Awakenings

Warning: Contains spoilers.

This, is without a doubt one of the funniest comedies I have ever seen.  It takes two of the world’s worst actors, puts them together and makes something at least half watchable.

We have Robin Williams playing neurologist Oliver Sucks and Robert De Niro playing the catatonic Leonard Blow.  Blow has been a vegetable since he was a kid until Sucks manages to get himself some illegal drugs which he administers to Blow, taking him out of the vegetated state he is in.

You’ll get lots of enjoyment seeing De Niro doing his best acting he’s ever done… at least until he comes out of the vegetated state anyway, then it’s all downhill from there as his character attempts to adjust to the fact he is a middle-aged man and no longer a brat. Fortunately for us though, he starts to return back to his vegetated state again which gives De Niro yet another chance to show some acting skills. Once that starts to happen, there’s laughs galore. There is hilarity in truck loads as he starts to realise that he’s losing his coordination and his wits and returning ultimately to that catatonic state again. It had me almost dying of laughter, I tell you and I’m sure it will be the same for you.

When Blow comes out of his catatonic state, we start to get flashbacks to when he was a child before he became a vegetable. Then we saw that Blow is actually a criminal, YES a criminal! As a child, he carved his name into a park bench making him a vandal! Yes, a vandal!  And as an adult, after coming out of his vegetated state he actually looks with pride down at the graffiti he carved, remembering having done that as a child. PRIDE! Pride for the act of vandalism that still remains on that bench after all those years! DISPICABLE!  No doubt his illness was a punishment from God for such a dreadful act!

Despite the fact, Leonard Blow was clearly a delinquent as a child and the acting of both De Niro and Williams was jolly appalling a usual, at least this movie provided me with a lot of laughs. I’m sure, like me, you will roll around on the floor laughing as this poor sap, Blow gradually starts to deteriorate in health. You’ll also find it hilarious as the other patients who were also awakened by the wonder drug, get to see what’s going to happen to them too! HA HA HA HA HA HA!  

Rating = 2 stars 

Reviewer = Aunty Lil