Success makes people rotten this movie reminds us, and for singer Julie Budd, her character winning a Grammy makes her a monster, something that pleases devil's advocate Bill Cosby in one of his most disappointing roles. He's like Satan's attorney, following Elliott Gould around and giving him the keys to steal the souls of three people who are basically good when Gould gets another chance to live his life after being returned from the underworld. An uncaring landlord (more apathetic than evil), he's killed after being hit by a bus load of Hari krishnas, and his descendants into hell is quite disturbing to watch as he fall slowly as others fall faster around him. When he gets down to the land of nothing but red, he's sentenced to level four, apparently the worst level, yet agrees to return to Earth to do further damage. Among those he plot against are Budd, young Adam Rich and his mother Susan Anspach and race car driver Sonny Shroyer.
Yes the visuals of hell that are presented are visually stunning, but the psychological emotions that go along with it are a disturbing element of the film. Outside of a few moments when he returns to earth, very little of those segments are interesting, and outside of some of Budd's story, the supporting characters aren't very interesting. Obviously being a Disney film, a lot of what is done here was for shock value and to move them into the 1980's with something different, and it's a mixed bag. Rich is as adorable as he was on "Eight is Enough", but the most disturbing part of the film is the idea of a little kid being used so he can be damned in order for Gould to be saved from his initial fate. There's little in the way of humor so as a supernatural comedy, it's a big disappointment. Perhaps it works better as a drama about atonement, and Gould does get to at least partially atone. This is not a film that I can comfortably recommend, and perhaps a more charismatic leading man would have been a better choice.
