National Lampoon's Movie Madness (1982)

Directors:

Bob Giraldi
Henry Jaglom

Writers:

Tod Carroll (written by) and
Shary Flenniken (written by) ...

Release Date:

2 November 1983 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

A parody of film genres composed of three shorts, spoofing personal growth films, glossy soap operas, and police stories.

Plot Keywords:

Female Nudity | Reference To Take My Wife Please Joke | National Lampoon Series

Cast

Peter Riegert	...	Jason Cooper ("Growing Yourself")
Diane Lane	...	Liza ("Growing Yourself")
Candy Clark	...	Susan Cooper ("Growing Yourself")
Teresa Ganzel	...	Diana ("Growing Yourself")
Schnootie Neff	...	Jennifer Cooper - 'Growing Yourself'
Andy Shakman	...	Josh Cooper - 'Growing Yourself'
Tamar Howard	...	Judy Cooper - 'Growing Yourself'
Ian Fried	...	Jeffrey Cooper - 'Growing Yourself'
Barry Michlin	...	Fireman - 'Growing Yourself'
Trinidad Silva	...	Carlos - 'Growing Yourself'
John Lawlor	...	Mr. Haggis - 'Growing Yourself'
Susan Krebs	...	Lady Who Beats Her Plants - 'Growing Yourself'
Nedra Volz	...	Old Lady - 'Growing Yourself'
Stanley Lawrence	...	Sanitation Man - 'Growing Yourself' (as Stan Lawrence)
Ann Dusenberry	...	Dominique Corsaire ("Success Wanters")

Also Known As:

National Lampoon Goes to the Movies (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #26432) | Iceland:12 | Canada:14A | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Matty Simmons

Trivia:

A fourth segment was made for the film by Henry Jaglom, a disaster movie parody called "The Bomb" starring Kenneth Mars, Allen Garfield and Marcia Strassman. Images from the segment appeared in press materials, but it was deleted from the finished film.

Quotes:

Stan Nagurski: Never stop anywhere you might have to get out the car

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Star Wars (1977)

Soundtrack:

Feelings

Deservedly an unknown movie

National Lampoon was once a funny magazine. Whether you liked the stoner hippie days of the late sixties or the smug and sassy coke-head days of the seventies (when the comedy was fortified with plenty of naked babes) depends very much on your date of birth, but everyone agrees that by the early eighties, middle age had killed off whichever remaining sparks of anarchic humour that the drugs hadn't, and offerings like this film and the increasingly terrible spin-off records shot further holes in the hull. Outside of a nicely illustrated title sequence, there's absolutely nothing to recommend this singularly depressing stinkbug. If you make it through the baffling opening segment, 'Growing Myself', hoping things will get better, tough luck - they don't. Whoever thought the idea of a woman being brutally raped with a stick of butter was comedy gold deserved to have his head handed back to him on a platter of dog mess. If there's ever a global shortage of guitar picks, the negatives of this rambling, incoherent ragbag of crummy ideas and dire performances may well serve some purpose.