SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Python Hyena Modern Problems (1981): Dir: Ken Shapiro / Cast: Chevy Chase, Patti D'Arbanville, Mary Kay Place, Dabney Coleman, Nell Carter: Innovative high strung comedy that takes average daily issues and jacks them up on steroids. Chevy Chase plays airline controller Maxwell Fiedler whose girlfriend moves out because of his jealousy issues. Central plot regards the telekinesis power he develops after some sort of toxic spill from a truck. The film fails to have fun with this and instead is reduced in a dark tone that doesn't work. Chase has fun moments where he arrives at a restaurant and cause his ex-girlfriend's date to have a massive nose bleed, or the ballet that he totally wrecks. Patti D'Arbanville plays the girlfriend whom he is trying to win back. Mary Kay Place has a nifty supporting role as Chase's ex-wife who drags him to a nightclub where he unfortunately encounters D'Arbanville with a cocky date. Dabney Coleman plays an egotistic novelist who insults Chase and makes a play for D'Arbanville to the point of disrobing casually in her presence. They all get together at a beach house where the telekinesis hits a high sending Coleman through the ceiling. Nell Carter has an idiotic role as a maid doing voodoo on Chase but to no avail. While it is not as funny as it could be and certainly misses a grand opportunity, the theme addresses stress and all other modern problems that lead to bizarre incidents. Score: 7 ½ / 10

MetalGeek "Modern Problems" was one of those movies that got a lot of play on HBO when I was a kid in the early 80s, and since I was a big Chevy Chase fan at the time, I watched it over and over again. Nearly 30 years later, the film had all but faded from my memory except for a few random bits so when it turned up on Fox Movie Channel over the weekend I decided to give it a shot.90 minutes later I'm sitting here thinking to myself "Wow, this was pretty bad wasn't it?", and I'm not sure if the film hadn't aged well, or if it simply wasn't a very good film to begin with. All I can say is that I remember enjoying it a heck of a lot more as an easier-to-impress 12 year old.Chase plays Max, a stressed out Air Traffic Controller who's got serious relationship problems. He's recently broken up with his live-in girlfriend, and his ex-wife (Mary Kay Place), whom he apparently has kept a friendly relationship with, is now "schtupping" (that's an exact quote) an old friend of his from high school (Brian Doyle-Murray, aka Bill's brother). As if that weren't enough, a chance meeting with a leaky Nuclear Waste truck on the highway one night splatters him with radioactive goo, and he wakes up the next morning with telekinetic powers.You'd think that this would be a license to do a totally go-for-broke slapstick comedy but oddly enough very little is made of Max's newfound abilities till the film is almost over. Chase isn't his usual wild-and-wacky self either, preferring to mope around mooning over his girlfriend (Patti D'Arbanville). Eventually the dysfunctional foursome (Chase, D'arbanville, Doyle-Murray, and Place) go off to Murray's beach house to spend the weekend, joined by one of Murray's clients, an insufferable self-help author played by Dabney Coleman. Coleman is the funniest thing in the film, as his constant jabs and insults finally poke Chase's character into a full on telekinetic meltdown that can only be stopped by a voodoo ritual (?) performed by Murray's Haitian housekeeper (Nell Carter)."Modern Problems" tries to be quirky and wacky but spends most of the film falling flat on its face. It's got a decent cast and an interesting premise, but its greatest sin is that it casts a gifted comic like Chase and then tells him to be morose and unfunny for much of the run time (till he finally explodes towards the end).There are a few good bits (Chase using his power to give a guy a massive nosebleed in the middle of a swanky restaurant is a highlight, as is the entire "voodoo" scene) but otherwise "Modern Problems" isn't very "modern" anymore. Easily skippable even for hardcore Chevy Chase fans.

lost-in-limbo Being a Chevy Chase fan I might cut this one a little more slack, but even so there's no denying there's more cold side-effects than are hot ones in this early, but quite minor leading Chase vehicle (which two years later the very successful and iconic 'Vacation' would follow).Coming from the feature is a cruel, rude and mean-spirited vibe (which was done better in Martin Scorsese's 1985 dark comedy 'After Hours') that sees Chase in quite a dreary cloud of sappiness and finding himself in one degrading mishap after another and to cap it off his girlfriend has just left him because of his clingy nature. One night while driving his car behind a truck, the context in the tanker (nuclear waste) ends up on him giving the abilities of telekinesis and a nice green glow. He then begins use this power in ridding any sort of obstacles that get in the way of reuniting with his ex-girlfriend (which is beautifully played by Patti D'Arbanville).With a better script (which includes plenty of sexual innuendo), it could have been so much more, but while the cast (featuring Dabney Coleman, Nell Carter, Mary Kay Place and Brian Doyle-Murray) do the best. The one-joke script lets them down. The humour is mainly off the mark, as it never rises above the superfluous material and characters are not particularly engaging (especially Chase's loathsome character). It's a story were the humour contributes, rather than just being there for the sake of it, however it's a awkward mess of staged ideas and plastered visual gags. The special effects are modest, pacing is flat, style seems bland and the film looks quite murky. There's a real lack of passion, but director Ken Shapiro is saved by a few amusing (brisk, but enjoyable) comedic inclusions. But in the end these peculiar touches just weren't enough.Far from a laugh-riot with a little too much dead space, but 'Modern Problems' remains barely a passable throwaway.

movieman_kev Chevy Chase stars as Max Fiedler, a down on his luck air traffic controller who develops the power of telekinesis via nuclear waste. He uses said power to take vengeance on anyone that had wronged him. A mildly intriguing premise is undermined by loose, unfunny writing, horrid acting, and dated material. I couldn't even count the laughs I had on one hand. It's a chore to sit through with the only actor coming out relatively unscathed being Brian Doyle-Murray who is pretty damn good in ANYthing he does no matter how horrid the material (case in point) My Grade: D