The Survivors (1983)
Grade: 59
"The Survivors" is a black comedy that doesn't quite make it. There are many funny moments, but there are also times when it doesn't make much sense. Still, recommended to fans of the movie's lead actors, Robin Williams, Walter Matthau and Jerry Reed.
Williams is a corporate executive who is told to report to his boss' plush office. There, a green parrot has memorized a speech ending in Williams' firing. He can't believe it until the secretary pulls a gun on him.
Distraught, he goes to a filling station and misses the gas tank, dumping gas all over the concrete. He is so clueless he doesn't see this. Matthau, the gas station owner, carelessly throws a lit cigarette out the door. Williams is seen driving away, with huge balls of flame behind him.
Matthau spends six hours in a welfare line, only to be told that self-employed folks can't be on the dole. Like Williams, he learns that some things can't be negotiated when the social service worker sprays him with mace.
Williams and Matthau end up nursing beers in the same bar, a coincidence unbelievable anywhere except in a black comedy. They are just getting on each others nerves when Reed comes in and robs the place. Matthau accidentally uncovers Reed's face. Reed flees.
Matthau is worried that Reed will come after him. Sure enough, he appears in Matthau's bedroom with a loaded gun. Fortunately, Williams comes to the house, and in the commotion Reed is knocked out cold. He gets sent to jail.
Williams suddenly becomes a gun nut, and buys a huge semi-automatic which he tries to hide from his lovely fiance. Of course, she finds it. Williams goes into his babbling schtick trying to explain himself. They break up, and Williams goes to a Survivalist training camp.
Matthau takes a job as a cab driver. Reed, freed from jail, is his first customer. Reed again threatens murder, but by now the audience knows he's no killer, it's all bluster. Matthau makes a deal: no murders if Matthau and Williams don't tell about the robbery. Matthau goes to the survivalist camp to find Williams. He gets Williams to make a call to Reed, but Williams, head full of survivalist brainwashing, insults Reed instead.
Reed shows up at the camp, has a shootout with Williams, has the survivalist forces after him, and hides out in Williams cabin with Matthau, where they all become friends. To escape the survivalists, who for some reason are after them, Matthau exposes their leader. He turns out to be a businessman who is milking the movement.
Many good laughs are in this film, but what a mess!
http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html
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