Crazy People (1990)

To anyone who works in creative communications or cultural criticism, it's a potential motherlode of a story premise: What if an ad executive went off the deep end and stopped telling people the lies they want to hear and started telling them the truths they really need to hear (ostensibly to make informed and beneficial consumer decisions)? Wouldn't it be a refreshing change -- and make for a better world? I'm not the first person to wish the premise had been tackled by taller talent than the slosh-happy drunk from Arthur and Arthur 2 and the toes-in-two-worlds girl from Splash. Someone in a seminar I attended 15 years ago actually screened Crazy People for our monthly cultural discussion -- but as the credits rolled, we all admitted there was nothing "there" to discuss and felt sheepish for the person who made the selection. What can you expect of a movie where the most memorable slogan is "Buy Volvos. They're boxy but they're good"? (Only slightly better if less original is the horror movie slogan "It won't just scare you, it'll f--- you up for life.") Crazy People is amiable pap that acts like a juvenile (or a juvenile's idea of a crazy person) when you hoped for a poignant and even hilarious exchange between grownups. 2 stars.