George (Gene Wilder) is a small-time publisher whose virgin-ride on Silver Streak becomes the ride of his life. He not only finds love on the train (he also makes love, by the way!), but also gets involved in a murder case that leads to him being thrown out of the train thrice! Gene Wilder, the actor also formed a partnership with Richard Pryor after the movie and they starred in three other films not seen by me but my father who loves Pryor's comic timing. So, Silver Streak has a legacy of its own.
The movie starts of as a sex-comedy, with incessant innuendos, then momentarily to a love story only to throw a suspense-murder angle and then turning back to action-comedy. The high point in this is the action-comedy sequence between Pryor and Wilder, as both guys are subtle and cool. Thank God Pryor did not become a loud stereotype, like the actors from the Tyler Perry movies.
The action scenes towards the end could have had some humor as the movie throws in too much action and forgets the humor which it had during most of the previous scenes. Jill Clayburgh is disappointing and unconvincing though and made her character look somewhat self-centered. The antagonist seemed a bit too stilted to be menacing and had a queer accent. Also, some scenes were random and could be done away with i.e. the scene where George has to milk a cow was just there for the naughty humor and nothing else.
Silver Steak is a good film and has its moments. ( I don't know whether this was intended to be a joke, but I found the part hilarious where Jill's character Hilly asks George what he is doing with a pencil, right after the scene where the undercover agent tells him that the Vitamin E would 'sharpen his pencil'. ) My Rating: 6/10
The movie starts of as a sex-comedy, with incessant innuendos, then momentarily to a love story only to throw a suspense-murder angle and then turning back to action-comedy. The high point in this is the action-comedy sequence between Pryor and Wilder, as both guys are subtle and cool. Thank God Pryor did not become a loud stereotype, like the actors from the Tyler Perry movies.
The action scenes towards the end could have had some humor as the movie throws in too much action and forgets the humor which it had during most of the previous scenes. Jill Clayburgh is disappointing and unconvincing though and made her character look somewhat self-centered. The antagonist seemed a bit too stilted to be menacing and had a queer accent. Also, some scenes were random and could be done away with i.e. the scene where George has to milk a cow was just there for the naughty humor and nothing else.
Silver Steak is a good film and has its moments. ( I don't know whether this was intended to be a joke, but I found the part hilarious where Jill's character Hilly asks George what he is doing with a pencil, right after the scene where the undercover agent tells him that the Vitamin E would 'sharpen his pencil'. ) My Rating: 6/10