{"id":6787,"date":"2024-10-25T11:15:51","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T15:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=6787"},"modified":"2024-10-25T11:15:51","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T15:15:51","slug":"madhouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/25\/madhouse\/","title":{"rendered":"Madhouse"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Madhouse <\/strong>(1990)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Orion\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 90 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, sexual conversation, comic violence, drug references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Tom Ropelewski\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Tom Ropelewski\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: David Newman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Dennis C. Lewiston\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 16, 1990 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: John Larroquette, Kirstie Alley, Alison La Placa, John Diehl, Jessica Lundy, Bradley Gregg, Dennis Miller, Robert Ginty, Wayne Tippit, Paul Eidling, Aeryk Egan, Deborah Otto.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $21M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: **<\/p>\n

\u00a0You pretty much know what to expect from the comedy Madhouse<\/strong> when you see its two leads are TV sitcom stars. John Larroquette (Night Court) and Kirstie Alley (Cheers) play a suburban couple up to their necks in unwanted houseguests. It\u2019s a 90s update of The Man Who Came to Dinner except the guests are more obnoxious than eccentric. It\u2019s a premise loaded with unlimited comic possibilities but writer-director Tom Ropelewski (Look Who\u2019s Talking Now) makes no effort to raise it above the level of a mediocre made-for-TV movie. It\u2019s little more than a series of gags about harried homeowners, annoying houseguests and a cat that won\u2019t stay dead. At best, it\u2019s mildly amusing, VERY mildly.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Mark and Jessie Bannister lead an idyllic life in California. He\u2019s a successful stockbroker; she\u2019s a popular TV reporter. They have a nice home in a quiet suburb. Their only real problem is remembering to jiggle the handle after using the toilet. Then Mark receives a letter from a cousin he hasn\u2019t spoken to in years. He\u2019s coming to L.A. with his wife and wants to stay with them. The problem is the letter arrived late. Cousin Fred (Diehl, Stripes) and wife Bernice (Lundy, Caddyshack II) are due to arrive TODAY. They turn out to be a real handful. She\u2019s pregnant and he\u2019s recently unemployed meaning they have no money. It\u2019s only supposed to be a five-day visit, but we all know that won\u2019t be case. Madhouse<\/strong>, if nothing else, is completely predictable from start to finish.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Sure enough, a fall causes Bernice to be confined to a bed for the duration of her pregnancy. She\u2019s an even worse patient than a guest. Then Jessie\u2019s gold-digging sister Claudia (La Placa, TV\u2019s Duet) shows up on their doorstep after her Middle Eastern husband kicks her out and cuts her off financially. She\u2019s followed by her son Jonathan (Gregg, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3), a seemingly perfect young man who\u2019s anything but. Then Mark and Jessie accidentally burn down their next door neighbor Dale\u2019s (Ginty, Exterminator 1 & 2) house with their BBQ grill. In order to avoid a big lawsuit, they\u2019re forced to open their already crowded house to him and his two terrible children, teen daughter Katy (Otto) who can\u2019t stay off the phone for longer than it takes to find an outlet and son CK (Egan, Flatliners) who\u2019s obsessed with killing things and blowing stuff up. As the guests take over the house and their lives, the Bannisters struggle to keep a grip on their sanity. It\u2019s a losing battle.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I saw Madhouse<\/strong> at the movies on a double bill with the sleazy exploitation flick Streets (that was no prize either). Because I got two lame movies for the price of one, the hit on my wallet didn\u2019t sting as much. Still, it felt like a wasted effort leaving the house to see a movie I could have easily waited to rent on video. That being said, there are a few scattered chuckles throughout Madhouse<\/strong>. But for every half-assed chuckle, there are ten gags that fall flat. Some, like Bernice\u2019s cat projectile vomiting in the car, are in very poor taste. That\u2019s the cat that won\u2019t stay dead. No matter how many times they bury him, he always comes back. He uses up at least four of his nine lives. What is this, Pet Sematary? The closest I came to actual laughter is the scene where the kitty ODs on cocaine. Another chortle-worthy moment is the obscenity CK mows on his hosts\u2019 lawn, one that can be seen by a police helicopter later in the movie. Of course, the best part of Madhouse<\/strong> is when the Bannisters have finally had enough and set out to regain control of their house and lives. Boy, do they ever lose it!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Truthfully, Madhouse<\/strong> isn\u2019t a bad movie, just a mediocre one. Slight and inconsequential, it\u2019s the kind of movie you wait to see on cable TV and you know they\u2019ll run it about 1000 times. I\u2019ll give it credit for its high energy level. The jokes might be tired, but the movie isn\u2019t lazy. Ropelewski keeps it brief and the cast moving non-stop. They go at their performances with complete comic conviction. Most of them play characters that, on a good day, are merely annoying. Lundy has the best time playing a woman best described as Peg Bundy\u2019s evil sister. The two leads are okay with Alley (who was still hot in \u201990) faring slightly better for playing to her strengths. She has a way with meltdowns.<\/p>\n

\u00a0But for all the effort put into it by the cast, the screenplay really lets them down. Ropelewski gives his characters almost nothing interesting to do. Oh, they keep moving, but they\u2019re moving in place. I think with a bit more edge and creativity, he could have had something with Madhouse<\/strong>. Instead, it\u2019s just another insignificant 90s comedy best seen on TV.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Madhouse (1990)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Orion\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 90 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, sexual conversation, comic violence, drug references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Tom Ropelewski\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Tom Ropelewski\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: David Newman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Dennis C. Lewiston\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 16, 1990 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: John Larroquette, Kirstie Alley, Alison La Placa, John Diehl, Jessica Lundy, Bradley Gregg, Dennis Miller, Robert Ginty, Wayne Tippit, Paul […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Madhouse-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6787"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7214,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6787\/revisions\/7214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}