Back by Midnight

Rodney Dangerfield isn't the main character of this movie. He's barely in it. Most of the screen time is dominated by unfunny jokes. One running gag is that a character is named Jerk Off. There are also lots of erection jokes, where the punch line is someone has an erection. This movie is as funny as Kirstie Ally's British accent is convincing.

This movie started off like a weak action movie: five minutes of back story and then bam! Unfunny jokes. But, aside from the terrible writing, the movie is also poorly directed and the acting is terrible. Also, this movie does the old bad comedy cliché of having lots of well-known B-movie actors. Harland Williams, Gilbert Godfried, Randy Quaid, and Phil La Mar. These are just some of the people that spend more time on the screen than Rodney, even though he's billed as the main character. Don't be surprised to find this movie at a drug store selling for five bucks. Even that is too much.

Put a DVD of this flick in a time capsule, and it will definitely illustrate for future generations a perfect example of one which warrants the minimal rating on a 1-to-10-star scale.

Bill Cosby and Ray Romano have been at the top - in ratings and with tens of millions in earnings annually - with their television series'. Yet each has had no success in big-screen offerings. This has also been true for other TV personalities - perhaps because many of the stories which are presented for two hours or so seem more suited to either a 10-minute skit, or at most, the 22 or 23 minutes of drama during a half-hour program.

This film, however, doesn't have one single element which would warrant two or three minutes of time on MAD TV, SNL, or anywhere else on a screen or stage.

Its origination date is listed as 2002, but release date - to DVD only - is shown as 2004. It also was filmed not long before Rodney Dangerfield's death, so its one redeeming value is that it probably provided at lease a few hundred thousand more dollars for his heirs.

I'd never heard of it, but found it when turning-on my set, and frankly became fascinated by it. Some movies are so truly awful that they rate a sort of top rating in reverse - so bad that you can move the dial backwards to a 9 or 10. "Plan 9 from Outer Space" is the best example - and the Bruce Jenner/Village People opus, "Can't Stop the Music," is another.

Unfortunately this flick falls short even there. Even if Rodney's earlier work (as well as some of his fellow cast-members') fell short of "Citizen Kane" or "Casablanca," there were many moments of humor and a story providing at least a modicum of interest.

Unfortunately, this presentation doesn't seem to possess even a minute or two's worth of such material.

Rodney plays a warden of a prison whose funding is very low so that the owner of the prison can pocket the addtional cash that is saved. To get the prison "fixed" he decides to steal the things he needs from the prison owner (played by Randy Quaid).

I see other people have given this movie low ratings...HELLO, this is a Rodney Dangerfield movie! If you don't like Rodney, you won't like this movie. If you like Rodeny, you will like this movie. It is not Academy Award material, but it has enough of Rodney's stand up comedy feel to be entertaining.

Paul Rodriguez is a very funny addition to the cast. A lot of cameos by recognizable stars (including Ron Jeremy...hilarious).

Tsk! Tsk! Tsk! I'm embarrassed by a few of the unpleasant, negative reviews for Back By Midnight. Review this film as a Lampoon, sure, why not? But review it with a sharp Harpoon? Now, that's unnecessary overkill. Dangerfield deserves better given his legacy and contributions to the industry. It was Dangerfield who gave career starts to struggling comedians like Jim Carrey and Tim Allen. He took them under his wing and shepherded them until they could find their own "comedic voices."

Jacob Rodney Cohen, born November 22, 1921, was a multifaceted, stand-up comedian, actor, producer, screenwriter, musician and author. His self-deprecating one-line jokes such as, "I get no respect," have risen to the status of iconic humor. Who else could have the King of late night talk shows, Johnny Carson, laughing to tears when Dangerfield was his guest? Dangerfield was so well loved that UCLA's Division of Neurosurgery named a suite of operating rooms after him and gave him the "Rodney Respect Award." Dangerfield's status was elevated to some pretty rarified company. Other recipients of the "Rodney Respect Award" include Tim Allen, Jim Carrey, Louie Anderson, Bob Saget, Chelsea Handler, Chuck Lorre, Kelsey Grammer, Brad Garrett, Jon Lovitz and Jamie Masada.

Sure, Back By Midnight isn't Caddyshack or Easy Money. And yes, the plot is nominal. But that doesn't stop Dangerfield from zinging out classic one liners. Indeed, any film with Dangerfield in it immediately became a stage for his outrageous improvisations, and no film escaped his witty humor. For this alone, Back By Midnight deserves "a lot more respect."

Okey , no Brain comedy but the monkey makes you laugh out loud few times....and Rodney is good again ...still a kinda good movie to watch when you don't wanna think much