Stir Crazy (1980)

	Directed by: Sidney Poitier	COUNTRY USA GENRE Comedy NORWEGIAN TITLE To tufser bak gitter RUNNING TIME 111 minutes
	Produced by: Hannah Weinstein
	Written by: Bruce Jay Friedman

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Skipper "Skip" Donahue	Gene Wilder	½
Harold "Harry" Monroe	Richard Pryor	½
Rory Schultebrand	Georg Stanford Brown
Meredith	JoBeth Williams
Jesus Ramirez	Miguel Ángel Suárez	-
Deputy Warden Ward Wilson	Craig T. Nelson
Warden Walter Beatty	Barry Corbin
Jack Graham	Jonathan Banks	-

Review

If you enjoyed Silver Streak's hip combo of offbeat relations and urban commotion, you may be tempted to think that the unlikely pairing of Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor was the key ingredient to make it tick. And while that may actually be true, it certainly wasn't the only ingredient. In their second outing together, titled Stir Crazy, the director Sidney Poitier has precious few ideas on offer to lift the mediocre material, other than putting his trust in whatever chemistry the two stars are able to cook up. And despite a fairly promising opening, in which said duo embark on a guileless journey from their native NYC to California via rural Arizona, the vibe and level of sophistication is more that of 1994's Dumb and Dumber than Arthur Hiller's 1976 success. Add a hefty prison sentence, an overtly gay coprisoner (Georg Stanford Brown), a customary ruthless warden, and – ultimately – a big ol' rodeo, and you may believe that you're all set for a laugh riot. It's just that neither the gags nor the writing are good enough to make this into anything but a run-of-the-mill comedy of this era.