What makes it different from others?

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

I had a friend in school who thought this film was co0mic genius. He was your typical 80s pre-teen / teenager who watched Fridays and SNL and whatever else that altered the comic tastes of America with evening prime time television. Me, I had a hard time understanding what he found funny, and this movie falls into that category.Okay, there's a couple of funny moments in this film, but most of the humor is directed at the "over the top" crowd who like their irreverence taken to the n-th degree with little regard for what people actually find funny.What those people don't understand is that this film, it's core "sub plot" that acts as the blueprint for the script, is about a man suffering from delusional disorder, believing (or convinced) that he has "special" or "magical" powers, and enacts his revenge to get the woman he lost.Much of Hollywood uses psychiatric and/or psychological formulas to write scripts, and here we have a borderline schizophrenic who was put in a delusional state to relax him and not make him a menace to society. Only here it's dressed up as Chevy Chase being a Reagan era air traffic controller (who hasn't been fired) who finds himself in a rut.Enter some quasi-science fiction and suddenly he finds himself having telekinetic abilities. In psychiatric terms this is usually done by shadowing the subject and/or drugging him up, and creating situations that are designed to make him believe that he (or she) has special abilities. It's usually reserved for those who can be seen as a benefit to society; i.e. relations of wealthy or privileged classes, or sponsored by companies who invest in such individuals expecting to gain on the investment.For Chevy Chase it's about going after Patti D'Arbanville's character, the lovely Darcy. Does he succeed? You'll have to see the movie to find out.The film itself, because of its very nature, is irreverent in the highest degree, but also a bit crass and marginally tasteless. For all that I did laugh a few times (though not many). I think one of the issues is that mister Chase himself really isn't the equivalent of Don Knotts or any of the other classic era comedic actors. Still, he seems to fit within this movie and performs his roll adequately.If nothing else this film gives a window to what the teenagers and 20-something youth crowd were viewing in the 1980s as comedy. It's a kind of comedic indicator if you will of society. The film wasn't a huge hit, or so I recall, but gained a level of notoriety as being funny, almost a cult classic.For all that the cast does quite a good job, the over all production values are pretty high for this kind of film, and all in all its an okay production, but the story material and the comedy itself tread B-movie territory.Maybe see it once and see what you think.The top user review for this film has got it partially right in terms of his opinion on the humor stylings

an average Joe air traffic controller is having problems. He is having little success winning back his girlfriend until nuclear waste spills on his car giving him telekentic powers. The once meek, but now suddenly empowered he begins to wreak havoc on those who have annoyed him culminating in a weekend getaway at his friend's beach house where his powers go out of control.....This is a really odd movie. Really, really odd. The first couple of minutes, I thought I'd be in store for a spoof in the style of a Zucker movie. The first couple of minutes are quite fast, zany, and blooming deceptive.Because after that, it goes really dark, and from then in it cant decide whether it wants to be a dark adult comedy (it is because of the nudity) or whether it still wants to play for the young ones.At the end of the day, it's far to silly for adults, and way too sinister for kids, and it just misses every demographic it tries to aim for.The cast are okay, Chase is as watchable as he ever is, and the support is brilliant as well, but all in all, its a wasted opportunity..

Modern Problems is not remembered as being one of Chevy Chase's finest films, however there are some pretty funny moments in it. You just have to wait a while to find them. Chase plays an air traffic controller who just had his girlfriend walk out on him due to his overly-possessive nature. He spends the first 20 minutes or so moping around about the situation, then he is accidentally exposed to some toxic waste which gives him the ability to make things move. He sets out to use this power to win his girlfriend over and bring her back to him. The film really doesn't have many laughs that don't deal with his new powers, and the special f/x used to show them off are pretty pedestrian.There are however some pretty good laughs once Chase gets these amazing powers. In one scene he sees his girlfriend out on a date with a real jerk. Chase decides to end their date by making blood gush out of the man's nose. As someone who has had some serious nosebleeds, I kind of cringe during this scene, but yes it is kinda funny. In another scene, Chase uses his powers to give his girlfriend the best orgasm of her life while the two are reconciling at her place one evening. Chase is pretty funny as he uses facial expressions to mock the sounds coming out of the woman. By far the film's funniest moment comes when Chase disrupts a ballet by doing all sorts of things to the prissy lead male dancer. Not much in terms of Chevy's usually funny dialog is evident in the film, though. He just always seems to be in too lousy of a mood to be funny.The supporting performances are quite good. Dabney Coleman (as he often does) steals every scene he's in as an egotistical manic self-help author. He and Chase have some good go-arounds throughout the film. The two lead females do a fine job, as does Brian Doyle-Murray. Nell Carter provides some good laughs herself as she tries to use voodoo to subdue Chase. Her character is Haitian, and she believes he is some sort of demon.Overall, the film is somewhat funny. It is hurt by questionable writing, poor effects, and an all too abrupt conclusion. This is certainly a few rungs below Fletch or Caddyshack on the comedic ladder! 5 of 10 stars.The Hound.

This is the first time I saw a movie that required viewing instructions. If you have a DVD player, skip the first five episodes and you'll find this movie funnier. Utterly zany, but actually funnier. (For those still in VCR stone age, fast forward the first twenty-five minutes to reproduce previous step.) Later, if you want to flesh out what you just saw, watch what you skipped and you'll get much more enjoyment of your viewing.This is as first caught my glimpse of this crazily fun movie (with a Spanish soundtrack to boot! Which is a cahoot! By the way, the guy who lent his voice for Dabney Coleman in the Spanish version was better in character than Dabney himself! Not with that silly southern drawl that seems to come and go without him noticing!) and found myself wondering what this silly thing I was watching and fully expecting what was at the next turn. Later I caught the first reels and that made the movie more solid, but were rather slow and disappointing. Personally, I cannot make better recommendation, specially for a movie that so pin-pointedly expressed my opinions of male ballet dancers. Rent it, follow instructions and enjoy!