Word: pryor
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...series has its share of crafty scene stealers (Warren Gates, Lloyd Bridges, Soon-Teck Oh) and shameless scenery chewers, including Timothy Carey, Nicholas Pryor and Jane Seymour as Adam's soulless wife Cathy. There is one wonderful actress: Karen Allen as Cal's girl Abra...
...ridicule of American pop culture, and ingenious manipulation of every tiny comic detail of insipid domestic life. Unfortunately, Shrinking Woman--in its last half hour--reneges on its tacit deal with the audience, degenerating from incisive social satire to the silly comedy-adventure shenanigans of a Gene Wilder--Richard Pryor movie. Director Joel Schumacher and scriptwriter Jane Wagner let the film slowly slide into the quicksand of banality, and they rely on the immeasurable talents of their star to keep Shrinking Woman's head above the slime...
This film's premise is simple: contrive, however flimsily, to get Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor into standard comic peril-a barroom fight, a mistaken-identity bank heist, a kangaroo court, a venal prison system, a convicts' rodeo, a speeding car-then watch them wriggle out with their resourceful wit and eloquent body language. Wilder moves with the psychotic serenity of someone who believes everything will turn out O.K.; Pryor trembles with the neurotic certainty that everything has already gone wrong. Wilder's is the fantasy of the liberal do-gooder; Pryor's is the reality...
...Perhaps Pryor does too much watching: Wilder gets to do all the arabesques while his partner waits for him to fall to earth. Viewers too must stand around as Stir Crazy makes wrong turns, slogs across Saharas of unnecessary plotting, and unravels at its denouement. But that may simply make the triumph of Wilder and Pryor all the more savory. Recipe for a popular movie: take a series of stock situations, two gifted farceurs, and stir. Crazy...
Dangerfield's is a name that pops up a lot in Klein's conversation. The pair worked together during the fledgling days of the Improvisation club in New York. "Rodney helped me a lot," Klein says, affectionately. Another familiar name from the Improv days is Richard Pryor; despite their considerably different backgrounds, Klein says the two shared a similar comedic sensibility and perspective on life...