Instant Favorite.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Let's just begin with, if you're in the mood for a funny prison movie, you'll find both The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile ten times more humorous than Stir Crazy.Yeah, I know this is (barely) the 1980s, but hell, this was more like a 70s sitcom pilot that needed to be cancelled before aired. Aside from obviously-thrown-in-for-an-R-Rating stripper nudity and some mild swear words, this truly felt like some dated half-hour comedy on CBS of decades passed. This is sad since it started off so promising. No laughs, but it did manage to get a couple of big grins from me in Act One where our "heroes" get fired in New York City and decide to move to Hollywood to make it rich and score as many women as sand on the beaches. But, about a half-hour into the over-long two hour runtime, our boys wrongfully and apparently, willingly end up in prison. With the odds so stacked against them from not living out their remaining days behind bars, the movie really loses all steam, cleverness and fun.Of course, there's a silly turning point for them: a public rodeo that might serve as means of an escape. Throw in many characters to ensure the crazy in the title and you have your "film." Oh, and lest I forget: the biggest and most unlawful copout conclusion to any prison movie.I was shocked to learn all this from my first viewing last night. I thought this was supposed to be a cult classic. A laugh-out-loud riot signifying the Pryor/Wilder pair into cinematic history. Nope. In fact, I'm all-but upset I wasted two hours on an extremely humorless "comedy." I didn't laugh once…NOT ONCE. Like I said above, I smiled a few times indicating that scene or "joke" was somewhat clever, but it didn't get a chuckle out of me. If not for the chemistry between the boys and that the film was somewhat competently made, I'd rate this much lower. But, even with filmmakers knowing how to shoot scenes and two leads that work perfectly together, this movie is sorely NOT recommended. My first viewing of this comedic-duo was in See No Evil, Hear No Evil in theatres in 1989. I LOVED that movie. Just skip this 36-year-old dated movie and go with the 27-year-old timeless comedy: See No Evil, Hear No Evil.***Final thoughts: Whelp, that wraps up my Wilder Weekend. I figured I'd go with a trilogy of Gene Wilder films I had not seen in respect of his passing less than a week ago: The Producers, Young Frankenstein and Stir Crazy. The first and last I wouldn't recommend, but Y.F. I would totally support. That was one of the best comedies I've seen in a long time.

Skip Donahue (Gene Wilder) is a playwright. Harry Monroe (Richard Pryor) is an actor. They are unsuccessful best friends in NYC. After both getting fired, Skip is tired of the city and convinces Harry to move out to the west coast. Their van breaks down and they take jobs as mascots at a bank. Bank robbers steal their mascot outfits to rob the bank. Skip and Harry are arrested for the robbery and sent to prison for 125 years.Gene Wilder going crazy in prison is hilarious. That's the best scene in the movie. However it flattens out and loses some of the comedic tone. It's too bad. It becomes a bit too serious about an escape attempt and a rodeo contest. I still love the Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor pairing. They are one of the best comedic duo of all times. They do some really fun back and forth in this one. However there isn't a single laugh in the last section of the movie.

I first watched this movie as a kid in cinemas I had to go and watch it like 10 more times.my stomach was in cramps every time and tears were coming out of my eyes of laughter.Right from the beginning jokes and one liners.At the lunch when Henry finds out his drug was used as oregano.The Californian earthquake line as epic as any. But of course the most funny scenes are in prison,especially when they pretend the are bad.Unforgettable! I cannot analyse this movie or any other the way critics do.As long as I like it and entertains me or makes me thinking then it works for me. The only flaw of this one probably the last 10 minutes of it,when you don't get any more laughter only the outcome of their attempt to escape from prison.But even this works as the storyline requires an ending. The team of Wilder and Pryor at their very best.U wanna have a good time u must watch this!!!

I recognised the title and knew the two leading stars, I didn't realise though that actor Sidney Poitier has done directing, and this was one of the films he made, so I was definitely going to see it. Basically in New York, writer Skip Donahue (Gene Wilder) and actor Harry Monroe (Richard Pryor) are fired from their jobs, and try to get any odd job to get by, one such job being dressed as woodpeckers and singing and dancing to promote a bank. Two crooks take their costumes while they are on a break, and they rob the bank, and not recognising them under the costumes they have been framed for the robbery, and are immediately arrested. They are sentenced to one hundred and twenty five years in prison, but their lawyer Len Garber (Joel Brooks) says he can get them an appeal case, they just have to wait until they can go to court and prove their innocence. In the meantime, Skip and Harry are having a hard time getting used to being in jail, but they do make friends with real bank robber Jesus Ramirez (Miguel Ángel Suárez) and gay killer Rory Schultebrand (Georg Stanford Brown). They are informed of the status of fellow prisoners, contraband supplier Jack Graham (Jonathan Banks) and murderer Blade (Charles Weldon), and they make an unlikely ally with the most feared prisoner, Grossberger (Erland Van Lidth), a mute convicted mass murderer who does have a soft side. Three months pass Skip and Harry are brought to the office of Warden Walter Beatty (Barry Corbin) to have a "test", and Skip is the first to get on a mechanical bull to see how long he will last until chucked off, and the surprise of them all he stays on even at maximum speed, and he has passed the "test". The prisoners tell him and Harry that the test was for a rodeo competition that the Warden wants to enter on behalf of their prison and the neighbouring prison run by Warden Henry Sampson (Nicolas Coaster), so they say that Skip should refuse to participate until they can strike a deal. So Skip refuses, and it is up to Deputy Ward Wilson (Poltergeist's Craig T. Nelson) to break him, i.e. put him and Harry in labour, deprived of sleep, Skip in solitary confinement and them encountering an originally fearful Grossberger, but none of this works. After Harry has a spell in prison hospital, Skip eventually agrees to do the rodeo, but only if he gets to choose his team, and a bigger jail cell, of course the prisoners and he have planned a break out. So it comes to the rodeo, Skip is read to take on the one or two bull riding contests against the prisoner he is against, while Harry and the gang work their way through the stadium and make their escapes in disguise and hidden places. In the end, lawyer Len Garber, alongside his cousin Meredith (Poltergeist's JoBeth Williams), who Skip instantly took a liking to first seeing her in prison, they reveal to him and harry that they have been found innocent after all and are free, so they speed off in the car they nicked, with Maaredith joining. It is a little odd that they were just allowed to drive away having escaped from their prison status, i.e. the Warden may have kept them without finding out their innocence, but it doesn't matter. Wilder and Pryor both get their time on screen and together as the out of place prison buddies, there might not have been so many laugh out loud jokes for me, but it was a humorous comedy. Good!