Steve Martin: The Wild and Crazy Comedy Collection (Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid / The Jerk / The Lonely Guy)
Steve Martin's funniest three films,The Jerk, The Lonely Guy, and Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, are collected in the Wild and Crazy Comedy Collectionwith some corny bonus material that pales in comparison to Martin's stunning comedic performances. InThe Lonely Guy, Martin's dejected character wanders New York streets with his fern plant searching for a lady to love. Scenes in which Martin calls his lady from his rooftop amidst scores of other lonely guys, or jogs into a diner wearing fake, spray-on sweat, seem more slapstick with each viewing. Martin's masterpiece isThe Jerk, about Navin Johnson, a white guy born a "poor black child," who sets out for the city to become somebody. Navin, with hobo rucksack in tow, takes his dad's three rules--Don't trust whitey, Lord loves a workin' man, and See a doctor and get rid of it--to an extreme, after becoming a millionaire from inventing a reading glasses apparatus. Co-starring Bernadette Peters,The Jerk'sbizarre humor still feels fresh in its satirical examination of race and class. Watching Navin change from a poor black child, to a gas station attendant, to a millionaire, to a drunken egomaniac, to a homeless bum, illustrates Martin's sheer talent for character sketching. If thisWild and Crazy Comedy Collectionis a cake,The Jerkis definitely the icing.--Trinie Dalton