The Man with Two Brains

source: The Man with Two Brains

Trailer—The Man with Two Brains

The Man with Two Brains

Steve Martin is an interesting individual. There are times when he is absolutely dreadful, embarrassingly bad. But when it works, it works. The Man With Two Brains is one of the latter. It is filled with jokes from start to finish, ranging from the daft (the running gag of Martin's character's name, for instance) to the situational, from slapstick to character. Not all work, but enough do so that I laughed nearly all the way through. David Warner plays Dr Necessiter absolutely straight(thank you!) and Kathleen Turner plays both her characters beautifully. And Martin is probably at his best ever.

Even among Steve Martin fans, there are those who love his "zany" work (MWTB, the Jerk), and consider his more "commercial" hits (All of Me etc) a sellout, and those who see it the exact opposite. I love this movie. I am amazed when I view it for the 73rd time and still fall down laughing. I hope saying this doesn't sound smug, but I suspect those who don't find it funny are missing a lot of the jokes. The fast pace and dry delivery of a lot of hysterical lines are the best part of the movie. I'm a Steve Martin fan, and this is easily my favorite Steve Martin movie (and possibly my favorite movie of all time - being able to always make me laugh no matter how down I am is worth a lot!)

An extremely funny movie, it deserves to be up there with Airplane! and The Naked Gun in the best 'stupid-funny' films of all time. Steve Martin excels as the surgeon who falls in love with a dis-membered brain, and Kathleen Turner is perfect for the heartless gold-digger wife role she is given. I am amazed at how many people have never heard of this film, let alone seen it. Go watch it now - I guarantee you'll be quoting it for months.

I don't know why but it seems that what is 'funny'is about the most difficult thing to agree on. For me, I can count really funny films on two hands(dirty rotten scoundrels; planes, trains and automobiles;marx bros., woody allen,big business; romy and michelle's high school reunion; liar,liar ; monty python's holy grail, and now, The Man With Two Brains .)I can't believe i missed seeing this film up to now, and i'm so glad it was on some film person's recommended list because i have just finished an hour and a half of continuous laughs. what a treat of a screenplay.steve martin is the naive simpleton brain surgeon who gets taken in by devilish scheming wicked witch kathleen turner(such a beauty).a lot of visual gags but it's the wordplay that makes it so continuously funny.(see the discussions part of this site for many of the funniest lines) Boring? No Way. a 10 for me.

THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS (1983) ***1/2 Steve Martin, Kathleen Turner, David Warner, Paul Benedict, Merv Griffin, Sissy Spacek (voice only). Martin is hilarious as brilliant neuro surgeon of the screw-top transplant, Dr. Hfuhruhurr (pronounced as it sounds!) who has brains on his mind and a "devil woman" wife (the sultry Turner loving every minute of it) as he falls in love with a brain in a jar (voice supplied by the melancholic Spacek). Part Mad Scientist spoof, part Marx Bros./3 Stooges dialogue all parts brilliantly goofy and some wickedly funny moments. Best line: "Into the mud Scum Queen!" Get that cat out of here!! Merv Griffin has a cameo in one truly stunning plot twist.