Bachelor Party

Aspect Ratio/Twin Continental. Director Neal Israel; Producer Ron Moler, Bob Israel; Screenplay Neal Israel, Pat Proft; Camera Hal Trussell; Editor Tom Walls; Music Robert Folk; Art Director Kevin Colin, Martin Price

Tom Hanks
Tawny Kitaen
Adrian Zmed
George Grizzard
Barbara Stuart
Robert Prescott

Bachelor Party is too contrived to capture the craziness it strains for and ultimately becomes offensive rather than funny.

Filled with cartoon caricatures instead of people, picture is built around a prenuptial celebration that seems to bring the worst out in people. Against the objections of her parents, Rick (Tom Hanks) is marrying Debbie (Tawny Kitaen) and Rick's friends decide to throw a bash for their departing pal.

While the film offers predictable shenanigans, such as a donkey snorting cocaine and an attempted suicide with an electric razor, main reason to see the pic is for Hanks' performance. Recalling a younger Bill Murray, he's all over the place, practically spilling off the screen with an over-abundance of energy.

Unfortunately the writers [working from a story by producer Bob Israel] surround Hanks with a bunch of run-of-the mill friends who act as if they have never seen a woman before. Sexual attitudes throughout have scarcely gotten out of grade school. Kitaen is the one woman who gets slightly better treatment, but even her role amounts to little more than looking good (which she does) and smiling.

(Color) Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1984. Running time: 106 MIN.

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