Truly Dreadful Film

Best movie ever!

Absolutely Brilliant!

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Never watched "E.R" so this was my first experience with Eriq La Salle, very satisfying. Michael Beach was familiar from "Third Watch" where he played a likable, intelligent doctor, as he does in this film. Ty Adams, the controversial and outwardly over-confident psychiatrist, claims to "cure" mental illness without drugs. His outward egotism covers deep neuroses of fear and self-doubt, especially since his drug-free treatment resulted in the suicides of his daughter-patient, and then his devastated wife. Ty soon finds himself in conflict with Dr. Delazo (Ronny Cox), the passionless director of the mental hospital. Stress increases exponentially when Ty is assigned a new patient, the Man who calls himself Satan (Eriq La Salle). Satan seems competent, not psychotic, and he volunteered for treatment because he wants a soul. Outwardly charming and perceptive, Satan is compellingly honest yet marvelously deceptive. Every confrontation reveals a different incarnation in appearance and affect. Satan slowly strips Ty of his self-deceptions, revealing his inner demons and inability to cope. The last scenes took me by surprise, as each character is revealed in demonic form, and Ty's protestations don't save him from the fate he chose for himself. This film will stand on its strengths of characterization and theme even when the twists are no longer a shock.

I'd never heard of "Crazy As Hell" before seeing it, but I watched it on a whim. It was entertaining enough to keep my attention, but I was kind of waiting for it to end. The film just lacked intensity, which was odd considering the subject matter. Sadly, it just kind of dragged and not a whole lot happened. It felt like a Twilight Zone episode that was stretched into a two hour film. And, like many old Twilight Zone episodes, it dealt with a very one-dimensional character with a painfully obvious character flaw (in this case: arrogance/ego). Our main character isn't all that likable and doesn't seem to have anything at stake, so why should I care what happens to him? There are a lot of not-so-subtle clues and symbols. Oddly, many of them seemed like plot flaws and turned out to be intentional later on. For example (without giving anything away) in first scene, Ty stops his car then back up and accidentally backs his car over a glass bottle right behind his tire - why didn't he run it over it when he first pulled up? I dismissed this as a movie mistake, but it actually made sense in retrospect. Like a lot of the movie, it was so simple and obvious that I actually DIDN'T notice it.

It took me a minute to understand it. Well at least I think I understood it. I think this movie can be very easily perceived in different ways depending on the personal beliefs/ ideas of the viewer. For me, I think Dr. Ty Adams was already dead at the beginning of the movie. And since he was one of those people who spent their life trying to help others but not really believing in God or the Devil his soul kinda got stuck in the middle. Which is why he was placed in his element (the hospital) and confronted by the devil, who stated in their first meeting that he wanted Ty's soul. I think the Sinbad character may have been God in a human form to maybe try and save Ty's soul. But Ty never gave him the time of day and said throughout the film that he didn't believe in God. This in my opinion may have prevented Ty's soul from going to heaven thus ending up in hell at the end of the movie. Ty's last words were "I'm a good man!" Thinking that good people don't go to hell. I think that this movie isn't trying to force religion on you, put I do think that it wants you to believe in something. In Ty's case his ego got in the way of him going to heaven.

Eriq La Salle directs, writes and stars in CRAZY AS HELL. A well known psychiatrist, Dr. Ty Adams(Michael Beach)comes to Sedah State Mental Hospital with an around the clock film crew to shoot a documentary about his non-traditional approach in treating mental illness. Dr. Delazo(Ronny Cox)runs the institution and seems to be the only one with lack of confidence in Adams. Adams appears to be helping some of the self-destructive patients until the day a mystery man(La Salle)voluntarily checks himself into the hospital. The man claims to be Satan and wants to know why the world blames him for everything that goes bad instead of blaming God. Satan becomes the one to pull Adam's chain and forces him to deal with his own innermost turmoil. Comedian Sinbad plays an orderly that is contently wanting a moment of Dr. Adams's time.Also in the cast are: Jane Carr, John C. McGinley, Tracy Pettit and a vivacious Tia Texada that will make you stand up and take notice. La Salle, who made a name for himself as Dr. Benson on TV's ER, is more than just focused...he is dynamic. You need to be in the right mood for this slightly dark drama.