Silver Streak
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DVD Cover Information Actor: Gene Wilder, Jill Clayburgh, Ned Beatty, Patrick McGoohan, Richard Pryor Brand: Fox DVD: Region Code 1 Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0 Format: Color, Digital Sound, DVD, NTSC Picture Format: 1.85:1 Running Time: 114 minutes DVD Release Date: 2004-12-14 Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Studio: 20th Century Fox |
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Movie Reviews of Silver Streak
Movie Review: Better in the '70s but still worth a look
Summary: 3 Stars
Silver Streak is sort of a 1976 update of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad world with a little North by Northwest thrown in. Snappy score by Henry Mancini.
I was 29 when I saw the movie in its initial release. I thought it was a scream, one of the best movies I'd ever seen. The way Gene Wilder yells "sonofa [slang term for female dog]!" every time he gets thrown off the train. What could be funnier?
That was an era when the [slang term for illicit narcotic] flowed freely. I hardly knew anyone who didn't indulge. We usually had a few tokes to enhance the moviegoing experience. It must have worked, because in today's environment (no one I know indulges), Silver Streak is mostly unremarkable. I recently watched the movie again, hoping to revisit a durable '70s classic like Five Easy Pieces.
The movie starts with an awkward and unsettling attempt at "romance" between Gene Wilder and Jill Clayburgh. When the dead guy appeared in the window, I was thankful that it broke up the smooching scene. I couldn't have taken much more. I'm curious how Jill Clayburgh became a star. I'm not saying she's horrible, but in this movie she's bland and listless.
As with "Mad," a phalanx of character actors in cartoonish roles are trotted out to bolster the gauzy plot. In Silver Streak, Clifton James puts in another turn as the dumb-as-a-rock backwoods sheriff. Ned Beatty is an undercover agent posing as a loutish vitamin salesman. Lucille Benson is the wacky bi-plane-flying old gal who is in the movie only so the Wilder character ("Steve") can catch up with the train after being tossed off by Richard ("Jaws") Kiel, the guy with "the goldmine in his gums." And what character actor-driven movie would be complete without Ray Walston? Walston looms large here as Mr. Edgar Whiney, the villian's sidekick.
Some scenes fall flat. When Wilder tries to explain to the redneck sheriff that he is not a multiple murderer, he only digs a predictable deeper hole for himself. As the scene played out, my mind started to wander. There is a NO LOITERING sign in the sheriff's office. Who would want to loiter in a sheriff's office?
Far into the picture, Richard Pryor shows up and immediately breathes life into the goings on. There is a memorable exchange between Pryor ("Grover Muldoon") and the Patrick McGoohan villian, Devereau, when Grover is called a [racial epithet] for the second time in the movie.
Devereau: You ignorant [racial epithet]!
Pryor: Who you callin' [racial epithet], huh? You don't know me well enough to call me no [racial epithet]! I'll slap the taste out your mouth! You don't even know my name! I'll whoop your [slang term for hind end]!
Pryor delivers these lines with searing conviction. It really makes you snap awake.
Silver Streak gets two of its three stars for the scene in which Pryor tries to teach Wilder how to act black. Wilder's black impression could be one of the funniest scenes ever filmed and makes the movie worth a look. It's probably the sole reason Silver Streak makes top comedy lists.
Note: This review has been revised to remove offensive language per review guidelines.