The Dream Team (1989)

Wonderfully offbeat film!

Don't listen to the negative reviews

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Billy Caufield (Michael Keaton) is a delusional writer with anger issues. Henry Sikorsky (Christopher Lloyd) avoids his family and pretends to be a doctor. Jack McDermott (Peter Boyle) is the religious former ad exec who likes to walk around naked. Albert Ianuzzi (Stephen Furst) has trouble communicating. Dr. Weitzman (Dennis Boutsikaris) is treating them at Cedarbrook Hospital. He takes them on a field trip to the Yankees game. Albert pretends to pee and makes a run for it. Weitzman goes looking for him and stumbles upon a murder. He is knocked unconscious and hospitalized while his patients are left on their own. Billy reconnects with girlfriend Riley (Lorraine Bracco). The guys discover that two corrupt cops (Philip Bosco, James Remar) are trying to kill Weitzman but nobody believes the four runaway mental patients.The four leads are a fun group of comedic actors. This is set up for a hilarious irreverent road trip. It doesn't always come together but there is some fun to be had. The writing is not that sharp but the guys are able to pull out a few laughs. After Weitzman is taken to the hospital, the guys split up for about fifteen minutes. That's not the best idea since building up their fun chemistry is half the battle. The cast's full potential is never fully realized.

Washington Post reviewer Rita Kempley called the Dream Team "a surprisingly amiable romp about a zany quartet of escaped mental patients who flew out of the cuckoo's nest." I agree. But it also interested me because it features Lorraine Bracco in an ingénue role 15 years before she became famous as Tony's psychiatrist in HBO's "The Sopranos." Her delightful voice/speech is so recognizable!!!It would seem natural to compare this to "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," but that would be like comparing an AA minor league team to the New York Yankees. Cuckoo's Nest had an outstanding script based on an outstanding novel, while "The Dream Team" is an enjoyable B-movie. Moreover, Michael Keaton is good but he's no Jack Nicholson.Christopher Lloyd (playing the nut who thinks he is a psychiatrist) is excellent. I also appreciated the performances of Peter Boyle (he thinks he is Jesus Christ but preaches nakedness), and Stephen Furst (he is a semi-catatonic who speaks only in baseball announcer clichés.)

It's good to know that some movies are just big excuses to be goofy. "The Dream Team" is one such example. We get introduced to four mental patients: Billy Caulfield (Michael Keaton) is actually close to normal, Henry Sikorsky (Christopher Lloyd) believes himself to be a doctor, Jack McDermott (Peter Boyle) believes that he's talking to Jesus, and Albert Ianuzzi (Stephen Furst (yes, Flounder from "Animal House"!)) barely does anything. When their psychiatrist takes them to New York, he gets attacked by the mafia and the four patients are left to fend for themselves. From there, it's basically two hours of everyone being as loony as possible. Probably the best scene is the box scene; I nearly died laughing when that scene came up.Anyway, this just goes to show what one can do for comedy. It's not to be missed. Also starring Dennis Boutsikaris and Lorraine Bracco.

This is comedy at its best, and also has that 80's feel,a good story, specific to comedies until the 90's when they started to rarely have an interesting one.Four mental patients suddenly find themselves alone on the run in the Big Apple and "better get sane real goddamn fast" , as they are being accused of attacking their psychiatrist -what a great premise for a comedy.Michael Keaton was born for this part, the "mental patient with a history of violence".Peter Boyle is also great as an ad executive who believes Jesus is speaking to him, Lloyd and Furst are also great.Combined with the great dialog, delivers one of the best comedies made in the 80's.Memorable quote:"Ah, it's great to be young and insane!"