Houdini's Magic Movie Ticket

This is a funny film, if you enjoy goofy humor that sometimes goes for a gross factor. Norm is hilarious. He gets mugged by a couple of 10-year-olds. DeVito is great as a disgusting morgue worker. His hands are all covered with blood and human waste, and then he absentmindedly touches his face, smearing the stuff on his chin! That was the sickest part of the movie, but I thought it was funny for how nasty and absurd it was. The rest of the jokes are pretty neat. Chappelle is funny too.

I first saw this film before Sarah Silverman got her own show. It's interesting how Chappelle and Silverman both had shows on Comedy Central which involved similar gross out humor. I'd say "Screwed" has some elements of that, but in a modestly tasteful manner? Maybe... Most of it wasn't gross at all, though.

Norm plays a butler who thinks he's getting fired by his ungrateful boss, so he and Chappelle steal her beloved dog and hold it ransom. Things get crazy, and then the media thinks Norm the butler was kidnapped. Norm and Chappelle play along and try to get the boss, an old woman, a pie baron, to pay $5,000,000. But things just keep getting crazier.

It's neat how Norm and Chappelle come up with one simple idea, kidnap the dog, and the media explodes the story in a highly distorted manner, causing all kinds of characters to get involved. The end is far from the beginning, plot-wise.

The cast is great: Norm MacDonald, Dave Chappelle, Elaine Stritch, Danny DeVito, Daniel Benzali, Sherman Hemsley, and Sarah Silverman. Part of the appeal for me was hoping the two guys would succeed in the end and get rich. Sure they're breaking the law, but it's just a movie. And their enthusiasm is contagious!

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