Stir Crazy

1980

Action / Comedy / Crime

31
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 75% · 16 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 75% · 10K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.7/10 10 32338 32.3K

mistaken identity prison escape fish out of water wrongful imprisonment buddy

Plot summary

New Yorkers Skip Donahue and Harry Monroe have no jobs and no prospects, so they decide to flee the city and find work elsewhere, landing jobs wearing woodpecker costumes to promote the opening of a bank. When their feathery costumes are stolen and used in a bank robbery, they no longer have to worry about employment — they're sent to prison.

Director

Sidney Poitier Photo
Sidney Poitier

Top cast

Gwen Van Dam Photo
Gwen Van Dam as Mrs. Beatty
Craig T. Nelson Photo
Craig T. Nelson as Deputy Ward Wilson
Mickey Jones Photo
Mickey Jones as Guard #8
Tony Burton Photo
Tony Burton as Guy who Punches Big Mean
720p.BluRay 720p.WEB 1080p.BluRay 1080p.WEB
1020.06 MB
1280*694
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 51 min
Seeds 3
903.08 MB
1280*714
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 51 min
Seeds 7
1.85 GB
1920*1040
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 51 min
Seeds 15
1.73 GB
1920*1072
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 51 min
Seeds 23

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by hitchcockthelegend 8 / 10

A hundred and twenty five years... Oh God, Oh God... Ill be a hundred and sixty one when I get out.

Stir Crazy is directed by Sidney Poitier and written by Bruce Jay Friedman. It stars Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, Miguel Angel Suarez, Georg Stanford Brown, JoBeth Williams and Erland Van Lidth. Plot has Pryor and Wilder as two care free New York buddies who after getting fired from their jobs decide to make their way to Hollywood in search of better fortunes. However, after taking up a gig as promotional woodpeckers for a bank's advertisement drive, they find themselves framed for robbing the bank and sentenced to 125 years each in prison…..The second pairing of Wilder and Pryor proves to be the best of their output on film. With their chemistry skin tight, film is full of laughs until a big slow down for the last third when the inevitable attempt at a prison break out occurs. Poitier's direction isn't up to anything other than correctly letting his two lead stars strut their stuff. But along with writer Friedman, he has to be accountable for letting the comedy dry up as the film chooses tension over humour which undoubtedly doesn't sit at all right. Still, the first hour is a joy ride, particularly once the guys land in prison, here the comedy reaches its peak and the contrast of the two characters played by Wilder and Pryor really mines the set-up for all is worth. Wilder is oblivious to the hazards of prison life, Pryor is street savvy and fully aware of the perils around every brick walled corner.Naturally there's a hope on the horizon, which here comes in the form of Rodeo skills, this too brings the laughs, as does the number of prison characters that join in the plot. Notably Van Lidth's monstrous, and monstrously funny, Grossberger. Yes it's a roll call of prison stereotypes, from the top where the morally dubious Warden (Barry Corbin) sits, down to the cons where gays, bullies and gate happy loonies reside. With that, some of it now seems twee and badly out of date. So much so it's a film that is unlikely to garner a new and appreciative audience. However, those who were enamoured and found themselves laughing heartily with it back in the early 80s, should find that like myself, it holds up real well. Kind of like an old friend you call on when you need a pick me up. Hardly a superior comedy classic, then, but a film that rewards its fans on each subsequent revisit. 7/10
Reviewed by mark.waltz 6 / 10

Appreciating the sanity of your own backyard, even in Manhattan...

It takes a visit to middle America for two jaded New Yorkers (Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor) to figure out. They are framed for a bank robbery, end up in prison, and plot to escape while performing in the warden's rodeo, a supposed fund raiser where the profits end up going in his pocket rather than to make life for those behind bars a bit better. Like the much later rodeo, this is a comedy about showing country folk that just because someone comes from an urban jungle, doesn't mean they can't handle a wild ride on a bucking bull. In this case, it's Gene Wilder, who amazes everybody around him with his ability to remain afloat no matter what messy situation he gets into, while Pryor is playing an updated version of Stepin Fetchit minus the stereotypes.This is an enjoyably funny popcorn film with the two stars supported by the lovely Jobeth Williams as the attorney determined to prove their innocence and George Stanford Brown as a flamboyant gay prisoner who actually shows heart underneath his pansy exterior. An interracial buddy type "Road" movie, this was the second of three pairings for Pryor and Wilder, each of whose brand of comedy flatters the others. This is one time where you want to see the men behind bars outwit the men guarding them.
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