I rented “Stark Raving Mad” last weekend, largely because it’s chock full o’ Emersonians, and it’s fun to see their names offscreen and faces onscreen.
But it’s also a fun movie, worth the rental and certainly worth the release into theaters denied it by Newmarket and its other distributors. Several nations got to see it on the big screen; the United States got it straight to video and DVD. An insider -- meaning Marichelle Daywalt, wife of a co-writer/director -- gave me the whole story long ago, but the details were too esoteric and arbitrary to sink in. It may as well boil down to “Well, ‘Gigli’ got U.S. showings and ‘Stark Raving Mad’ didn’t.”
The movie is standard heist fare with a few twists, one being that Seann William Scott plays his role straight. As much as the movie plays with the genre conventions, though, including some great moments with Emersonian Paul Hungerford as a helpful Chinese-food delivery boy, enough comes standard that surprises are few and gentle. Probably the most sadly predictable moment accompanies the teenage sex kitten and the FBI agent played by Dave Foley. But why ruin the lack of surprise?
IMDB.com has no information on what the writer-directors are doing next, which is unfortunate considering “Stark Raving Mad” was made more than a year ago. They’ve certainly proved they can handle a big movie with big stars and deliver a fast-paced, stylish and skillful 103 minutes of entertainment.
Go Lions!
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