'Trigger Happy' - or 'Mad Dog Time' as it is better known - this gangster spoof circles around a vicious crime boss recently released from a mental asylum and his underlings who wish to take his place. From such a plot summary alone, the film certainly sounds quite promising. Donning a bathrobe and walking with outstretched arms like a messiah, Richard Drefyuss also has a memorable first scene as the mentally unstable mobster, however, the rest of the film is far less impressive. The most notable aspect here is the star-studded ensemble cast. In addition to Dreyfuss, there are pivotal roles for Gabriel Byrne, Jeff Goldblum, Diane Lane, Ellen Barkin and Henry Silva, while the likes of Burt Reynolds, Billy Idol, Gregory Hines, Richard Pryor and Rob Reiner also appear. The film trips up though by trying to assign sizeable roles to each of its big name stars. The result is a film with too many main characters for one to get to know in any real depth, which in turn renders the film hard to follow on occasion. It is not a consistently funny movie either; amusing moments abound, mostly from the strange ways various characters are killed, however, there are far too many jokes stemming from the fact that three of the main characters have rhyming first names. A stylistic decision to have fades to blue, red, etc. (instead of black) is a little jarring too. Infamous as the film that Roger Ebert selected for the worst movie of its year, 'Trigger Happy' is not as worthless at all that, but it is also easy to appreciate why the film was a disappointment to fans of its stars back in its day.
Review of Mad Dog Time
