{"id":9420,"date":"2024-11-30T12:11:57","date_gmt":"2024-11-30T17:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=9420"},"modified":"2024-11-30T12:11:57","modified_gmt":"2024-11-30T17:11:57","slug":"nobodys-perfekt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/30\/nobodys-perfekt\/","title":{"rendered":"Nobody\u2019s Perfekt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Nobody\u2019s Perfekt <\/strong>(1981)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 96 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, some violence, sexual humor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Peter Bonerz\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Tony Kenrick\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: David McHugh\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: James Pergola\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 14, 1981 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Gabe Kaplan, Alex Karras, Robert Klein, Susan Clark, Paul Stewart, Alex Rocco, Arthur Rosenberg, James Cromwell, Bobby Ramsen, John Di Santi, Will Knickerbocker, Peter Bonerz, Harold Bergman.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0It\u2019s time for another trip down Amnesia Lane. In my never-ending quest to relive simpler times, I decided to watch the comedy Nobody\u2019s Perfekt<\/strong> for the first time in 20+ years. What, you\u2019ve never heard of it? [Insert brief dramatic pause] That\u2019s okay, you\u2019re not alone in this. I\u2019m sure there\u2019s a long, LONG list of people that don\u2019t know of it either. As your friendly neighborhood Movie Guy, I\u2019m part of an elite group that remembers pretty much every movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Although it opened in August \u201981, Nobody\u2019s Perfekt <\/strong>did NOT open in Philly. I would have noticed if it did. At 13, my life revolved around the cinema. I always knew what was playing and where. Also, it starred Gabe Kaplan from one of my favorite childhood sitcoms Welcome Back, Kotter. Trust me on this, it didn\u2019t play here.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Flash forward to spring \u201983 when my dad finally relented and had cable TV installed. I wasted no time in catching up on titles that I missed during their theatrical run for one reason or another. One of them was Nobody\u2019s Perfekt<\/strong>. It was one of many movies I watched several times in part or in whole. I thought it was funny then and still do now. It\u2019s certainly funnier than a lot of what studios attempt to pass off as comedy these days.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Peter Bonerz (The Bob Newhart Show), Nobody\u2019s Perfekt <\/strong>centers on three friends with mental problems. Dibley (Kaplan) suffers from frequent memory loss. How bad is it? He often forgets how to drive… while he\u2019s driving. He has the same problem during sex. Swaboda (Karras, Blazing Saddles) is perhaps too close to his mother. NO, I don\u2019t mean that! It\u2019s a PG movie, get serious. It\u2019s more of a Harvey situation. He\u2019s the only one that can see her. Although she\u2019s been dead for a while, he imagines she\u2019s still right by his side. Walter (comedian Klein) has three personalities that surface at different times. When he\u2019s not Walter, he\u2019s either \u201cRocky\u201d or \u201cKitty\u201d. Rocky is a tough-talking gangster not unlike James Cagney; Kitty is a chain-smoking Bette Davis-type with a gorgeous wardrobe. Needless to say, they\u2019re an interesting threesome.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The plot is one of those \u201cyou can\u2019t fight City Hall…. or can you?\u201d deals. While driving home from therapy, Dibley\u2019s car is totaled after he hits a humongous pothole. When the bureaucrats at City Hall tell him there\u2019s nothing that can be done about it, Dibley and friends take matters into their own hands with an elaborate plan to make the mayor pay the $650 (plus expenses) to which they\u2019re entitled. I\u2019ll only say it involves \u201cborrowing\u201d a howitzer from the military. They\u2019re helped by Dibley\u2019s extremely tolerant girlfriend Carol (Clark, Porky\u2019s). While executing their plan, they find the time to foil three bumbling crooks trying to rob an armored car.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Okay, so Kaplan, Karras and Klein aren\u2019t exactly the Marx Brothers (although Kaplan did play Groucho in a TV movie) and Bonerz isn\u2019t Chaplin. So what? I never said Nobody\u2019s Perfekt<\/strong> was a comedy classic. I merely said it\u2019s one I happen to enjoy. Judging by the reviews I found on-line, it would appear I\u2019m in the minority on this. I wouldn\u2019t be the first time and it certainly won\u2019t be the last. Admittedly, I give a lot of leeway to movies from my misspent youth. It\u2019s a combination of nostalgia and appreciation of their purity in form. Nobody\u2019s Perfekt<\/strong> is far from perfekt…. I mean, perfect. Early on, it looks like the new therapist (Cromwell, Babe 1 & 2) at the guys\u2019 clinic is being set up as a nemesis, but it gets dropped immediately. Why spend the time introducing the guy if he\u2019s not going to be used later?<\/p>\n

\u00a0The producers didn\u2019t spend a crapload of money on Nobody\u2019s Perfekt<\/strong> yet still managed to cast name actors who look like they\u2019re having a blast trying to outmug each other without resorting to crude humor and dialogue laced with f-bombs. Klein is especially hilarious with his changing personalities. There\u2019s nice chemistry among K3 (as I like to call them), but Clark almost steals the show as the hapless girlfriend\/lone voice of reason forced to take part in the boys\u2019 shenanigans be it as a nun on roller skates or a stripper on a motorboat. Alex Rocco (The Godfather) adds to the fun as the criminal mastermind known simply as \u201cThe Boss\u201d leading the robbery.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Now for the $64,000 question, is Nobody\u2019s Perfekt<\/strong> funny? I think it is. Bonerz, who would later direct Police Academy 6, goes for the funny bone via slapstick and other silly shtick. Although it sounds like it\u2019s in bad taste making fun of mentally ill people, that is definitely NOT the case here. At no time is Nobody\u2019s Perfekt<\/strong> ever mean-spirited or offensive. The characters\u2019 issues are more like eccentricities than anything else. If you think about it, the idea of a trio of \u201ccrazies\u201d taking on the system is actually inspired. You have to be crazy to think you can beat the system.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The point is I like Nobody\u2019s Perfekt<\/strong> very much. It\u2019s silly, funny and goofy. It encompasses everything I remember about PG comedies from the early 80s right down to David McHugh\u2019s comical score. It\u2019s a good flick. It always puts a smile on my face.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nobody\u2019s Perfekt (1981)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 96 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, some violence, sexual humor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Peter Bonerz\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Tony Kenrick\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: David McHugh\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: James Pergola\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 14, 1981 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Gabe Kaplan, Alex Karras, Robert Klein, Susan Clark, Paul Stewart, Alex Rocco, Arthur Rosenberg, James Cromwell, Bobby Ramsen, John Di Santi, Will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-guilty-pleasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Nobodys-Perfekt-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\/9420","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=9420"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9637,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9420\/revisions\/9637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}