Word: slapsticker
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...directors as Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, Clint Eastwood, Paul Bartel and Peter Hyams (Mr. E.T. will direct two of his own the first season), each of the Stories promises a distinctive style. Hyams' episode boasts sepulchral lighting and tension as taut as piano * wire; Bartel's is a slapstick black comedy; Spielberg's two shows are wistful parables about death as creative transcendence. Each offers a unique frisson, to be relived on Monday morning at the playground or around the water cooler...
...same is true for funnyman John Candy. As the perverted older brother in Splash, he added life and silly comic wit to what was otherwise a fun, but not necessarily funny story. In Vacation, his brief appearance provided a welcome relief to Chevy Chase's not so funny slapstick...
...rest of this film is poor slapstick. Acting uncoordinated and uneducated for two hours may make you smile once or twice, but it just isn't funny. Chase's most successful film in recent months, rtetch teatured him as a clever journalist who played off of other people's stupidity rather than his own. Audiences want heroes these day, not dupes. That's why Eddie Murphy just bought his fifth Rolls. If Chase is to retain a respectable piece of the humor market, he should drop the meaningless, foolish and disjointed antics concentrating on outwitting others rather than prostrating himself...
...Hurtle down the FLUME to the cavern containing a genuine imitation 17th century PIRATE SHIP! Get out ALIVE! (And have a nice day.) As in any fun house, the pleasures here are as subtle as a rattrap sprung on a boy's foot. Dense, oppressively frenetic, heavy on the slapstick and low on the charm meter, the film asks to be experienced, not cherished. This efficient thrill machine contains gag homages to its makers' earlier work (E.T., Screenwriter Chris Columbus' Gremlins, Director Richard Donner's Superman) and even self-critical lines of dialogue ("I feel like I'm baby- sitting...
...spontaneity. William Hauptman's book also sustains Twain's deeper exploration of how a society could view slavery as normal and regard assisting a runaway as a crime against property. The story starts slowly and wobbles in tone, but achieves the original's deft mix of social comment, slapstick farce, heartrending melodrama and boy's own tale of danger. Big River, which started in regional theaters and seems likely to become a standard there, deserves its place on Broadway. It is gentle, thoughtful, slightly old-fashioned and much cleaner than the back of Huckleberry's perennially unwashed neck...