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(More customer reviews)If you're not a fan of lowbrow comedy-- if frequent profanity fries your ears and if ethnic, drug, racial, crossdressing or gay humor isn't your thing, then read no further.
Remarkably, Robert Downey Sr. not only directed but he WROTE the script for AMERICA (aka "Moonbeam"). Where to begin...
It's the story of a failing indy cable TV station, Channel 92 and its wacky crew, CEO and other employees. When current owner Mr. Management (Kerman) is not dictating vulgarity-laced memos and letters, he nearly hemorrhages while watching his gosh-awful news show. The anchorman (Thomashefsky) bellows, the weather guy (Pollard) gives spacey reports like: "Up here (points to Canada)... it's cold. Down here (points to Mexico).... it's warm." The new lady sports anchor (Ashton) knows NOTHING about sports and her pauses while reading copy totally change its meaning. The only beat reporter (Norman) covers the lamest stories.
When janitor Floyd Praeger (Arnold) wins $10 million in the State Lottery, he does two things: buys Channel 92 and marries his boyfriend. Before he does though, Mr. Managment sends Jolly to the roof to fix a transmission cable. Jolly gets electrocuted and the station's signal bounces off the moon, blanketing the entire planet. This marks 92's turnaround in ratings. Norman, who wears a plaid skirt to prove to his ex-wife that he's not gay (?) has his news show interrupted by cabbie/stand-up comic Gypsy Beam (Belzer). He crashes a taxi into Channel 92's news studio and does a routine which includes impressions and ethnic jokes.
Most of the humor here falls flat. There's little chemistry between actors. The story's DUMB and insults the intelligence. Is there any wonder then that A.) "America" wasn't released until four years after it was completed, and B.) it is NOT now and probably NEVER WILL be available on DVD. For more bizarre comedy, check out THE BIG BUS (1976) (VHS) (DVD). It has a remarkable cast and is considered the forerunner to such zany films as AIRPLANE! (1980) (VHS) (DVD) and THE NAKED GUN (1988) (VHS) (DVD).Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 viewer poll rating found at a film resource website.
(4.6) America (1986) - Zack Norman/Tammy Grimes/Michael J. Pollard/Richard Belzer/Monroe Arnold/Liz Torres/Pablo Ferro/David Kerman/Howard Thomashefsky/Robert Downey Jr.
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