troop" slapstick as a big-mouth FBI klutz and Stuart Pankin is his haplessly unlucky superior. John Astin plays the "Psycho" sheriff as if he was really Gomez (don't forget to snap your fingers) and Dom DeLuise tries his hand at Hannibal Lecter becoming one of the few really funny characters in the movie as he creates some wierdly disorienting illusions. He does flub a line as he says "I'm off into the arms of Orpheus." I'm sure he meant the god of dreams, Morpheus, not the Thracian musician-prince. Also in the movie is Joanna Pacula,who's not attractive enough to be sexy, and Phyllis Diller as an annoyingly senile old bat pushing her coffee. Rip Taylor is her and Tilton's boss whose name has gone from Hardy to Laurel. One of the trully funny characters is Ezio Greggio, but he has no idea of what works and what doesn't as it seems as if he has thrown together a lot of different jokes. Some of the scenes work very well, but the last scene with the masks is embarrassing for the actors, Tilton even takes a moment to admit it. It brings down the entire movie and pretty much ruins what was already a dying parody.Still, I do like this movie enough to recommend it, but I don't think anyone has the mind to really like this movie.
Review of The Silence of the Hams
