Word: belushi
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E.D.T.) Laverne herself (Penny Marshall, that is) directed the first episode of this male Laverne & Shirley ripoff. It stars Jim Belushi (John's brother) and Michael Keaton as janitors who go to work for their uncle in a Chicago office building. Both actors appeared in quick flops last season (Who's Watching the Kids?, The Mary Tyler Moore Hour), but Working Stiffs could be their fastest cancellation yet. There are only so many jokes to be made about moving furniture, and none of them is funny...
...with no clear purpose other than to provide something for the town to brag about besides the Mississippi River. Today, it seems that every place is willing to suffer almost anything to get its picture on television or into films. Chicago, merely to smuggle itself into a new John Belushi movie, has just authorized the film company to tie up vital traffic along Lake Michigan for hours and send a car crashing through the enormous windows of the Daley Center Building...
...happier developments on NBC's Saturday Night Live this past season was the unleashing of Bill Murray. A latecomer to the Not Ready for Prime Time Players, Murray had broken into the show by serving as unofficial second banana to the stars, John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd and Gilda Radner. When he finally seized centerstage, he stopped being a straight man and became a live -or maybe frazzled-wire. Murray is a master of comic insincerity. He speaks in italics and tries to raise the put-on into an art form. His routine resembles Steve Martin's, with...
...worst aspect of Meatballs is that it plays against his strengths. His combination of brashness and tenderness would work perfectly in a romantic comedy, something along the lines of Foul Play. Instead, Murray has tried to emulate Belushi: Meatballs is an Animal House ripoff, transplanted from the campus to a summer camp. The film demands that its star be wild and gross-characteristics for which Murray has no great affinity...
...doubtful whether Belushi himself could have saved Meatballs. Directed by Animal House Co-Producer Ivan Reitman, the movie is a series of shopworn jokes, executed with no discernible flair. The writers have done little more than round up the usual array of stereotyped characters: a horny fat boy, a bespectacled nerd, a conceited stud, busty girls and so on. Once these kids and the head counselors (Murray for the boys and Kate Lynch for the girls) are introduced, the film meanders aimlessly. Half the time, Meatballs forgets to exploit the gags that it so laboriously sets up. No sooner...