The Dream Team
Tags: satire, murder

Plot synopsis:
Dr. Jeff Weitzman (Dennis Boutsikaris) is a psychologist working in a sanitarium in New Jersey. His primary patients are Billy, Henry, Jack and Albert. Billy (Keaton) is the most normal of the group and their unofficial leader, though he is a pathological liar with delusions of grandeur and violent tendencies. Henry (Lloyd) is obsessive/compulsive and he has deluded himself into thinking he is one of the doctors at the hospital, often walking around with a clipboard, lab coat and stethoscope. Jack (Boyle) is a former advertising executive who believes he is Jesus Christ. Finally, Albert (Furst) is a man-child who only says things he hears during baseball games, particularly from former ball player and commentator Phil Rizzuto.
Convinced that his patients need some fresh air and some time away from the sanitarium, Dr. Weitzman persuades the administration to allow him to take them to a baseball game at Yankee Stadium. Unfortunately, he accidentally encounters two crooked cops just as they murder another officer. The doctor then gets knocked unconscious trying to get away and is put in the hospital. The group is now stranded in New York City, forced to cope with a place which is often more bizarre than their sanitarium. One of the both comic and serious plot twists is that the inmates have to listen to Albert's baseball jargon in order to get clues as to what happened to Dr. Weitzman, because he is the only one who witnessed it (he is just afraid to say it because of his catatonic condition). Two other running gags throughout the film are: Henry's threats to report psychologically disturbing behavior of the other patients (never realizing his own problems until near the end); and Billy's violent, unpredictable but ultimately harmless behavior in several different scenarios. A lesser gag is Jack, in his persona as Jesus Christ, causing a rousing sermon at a black church, only for the parishioners to come to their senses and expel him (without any clothes), and the other three patients get Jack new (albeit garish) clothes from an army surplus store.
After Dr. Weitzman's beating and coma, it is up to the patients to save their doctor from being murdered by the crooked cops. They end up having to both use and overcome their delusions and disorders in order to save the only man who ever tried to help them, with both the police and the killers looking for them. Three revisit scenes from their pasts: Billy (former girlfriend Riley, played by Lorraine Bracco), Henry (his wife & daughter), and Jack (his former employer). As each patient does so individually, they each behave in a sane, clear manner, Henry genuinely missing his family, Billy wishing to pursue a stronger relationship, and Jack appealing to his boss that he and his friends are in trouble (but the boss reports Jack to the police).
Throughout the film there are minor scenes showing the interaction between the two crooked police officers (Philip Bosco and James Remar) and what their plans are in framing the patients for the murder of Officer Alvarez earlier in the film.

Review: In the hands of lesser a director and less talented actors, THE DREAM TEAM's plot about four mental patients loose in Manhattan would be silly and childish.
The four patients are Michael Keaton, as a loose tempered but charming liar, Peter Boyle as an ex-executive who now believes he is Jesus Christ, Christopher Lloyd as a compulsive neat-nick and Stephen Furst as a catatonic TV commercial/Baseball fan.
If you like Michael Keaton, Peter Boyle, or Christopher Lloyd, you will like this film.
But even if you are not fans of the aforementioned talents, I think you will still enjoy this movie.Keaton is at his sarcastic best with his role as a guy with anger problems.
I don't know of any other contemporary actor who could deliver these lines with the same effect.Similarly, Peter Boyle surpasses his performance in "Young Frankenstein" with his comedic portrayal of a man who believes he is Jesus Christ.
It would be difficult indeed to watch this talented comedic actor play a straight role.Stephen Furst is excellent as a man who can only speak in baseball metaphors.
It's basically a screwball version of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," using that movie's famous baseball game scene as its starting point:  An easy-going doctor takes his patients to a Yankees game, and runs into trouble on the way there.
Everyone shines here--Michael Keaton (his reference to the World Trade Center was funny then, bittersweet now); Christopher Lloyd; Boyle; even Lorraine Bracco, in a small role.
This was a humorous film about a small group of mental patients who are let loose in New York City for a day.
They are "Jack" (Peter Boyle), "Henry" (Christopher Lloyd), "Billy" (Michael Keaton).and "Albert" (Stephen Furst).
As a baseball fan, I appreciated Furst's performance best.Peter Boyle ("Jack McDermott") plays one of several insane people who are "lost in New York" and are out on the streets having a good time.
They also have crooked cops in here - another shock.The film still had a lot of funny moments, thanks to the actors and the interesting premise of mental patients fending for themselves in the big city.
We get introduced to four mental patients: Billy Caulfield (Michael Keaton) is actually close to normal, Henry Sikorsky (Christopher Lloyd) believes himself to be a doctor, Jack McDermott (Peter Boyle) believes that he's talking to Jesus, and Albert Ianuzzi (Stephen Furst (yes, Flounder from "Animal House"!)) barely does anything.
Funny comedy about a group of mental patients who take a trip to the big city under the supervision of their doctor, and wind up being framed for a murder they didn't commit.
Far-fetched and far from great, but made enjoyable by a few funny fish-out-of-water/mistaken-identity sequences and the spirited performances by Michael Keaton, Christopher Lloyd and Peter Boyle: all three of whom, it may be noted, seem to have lost their careers in recent time...but were at the top of their games during the era and are certainly at home here in a film that is never quite as good as it could be but is nevertheless a whole lot better than I ever expected it would be.I like the beginning sequence with Ray Charles' "Hit the Road Jack" over the credits.
This is comedy at its best, and also has that 80's feel,a good story, specific to comedies until the 90's when they started to rarely have an interesting one.Four mental patients suddenly find themselves alone on the run in the Big Apple and "better get sane real goddamn fast" , as they are being accused of attacking their psychiatrist -what a great premise for a comedy.Michael Keaton was born for this part, the "mental patient with a history of violence".Peter Boyle is also great as an ad executive who believes Jesus is speaking to him, Lloyd and Furst are also great.Combined with the great dialog, delivers one of the best comedies made in the 80's.Memorable quote:"Ah, it's great to be young and insane!".
One of my favorites of Christopher Lloyd's films, though I came to love the ensemble casting of Michael Keaton, Peter Boyle and Stephen Furst.
(That's perhaps not the glowing recommendation of this film that I mean it to be....) It's like if Lloyd's other "looney bin" movie "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" had a happy ending.
Michael Keaton ("Batman") , Christopher Lloyd ("Back to the future") , Peter Boyle ("Friends of Eddie Coyle") and Stephen Furst ("Animal house") deserved better .The good thing is that I don't think anyone should feel offended by this movie despite a rather risky subject it deals with.What a waste.
Liking all four of the actors that play the characters in the nut house, I bought it.You basically have the baseball nut who can't talk, the imaginative one who can fib just about anyone, the doctor who is extremely tightly and the Son of God who walks around the institution naked.Put these four together and you get a riot of laughs.Personally, Christopher Lloyd and Michael Keaton are the funniest.Peter Boyle alone can take the show, no doubt.
It is the story of four mental patients, one who can't speack, one who is a neat freak, one who believes he is Jesus and one who can't control his temper as their doctors decides to take them on a field trip to a baseball game.
The cast are all great as the loveable loonies especially Peter Boyle as the man who thinks he is Jesus.
The guys discover that two corrupt cops (Philip Bosco, James Remar) are trying to kill Weitzman but nobody believes the four runaway mental patients.The four leads are a fun group of comedic actors.
It features Michael Keaton, Christopher Lloyd, Peter Boyle and Stephen Furst, all of which are brilliant in their rolls.
It stars Michael Keaton, Christopher Lloyd, Peter Boyle, Stephen Furst and Lorraine Bracco.
Music is by David McHugh and cinematography by Adam Holender.Billy Caulfield (Keaton)-compulsive liar and prone to violent outbursts; Henry Sikorsky (Lloyd)-tidy freak who thinks he's a doctor; Jack McDermot (Boyle)-thinks he's Christ; Albert Ianuzzi (Furst)-near catatonic personality who can only speak in sports jargon.
So it be with this here amusing picture, a film that basically sees four odd balls let loose in New York as they try to find their missing doctor and foil the couple of dirty cops who want to silence said doctor for good.
Boyle arguably steals the film by way of some excellent visual comedy, but it's most likely Keaton's caustic observations and one line zingers that will leave the lasting impression.
But it also interested me because it features Lorraine Bracco in an ingénue role 15 years before she became famous as Tony's psychiatrist in HBO's "The Sopranos." Her delightful voice/speech is so recognizable!!!It would seem natural to compare this to "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," but that would be like comparing an AA minor league team to the New York Yankees.
Moreover, Michael Keaton is good but he's no Jack Nicholson.Christopher Lloyd (playing the nut who thinks he is a psychiatrist) is excellent.
I also appreciated the performances of Peter Boyle (he thinks he is Jesus Christ but preaches nakedness), and Stephen Furst (he is a semi-catatonic who speaks only in baseball announcer clichés.).
4 mental patients and their Dr. are on their way to see the New York Yankees Baseball team play at Yankee Stadium but get sidetracked by a witnessed murder.
Michael Keaton (Batman and Batman Returns) takes on the role of the Jack Nicholson character while Christopher Lloyd (Back To The Future Trilogy) plays a patient with an obsessive compulsive disorder for having everything neat and clean.
Peter Boyle (Young Frankenstien) is a patient who suffers Messiah Complex, he thinks the key to life is to be as naked as God created Adam and Eve. And finally Stephen Furst (National Lampoon's Animal House and Midnight Madness) plays a Catatonic Patient who says nothing except when tv is on and he repeats everything said on it.
Keaton, Lloyd and Boyle running loose in New York.
Some ferocious talents - Michael Keaton, Christopher Lloyd, and Peter Boyle, supported by a talented cast - star in this comedy about four mental hospital patients who roam New York freely after their doctor is severely beaten.
One of them (Keaton) has severe anger issues, another thinks he's a doctor (Lloyd), and one thinks he's Jesus Christ (Boyle) and constantly quotes the Bible.
Boyle ends up in a revival meeting giving testimony as Jesus, Keaton looks up his old girlfriend (an almost unrecognizable Lorraine Bracco) - soon, two sets of police are looking for them - with different motives.Though I certainly enjoyed this film, I found it a little slow getting started, and felt it could have been funnier, though the very beginning is great.
Keaton plays a mental patient with a history of violence, on a field trip to see the Yankee's play with the rest of his therapy group, a neatness freak, played superbly by Christopher Lloyd, a man who things he's Jesus Christ, and a man who only appears to talk when the television does.Their doctor is attacked and hospitalized without their knowledge and what follows is their attempts to prove their innocence, with the help of Keaton's ex-girlfriend.Keaton brings the depth that he has brought to almost every role he's played, Lloyd gives a very touching performance while the film maintains the comedic moments which help carry the film along.The film draws your attention to the stress of modern city life which has driven all the patients to the edge, though at the same time showing that there is still a sane person simply hiding behind a facade of insanity, which even some of the other doctors in the movie fail to see.Initially, quite a funny movie, on repeated viewings it shows its greater depth, which should have been more explored by the writer and director..
Poor Albert played by Stephen Furst....didn't talk much but loved baseball and when he did say something he would say something like big inning and keaton says that's a definet yes.
After seeing Lloyd in Taxi, believe me you'd expect so many laughs in this movie but unfortunately you want have any.It's just a silly movie with a bunch of very good actors.
Had it been those great actors in the movie, I wouldn't have bothered watching till the end.Really it's a frustration that Michael Keaton (Multiplicity), Peter Boyle (funniest character in Everybody Loves Raymond), and The Christopher Lloyd (Taxi, Back to the future, and others), all didn't really make this movie a worthy experience..
Howard Zieff directed this amusing comedy that stars Michael Keaton as Billy Caufield, a new inmate at the New York state sanitarium where he is admitted for observation.
One day, his group psychiatrist decides it a good idea to take Billy and three other inmates(played by Christopher Lloyd, Peter Boyle, and Stephen Furst) into the city for a baseball game.
Clearly inspired by "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest"(there is a similar sequence in that film too) this film still works moderately well, with a good cast and funny scenes, even if it is predictable and unlikely..
Dream Team, The (1989) *** (out of 4) A semi-comic version of ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST has Michael Keaton, Christopher Lloyd, Peter Boyle and Stephen Furst playing "mental patients" whose doctor takes them out of the hospital and on a trip to see the Yankees play.
I had sat down with a book to soak up some of the boredom, but as the minutes passed I found myself getting more and more into the film, to the extent that within fifteen minutes the book had been discarded and I was making pre-commercial plans to grab some refreshment, which is a sign of how much I was enjoying this.Michael Keaton and Christopher Lloyd play two members of a group of four patients from a psychiatric hospital, singled out for a little exposure to the outside world after many years interned.
It may not be as good as I think it is, but this movie entertains me thoroughly, and that should mean something.The thing about 'The Dream Team' is that it's not just a Michael Keaton showcase movie, like some of his movies that were obviously made to show him off as an actor.
('Multiplicity' is one that comes to mind.) No, 'The Dream Team' is a group effort and the entire group performs well in their roles.For a movie that I watch as often as I do this one, it should be getting old & tired, but I still laugh at the jokes as much as I did the first time I saw this movie.I highly suggest seeing this movie.
The Dream Team has the main characters- a quick-fuse (Michael Keaton), an obsessive compulsive (Christopher Lloyd), a Jesus-delusional (Peter Boyle), and a common near-catatonic type (Stephen Furst)- set loose in New York City after their doctor, who's taking them out for a day out of the mental hospital to go to a Yankee game, gets knocked unconscious by a couple of cops in an alley.
From there the characters are put into a kind of crux because a) they're stuck in the thin plot line of the cops being crooked and covering up a crime/needing to bump off the doctor, and b) the patients then got to help save their van and their doctor before anything worse happens.Now this doesn't mean there aren't some spots open for some good comedic touches, and a good few of them come out of Boyle's religious-nut character (one scene I thought was great was when he steps into a black baptist type service and until a certain point doesn't seem any crazier than the rest of the attendees), plus with a great heap-load of Jack Nicholson ala Cuckoo's Nest type attitude in Keaton's performance.
In fact the filmmakers even try to throw in some touching moments or stuff to sort of wrap-around that the patients (even Furst's hard-to-talk character) are getting 'better', whatever that means in the loose context of a comedy-thriller.
It's probably a lot of fun, if not necessarily a challenge, to play a crazy person, and it doesn't seem like at all like the actors (Lloyd the exception) possibly observed or were around mental patients in preparation for the roles, unlike with 'Cuckoo's Nest'.
But still, the simple though of a group of mental patients walking around by themselves in New York makes you smile.Go see it and you might catch a glimpse of Peter Boyle topless ;).
Michael Keaton has the Jack Nicholson role and he looks a lot like him.
There's some genuinely funny bits but Michael Keaton comes off like a poor man's Jack Nicholson impression and after a while he's just annoying.
Man Lorraine Bracco was young.It's an OK little comedy romp with some funny bits strung together and a few times I really did laugh out loud, but for god sake, rent, don't buy, unless you go to half.com and find it for 75c..
This is a film that had the right elements,but a comedy about supposed mental patients is very difficult to pull off without it being insulting-this wasn't insulting-it just wasn't interesting, realistic, and for the exception of Michael Keaton, no one here was funny.
Michael Keaton is great star who deserves a strong comeback.The story is about patients from a mental home who are on an outing, when their psychiatrist in charge is harmed after witnessing a murder, and the patients are left on their own.
Keaton and Boyle shine brightest in this comedy about a bunch of loonies who take a trip to see a baseball game and are sidetracked when their doctor is kidnapped after seeing a crime.
The Dream Team is such a film, and is one of the great sleeper hits of the late 1980's.A remake of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", The Dream Team is about four mental patients who have been institutionalised for different reasons.Billy Caulfield (Michael Keaton) is a compulsive liar with a violent temper.
The four of them have to learn to cooperate with each other to save Dr Weitzman from the cops.Michael Keaton gets a lot of the best lines, as he can be funny, disturbed and troubled all at the same time.
The scene where he goes to see his wife and daughter for the first time is my favourite part, and is very touching when he discovers he hasn't lost them.Peter Boyle gets a lot of funny scenes, especially when he starts preaching at a Black church, and when he goes back to the advertising agency ("Wa wa wa wa").Stephen Furst doesn't get to say much, but he does play an important part because he is the only one who witnessed what happened to Dr Weitzman.
It's been 3 weeks since 4 mental patients were taken off of their medication and the psychiatrist in charge of them has decided that it would be good therapy to take them into nearby New York City to see a Yankees baseball game.
When their real doctor is mugged on a field trip to Yankee Stadium, they are forced to form a reluctant team in order to resolve what becomes an ever worsening situation.A very slow start is marginally redeemed by a lift in proceedings as the gang hit the road, but really we see no inspiration from any of the cast (Michael Keaton, Christopher Lloyd, Peter Boyle and Stephen Furst) nor do we see any riotous comedy.
The patients include sensible, but also easily stressed leader Billy Caufield (Michael Keaton), Henry Sikorsky (Cuckoo's Nest's Christopher Lloyd) wanting to be the authority and paying more attention to other peoples' behaviour than his own, Jack McDermott (Peter Boyle) who believes he is Christ, and Albert Ianuzzi (Stephen Furst) who never talks for himself and mainly imitates others speeches.