Jenna Walter
The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
Tayyab Torres
Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
Lela
The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
mark.waltz
A delicious black comedy along the lines of "Death Becomes Her", this practically forgotten Steve Martin farce is now going on to my list of one of the best comedies of the 1980s, as well as one of the best comedies you've probably never heard of. Steve Martin plays a widowed doctor who specializes in brain surgery and all of a sudden becomes enamored of the gorgeous Kathleen Turner who has just managed in a hysterical opening sequence to knock off her wealthy older husband. Spoofing her role in "Body Heat", Turner is deliciously evil, and seems to be have a wonderful time in playing this part. Martin, of course, does his usual schtick, but mixing science fiction elements with a spoof of film noir which he had already done recently with "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid", he finds true love with a seemingly still living brain, voiced by none other than recent Oscar winner Sissy Spacek.A film clip of the 1953 science fiction film "Donovan's Brain" cast up his interest in experimenting, and features then first lady Nancy Davis Reagan in the archive clip. Verbal and visual sight gags a la "Airplane!" make this worth seeing over and over again.Among the visual highlights is Martin's checking out of a castle like house he wants to purchase, complete with laboratory and Turner's determination to get rid of anybody whom she can inherit money from. Her obvious plans of seducing the handsome Hispanic gardener is also very funny. Some surprise cameos along the way add to the hysterical moments that are frequent and sometimes pass by too fast to catch up on simply one viewing. Veteran director Carl Reiner practically outdoes himself in the delightful way he takes preposterous situations and makes them laugh out loud funny. I could not have seen this in the theater, because I think I would have been choking on my popcorn or spitting my soda at the unfortunate person in front of me. It is that funny. I won't spoil all the delightful things that occur by saying more, but being available on the Warner Brothers Archive Collection, this was more fun than I expected it to be, although I will give credit to the delightfully annoying voiced prostitutes who Martin encounters during his journey. By the time she came along, I was laughing so hard that I was actually crying.
Blueghost
Sayeth the little girl bystander in the opening minutes of Steve Martin's unheralded comedy, "The Man with Two Brains". Steve Martin plays the world renown brain surgeon, Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr, who becomes involved with a grifter of a patient who has her own fiduciary agenda.Filled with zany, stupid yet uproariously funny zingers and visual gags, "The Man with Two Brains" is not deep comedy, but delivers on the goods where the laughs are concerned. It's not low brow comedy either (well, not mostly anyway), but old fashioned "this is funny" kind of stuff.There is a lot of adult humor in it, so it's not a comedy for kids, though if your boy is in middle school, then odds are he's read all the raunchy jokes, and probably knows more than you and Steve Martin combined. But, even so, this is not a film I would watch with the youngins.An all star comedy cast comes together to tell the tale of a man who falls in love with the woman he thinks he rescued, only to discover his heart yearns for something more. Does he find it? You have to see the movie find out.Professionally done, it's a basic film with good solid production values, and a parable at the end for all to enjoy.Give it a shot.
David Klecker
...Steve Martin's physical humor was the talk of the town. In his early years he was featured on the Sonny and Cher Comedy hour, the Ken Barry Show and the Smothers Brothers Show as a regular. He turned up frequently as host on Saturday Night Live, in every case showcasing his peculiar brand of off-the-wall physical humor and jester-esque feats. The Jerk can probably be considered his first real movie as a vehicle to his humor which is often seen as the first of his classics-trio with Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid second and The Man with Two Brains his third. Although I consider The Jerk to be the best of the trio, The Man with Two Brains is certainly a close second. The cast is brilliant with a sexy yet villainous wife played by Kathleen Turner, one year before her landmark role as the eccentric romance novelist Joan Wilder. David Warner fresh from Tron and Time Bandits who probably has the largest resume of movies and TV spots I have seen yet. Unless you lived under a rock and never turned on your TV during the 80's and 90's you've seen David Warner is some fashion... anyways where am I? oh... he also manages to keep up with the non-stop antics playing a brilliant yet mad scientist who has discovered a way to keep brains alive. Carl Reiner and Steve Martin twist another crazy tale together to showcases the unique humor of Martin. It's not the best Steve Martin has done, nor is it hilarious through and through, it's mostly a hit and miss spoof, The Man With Two Brains is certainly recommended for old time fans of Steve Martin before he traded in his physical humor for more straight-forward gags.
johnstonjames
Whenever i get a chance to see this one (which is not too often) i always find myself a little befuddled, but always amused by the whole thing. as silly and ridiculous as much of this gets, i always sense a cerebral (i know ha ha on so many levels) quality to it and it's story, especially if you so choose to take it to a higher level. why not. as this movie defies a certain amount of explanation, you might as well see it any way you choose.this movie has always had a strange effect on me. when i first saw it back in the 80's i remember being struck by the fact that it seemed a lot weirder than 'The Jerk'. that's saying a lot since 'The Jerk' is pretty off the wall. i remember thinking that "quirky" and "oddball" didn't quite describe what i saw. i even thought this was weirder than 'Weird Science'. and 'Science' is weirdness pushing the envelope of sanity. i kind of dismissed 'TMWTB' as the fact that Hollywood and artist types are always kooks. as i got a bit older i took more interest in children's literature, fairy tales, nursery rhymes and folk lore traditions, as well as classic older cinema works. when i saw this film again it struck me as even more crazy weird. and also ripe for psychoanalysis. so much of the aim of it's effectiveness seems to be psychogenic in the very nature of it's message of psychometry. i know that sounds like a pretentious mouthful of words, but i just don't know any better way to describe this. and yes, i know, i like to play Pop psychologist.i'm probably going to run out of my word minimum here, so lemme put it simply. in a sense this movie was the first 'Shallow Hall'. love should know no boundaries of physical observation you know blah blah... starting to get it? it's not hard if you've had some basic psych classes at a Jr. local.and as for Steve Martin's brain surgeon protagonist? um. that's not a character in a story, that's some kind of pyschohistorical text of the male sex. men are visually stimulated sexually, have ego attachment issues and so on. we've heard it all before. especially from frustrated feminist types. this whole movie is told from a psychodynamic and psychoanalytical perspective that simply rattles the unconscious. and the funny bone.because all in all, it's main attempt is at humour. which i personally think it succeeds with great finesse. Steve Martin is a brilliant comedian and very adroit at physical comedy. Carl Reiner is also a very funny man although sometimes he can fall a little flat as a film director, like in his early venture 'The Comic'.this is also a farcical send up of 50's sci-fi films like 'Donovan's Brain' and 18th century pot boiler literature. probably not best to think about this film too much. it just gets too trippy. it's mostly for ticklish fun. relax. enjoy. but this eccentric comedy probably has more, ahem , "brains", than it's given credit for.
