YOU'RE DRIVING ME CRAZY is a weird, low budget anthology from Canada, set inside a mental asylum. Doctors narrate the tales of three patients with very different conditions. The first is about a guy who believes his parents aren't human. The second is about an ordinary guy turned murderous. The third and final story concerns a man who listens to a haunted record and goes berserk. It's hard to know what the point of all this is, because none of the stories featured are very funny, or bleak, or indeed horrific; they just sort of happen while the viewer sits back and becomes increasingly bored by it all.
3 Reviews
Reviewed on April Fool's Day... and I feel like an idiot.
Mr_Sophistication_Uk1 April 2024
Warning: Spoilers
A trio of doctors working'together at a mental hospital get together to discuss their latest cases, and this template basically takes the form of three allegedly horror tales that show why each of their patients ends up in the booby hatch. Let's review each one in turn, shall we?
1. A teenager (who looks about 25) doesn't want to introduce his girlfriend (who's one of the worst actors I've ever seen) to his parents, who happen to be bald telepathic aliens. The premise is a LOT more interesting than it sounds, and after around twenty minutes of nothing she accidentally discovers them on a home visit, isn't remotely bothered and HE ends up cracking under the pressure. No humour, shocks and with an abrupt ending that makes literally zero sense. Terrible. NEXT. 2/10
2. A washed-up TV producer ends up killing a guy who he owes a lot of money to, and ends up trying to hide the body whilst a comedy laugh track echoes all around him. Funnily enough, the terrible sitcom pilot which ultimately bankrupts him in this segment is STILL better than anything we get on screen here. Can we have a full length version of that please, and get rid of the rest of this nonsense? 2/10
3. Ah, now THIS is more like it... well, not really. It's still near-total rubbish, but at least this tale of a fashion photographer who goes bonkers after an anonymous source sends him a vinyl record has a half-decent finale where he goes around insulting everyone: think Jim Carrey in Liar, Liar. Plus, in showing his addiction to listening to the brainwashing record which ultimately costs him his sanity and career, it makes an interesting (albeit clumsy) parallel to uncontrolled drug addiction within the industry. Apart from those (very) minor redeeming features, total pants. 3/10
Now, you'd think by rounding those scores together I'd rate this as about 2/10 overall... well, the narration device of the 'doctors' telling the stories has an okay twist at the end that I didn't see coming, so let's stretch to a 3/10, shall we?
'Still not good at all, but has brief moments of lucidity'. Write that on it's chart.
1. A teenager (who looks about 25) doesn't want to introduce his girlfriend (who's one of the worst actors I've ever seen) to his parents, who happen to be bald telepathic aliens. The premise is a LOT more interesting than it sounds, and after around twenty minutes of nothing she accidentally discovers them on a home visit, isn't remotely bothered and HE ends up cracking under the pressure. No humour, shocks and with an abrupt ending that makes literally zero sense. Terrible. NEXT. 2/10
2. A washed-up TV producer ends up killing a guy who he owes a lot of money to, and ends up trying to hide the body whilst a comedy laugh track echoes all around him. Funnily enough, the terrible sitcom pilot which ultimately bankrupts him in this segment is STILL better than anything we get on screen here. Can we have a full length version of that please, and get rid of the rest of this nonsense? 2/10
3. Ah, now THIS is more like it... well, not really. It's still near-total rubbish, but at least this tale of a fashion photographer who goes bonkers after an anonymous source sends him a vinyl record has a half-decent finale where he goes around insulting everyone: think Jim Carrey in Liar, Liar. Plus, in showing his addiction to listening to the brainwashing record which ultimately costs him his sanity and career, it makes an interesting (albeit clumsy) parallel to uncontrolled drug addiction within the industry. Apart from those (very) minor redeeming features, total pants. 3/10
Now, you'd think by rounding those scores together I'd rate this as about 2/10 overall... well, the narration device of the 'doctors' telling the stories has an okay twist at the end that I didn't see coming, so let's stretch to a 3/10, shall we?
'Still not good at all, but has brief moments of lucidity'. Write that on it's chart.
Campy film with a certain charme
maximilian-5485921 January 2018
Warning: Spoilers
As other reviewers already pointed out, this movie is obviously a quickly produced anthology with three stories framed by a mental institution setting. By the way, there's nothing scary about this movie, no gore, etc. I would rather say it's a Psycho-Thriller of some "direct-to-dvd"-sort.
The acting is okay, sometimes pretty good. Other times it's downright awful... I'm looking at you, protagonist of story #2! I hope he stopped acting after this, because that was a pain to watch.
But while the acting is sometimes shoddy, the stories as such are pretty good (well, except for #3, but that's okay). I liked the idea of story #2 most, with a frustrated TV producer getting trapped in an ironic laugh track, that drives him crazy. If only the actor wasn't so bad...
Story #3 was the worst in my opinion, because nothing really happens. The protagonist listens to a record, gets hypnotized and becomes a jerk before being in a state of trance for days. Wow. Terrific. As someone else here already said, especially this story just "flows by" and you start losing interest at some point. And by the way, the last scene of this story, with him, his girlfriend and agent all crying and shouting and rolling on the floor... how did the director manage to not burst in laughter seeing that? This scene must be one of the worst scenes I've ever seen.
So, all in all:
Story 1: Actors pretty good, story good. Story 2: Actors horrible, story excellent. Story 3: Actors acceptable, story horrible.
Frame story: Actors acceptable, story okay, nice plot twist in the end (even though you could see it coming miles away)
If you have some time to spare, this movie is a nice watch on the side. It won't win any awards, but has some good moments and ideas. Take it as some campy flick you should watch with friends over - even if you just want to make fun of story 2's main protagonist... really, I hope he stopped acting!
The acting is okay, sometimes pretty good. Other times it's downright awful... I'm looking at you, protagonist of story #2! I hope he stopped acting after this, because that was a pain to watch.
But while the acting is sometimes shoddy, the stories as such are pretty good (well, except for #3, but that's okay). I liked the idea of story #2 most, with a frustrated TV producer getting trapped in an ironic laugh track, that drives him crazy. If only the actor wasn't so bad...
Story #3 was the worst in my opinion, because nothing really happens. The protagonist listens to a record, gets hypnotized and becomes a jerk before being in a state of trance for days. Wow. Terrific. As someone else here already said, especially this story just "flows by" and you start losing interest at some point. And by the way, the last scene of this story, with him, his girlfriend and agent all crying and shouting and rolling on the floor... how did the director manage to not burst in laughter seeing that? This scene must be one of the worst scenes I've ever seen.
So, all in all:
Story 1: Actors pretty good, story good. Story 2: Actors horrible, story excellent. Story 3: Actors acceptable, story horrible.
Frame story: Actors acceptable, story okay, nice plot twist in the end (even though you could see it coming miles away)
If you have some time to spare, this movie is a nice watch on the side. It won't win any awards, but has some good moments and ideas. Take it as some campy flick you should watch with friends over - even if you just want to make fun of story 2's main protagonist... really, I hope he stopped acting!
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