As Good As It Gets

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Clifford Skridlow (Dan Aykroyd) is a geeky weird professor at a small Chicago college. Smooth Walker (Howard Hesseman) is a pimp who owes money to mob boss Mom. Diavolo Washington is his driver. He has a scheme using his girls (Donna Dixon, Lydia Lei, Fran Drescher, and Lynn Whitfield) to trick a sucker. After a night of hard partying, Clifford is pushed into playing the girls' new crazy pimp Doctor Detroit. Meanwhile, Smooth skips town pretending that a new pimp has muscled him out. Cifford struggles to maintain his straight life while living his wild pimp life.The problem with Clifford is that I don't find him lovable. He starts with such a weird oddball introduction. For some reason, I find Clifford off-putting. On the other hand, I don't mind the outrageous Doctor Detroit. The movie is generally stupid and silly without being funny. Aykroyd is also on his own comedically in this one and he's not doing so well.

A pimp (Howard Hesseman) gets into trouble so he cons a nerdy professor (Dan Aykroyd) into posing as his partner, a flamboyant pimp named Doctor Detroit. On paper this looks like it could be funny. Maybe with John Landis handling it, it could have been. But it's not. I have tried this movie three times in the last five years, desperately hoping each time I will finally "get it." But now I am accepting there just isn't anything to "get." It's just a very boring comedy that, despite a solid cast, has no laughs. It's not that I mind the silly paper-thin plot. It's a comedy so I don't expect much from the plot. I don't mind the subject matter. If anything, the movie suffers from not being raunchy enough. It's an 80's comedy about prostitutes and pimps yet it's pretty tame compared to similar films of the time. I don't even know how to pinpoint what is wrong with it except to repeat that it didn't make me laugh. Not once. Sorry. It blows.

I think this is one of the most under-appreciated comedies of the 80's. Behind the light comedy in the foreground of this flick is a ton of tongue-in-cheek jokes that, frankly, I just didn't get when I was 14. For example, Akroyd, in the middle of his bizarre adventure, calls the limo driver "Sancho" in one scene. If you find that funny (which would require getting the reference) lines like that pepper the movie. It's really a fun show. I'm sorry I went 20 years without seeing it again.It doesn't stand up budget-wise to his big movies, but if you come to it without any particular expectations, I think you'll be quite pleasantly surprised.

I remember seeing this movie on VHS while I worked at a video rental store in the 80's. I thought it was a funny campy movie but Hey! I like these kind of movies now and then. I always like Dan Akroyd movies so it didn't matter if this was not up to snuff with the likes of Ghostbusters or Blues Brothers. It was hard to believe he made that film then. I recently acquired this movie on laserdisc just about a week ago. I had not seen the movie since the 80's. I since taped over my VHS dub many years ago. It was great to sit down and have a few laughs and once again see the 'Doctor' in action. The picture is clean with only a few spots and scratches. The sound is only analog and not digital but delivers very surprising and powerful for an older movie. It's a fun film never the less. Yeah! it was no box office smash or a great comedy or action film, but there's just something about these lesser movies that brings you back to a better time. Dan does a great job even with the film's downfalls. Hey he got a great wife out of the deal marrying Donna Dixon from the film! It falls in the category with the likes of 'Howard the Duck'. Both were box office failures but there are still those devoted fans out there still searching for these 'gems' everyday. So for me the 'Doctor' is always 'in' my movie collection.