Wired

Sometimes, you take the good with the bad. In my last post, I talked about the great, semi autobiographical Richard Pryor film Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling. While that film was a terrific look at a self destructive, famous comic, I felt I should talk about another film that covers similar ground and hysterically fails on so many levels. It's 1989's Wired.

Wired, which is loosely based on Bob Woodward's famous novel of the same name, follows the life and career of John Belushi, Michael Chiklis. The film opens after Belushi's death with the comic waking up in a body bag in the morgue. He freaks out, hopping around like he did in Animal House, and running out the door. He is picked up by a cab driven by a man named Angel, Ray Sharkey. Angel drives John through his life, showing him the highs, like his life with wife Judith, Lucinda Jenney, his friendship with Dan Aykroyd, Gary Groomes, and his rise to fame. He also shows him the lows, like his connection with Cathy Smith, Patti D'Arbanville, who gave him the durgs that lead him to his overdose.

While all of this is happening, journalist Bob Woodward, J.T. Walsh, is working on a novel about Belushi. He goes around interviewing everybody involved in John's life, leading up to a deathbed interview with Belushi himself. All the while Angel plays a Blues Brothers pinball game deciding John's fate between heaven and hell.

This has to be one of the biggest WTF movies ever. I don't even know where to begin. The filmmakers couldn't obtain the rights to any of the SNL sketches, so they had to do variations of them. Even friends and family of Belushi's threatened to sue if their names were used. In the movie, it states that Belushi was a huge fan of Woodwards and even played him in a sketch. So not the case. Neither was the conversation he had with Woodward on his deathbed. In all fairness, the filmmakers were probably going with a "what if" scenario, but this movie is such a mess that it's hard to tell. Woodward even worked as a consultant on this, which I think destroys all the credibility he built for himself after Watergate. And the addition of the fictitious Angel adds nothing to the movie.

The movie sat on the shelf for about a year because no studio wanted to distribute it. Aykroyd himself hit the airwaves and press begging people to avoid it. He was so against this picture that a few years later he had J.T. Walsh fired from the his movie Loose Cannons due to his involvement in Wired.

I will say that Chiklis is actually pretty good as Belushi. In his first starring role, he is the one bright spot in this train wreck. The script was written by Earl Mac Rauch, who wrote one of my favorites The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai. I almost wonder if he meant for this to be a spoof of the Woodward novel.

This is definately one of those so bad that it's entertaining. And for that I kind of recommend it. It's by no means a great movie, but if you are in the mood for a "what were they thinking" style of entertainment than this might be for you.

It's not available on dvd or blu ray.