User Reviews

John Candy. Need we say more? He is the main reason you should see this film. Most people don't realize how gifted he was as an actor. Witness him changing from poor slob to horny jerk. Just a simple(subtle) facial change and off we go. There are many great bits in this movie and many really dumb bits. The best moments for me are the KUNG FU U scenes as well as the great moment when John(in a trance) goes up on stage and talks about how much he loves his girlfriend-that is how much he and his genitals love his girlfriend. I'm sure reading this you might think this sequence sounds really crude. It is, but it is also very funny mainly because it is John Candy doing this bit. The story in general is pretty lame and Eugene Levy and Joe Flaherty(both SCTV alumni with Candy) are not given enough to do in the film. Levy has his moments, especially filming the wedding at the end(think Rod Serling) and the great scene when he is talking to his mother on the phone. Overall a good movie if you have had a tough day and need to put your brain on stupid. I give this one 4 out of 10.

John Bourgignon (John Candy) and Chick Leff (Joe Flaherty) from Melonville run a limo service. Their friend Sal DiPasquale (Eugene Levy) is a B-movie producer who wants to film John's wedding. John is engaged to Nancy Reese (Alley Mills), the daughter of Congressman Ed Reese (Pat Hingle). Ed is running for president and prosecuting cult leader Rev Sun Yi Day. John gets arrested for fighting in a male strip club. He is forced to go on the run handcuffed to criminal Jerome Willy Muhammed (Ernie Hudson). Sun Yi Day tries to hypnotize John into killing the congressman.

This relies a lot on the comic charms of John Candy. It really doesn't have much more than that. It's very uneven which is similar to SCTV itself. The movie kinda works with Candy. Flaherty is a good sidekick when he's actually on the screen. The movie is disjointed. The plot meanders a lot. It does have some outrageous funny moments.

A drummer/chauffeur (John Candy) engaged to a congressman's daughter (Alley Mills) encounters a sleazy film director (Eugene Levy), the leader of an aerobics cult (Richard Libertini), and other crazed characters during the days leading up to his wedding.

If you want to see a very skinny Eugene Levy, or a young pre-ghost busting Ernie Hudson, this is the film for you. Obviously not as big as other John Candy films, but well worth a watch if you happen to be a fan. (As someone who is more familiar with "Freaks and Geeks" than "SCTV", it was a special treat for me to see a young Joe Flaherty.) That is really all I can say. A fun film to be sure...

It's not the most sophisticated movie in the world but if you can get past that (and if you can find a copy!), "Going Berserk" is loaded with laughs. Candy's portrayal is offbeat and hilarious. Steinberg's script has absurdities in it that are hysterical. I laugh everytime I watch it even though I know what's coming next. Worth your while to seek it out and turn off the high-brow expectations we assign to most movies and just laugh.

This movie appears to have been made by someone with some good ideas but who also never had made a movie before nor had they considered that a script should be edited or even funny. When I saw this film, I saw it for John Candy and assumed, incorrectly, that it would be hilarious. Instead, there was a stupid plot about mind control and so many flat, unfunny moments. And, to top it off, Candy delivered some of the crudest lines I had ever heard up to that time. So, despite a potentially funny cast and story idea, we are left with an amateurish and crude movie that will probably be too stupid for the average adult, though teens will probably find a few laughs. It's really a shame--it could have been so much better. I mean, with Eugene Levy, Joe Flaherty and John Candy it SHOULD have been wonderful.

John Candy is never less than likeable, but this is such a bizarre little film, and one in which all the random pieces never really gel together.

Others have said it feels like SCTV style sketches tacked together, and that might be a fair comment.

Ok overall.

Oddly enough I have never actually seen the 1983 movie "Going Berserk" before now in 2020. And I have always enjoyed watching John Candy's movies, but I just never had the opportunity to sit down to watch this movie from writer Dana Olsen and director David Steinberg.

Initially I was looking forward to sitting down to watch "Going Berserk". Of course mainly because John Candy was in the lead, but also because the movie had the likes of Eugene Levy, Joe Flaherty, Alley Mills, Pat Hingle, Kurtwood Smith and Ernie Hudson on the cast list.

However, this movie, while it was watchable, just wasn't up to the standard of John Candy comedies. There was just something unique missing from the formula to make it outstanding. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that "Going Berserk" was not an entertaining movie, it was, but it just wasn't the usual John Candy special. It was the lack of the usual Candy comedy that somehow held the movie back from being more enjoyable.

I sat through "Going Berserk", and can now check it off of the to-watch-list, but this was not a movie that left a lasting impression on me, and I definitely do not feel that I had been missing out on a gem in John Candy's career.

My rating of "Going Berserk" settles on a slightly less than mediocre four out of ten stars. This is hardly a movie that I will be sitting down to watch for a second time.

Directed by David Steinberg. Starring John Candy, Eugene Levy, Joe Flaherty, Pat Hingle, Alley Mills, Dixie Carter, Richard Libertini, Ernie Hudson, Paul Dooley. (R)

Dismal "comedy" involving a limo driver (Candy) who's brainwashed by cult members to kill his fiancée's congressman father (Hingle). Early starring role for Candy also features a couple of his "SCTV" cohorts, but don't let that fool you into thinking this is gonna be a good time; Levy yells a lot (coming closest to an actual laugh by virtue of relief from the banality alone) and Flaherty has almost nothing to do, often standing around in the background of scenes looking lost or bored. Despite the talented cast, the movie lumbers from one low-energy episode to the next, begging for a script editor and/or directorial precision to salvage something (anything) out of them. Tired setups, flat gags, mislaid payoffs, and uninspired parodies abound; how could a movie called "Going Berserk" be so listless?

13/100

It's not really a story film, despite the goings-on of John Candy, who's a limo driver with squirrelly acquaintances and his efforts to marry Alley Mills. She's the daughter of Congressman Pat Hingle. A cult led by Richard Libertini is trying to kill Hingle, and they figure to hypnotize Candy into doing it because why not?

It's an excuse for the members of the cast who were members of Second City -- Candy, Eugene Levy, Joe Flaherty -- to do Second-City-style sketches. they range from mediocre to pretty funny. There's also the inevitable bit, when they have Candy hypnotized, that they seem to think it is very funny to have him do.... nothing. Film makers seem to think that this is funny. I do not.

Your enjoyment of this film will depend on your taste in comedy and whether you enjoy Second City.

You should not take what I am about to say lightly. I've seen many, many films and have reviewed a great deal of them, in print. So when I tell you that this film has the single funniest scene I have ever seen in a movie, you might want to listen to me. There's a lot of diversity of opinion as to what makes this INCREDIBLY stupid movie as funny as it is. And to those who just didn't get, well, I can't blame them, too much. The scene I speak of, comes at about the 30 minute mark and involves a dead convict shackled to John Candy. Up until that point, I had found the film dumb, confusing and it was beginning to lose me. When this scene came up, I laughed so hard, I peed my pants. No movie has ever done that to me before. When the project began, "Going Berserk" was supposed to be the SCTV movie. I remember it being announced. As time went on, the cast was whittled down To John Candy, Joe Flaherty & Eugene Levy. There also must have been a regime change at Universal, while it was being shot, because upon being released, it was shown in nearly ZERO theaters. When watching this a second time, I listened to the theme song (which actually flaunts how incomprehensible the plot is, in the lyrics), relaxed my logic nerve and figured out what was going on. Aside from the aforementioned routine, "Going Berserk" has many other hilarious scenes to recommend it. This is almost a 3 Stooges flick, except it's much funnier. Director David Steinberg has razor sharp timing, and he must have been laughing all through this. As for Candy, who's basically in charge here, he has NEVER been funnier. With all the plot devices and explanatory scenes thrown out the window, he absolutely runs wild. Flaherty and Levy follow him effortlessly. There is a plot, but it's a plot like "Animal House" had a plot, and yeah, the script is uneven, and a little slow to start. Once you know this, however, you can well appreciate the full SCTV style craziness that transpires. It IS stupid, but it's stupid on purpose, and you need to remember that when you see it. DO see it, and discover for yourself, if it has the funniest scene of all time in it.

As a lifelong fan of SCTV, I was embarrassed for Candy, Flaherty and Levy. This is juvenile writing and bad acting taken to a new level. I'm not even sure it was good enough to have made the cut as an SCTV 90 episode from the NBC days. The Manchurian Candidate plot twist isn't enough to save this garbage. If everyone involved were to write an autobiography, I bet all of them would skip over their involvement herein.

This is raunchy comedy at its best... "I'd like to sing a song, with my d!ck in my hand, just for you honey". Before American Pie this was the epitome of teen comedy. Home of one of the greatest comic spectacles of all time "Kung Fu You" this movie easily wraps you up and will not let you go until you hear Blue Moon at the end. This film also serves as one of the best times a song at the opening credits was actually well done. If you can find it, I suggest that you purchase it.

It's just weird and stupid if I'm being honest most of the jokes don't work and the whole film just feels like a random series of events with a few laughs but overall it's not so good

Flat attempt at comedy from a great, but unused cast.

The stage curtains open ...

Ed: "How much money do you make in a year?" John: "Oh, in a year. I would say anywhere from thirty to eleven thousand a year, Sir."

"Going Berserk" (1983) starring John Candy, Pat Hingle, Eugene Levy, and Ernie Hudson (in a bit role) is a highly forgettable film that aims high, but falls flat. When this movie came out I was about 14 years old, but it flew under my radar. I never even heard of it until years later, and when I finally decided to watch it, I was not impressed. I only needed to see it once to know that that was more than enough for me.

The story starts out with a "you wouldn't believe how I ended up here" type of beginning, and then we flashback to the story leading up to that point. John Candy plays the role of John Bourgignon who runs a limo service with his buddy, Chick (Joe Flaherty) in the big city. He is engaged to be married to a Senator's daughter, much to the chagrin of the Senator. Because of his connection with the Senator, a cult that the Senator is trying to expose, brainwashes John and attempts to have him assassinate the Senator on John's wedding day. Instead of turning John into a deadly killing machine however, the trigger they have put into his mind turns him into a bumbling fool instead, leading to some precarious situations.

The movie had a few laugh out loud moments, but they were very few and very far in between. Overall, "Going Berserk" was very adolescent, dumb, and crude. I honestly don't even think I would've enjoyed this very much even as a teenager. John Candy does a lot of physical comedy in this one, highlighted by the scene where he is handcuffed to Ernie Hudson's character, Muhammed, and while they are on opposite sides of a closed door, Muhammed has sex with his girlfriend. Yeah, let your imagination run wild with that one ... LOL.

After this movie was done, I just kinda yawned and said to myself ... "Oh boy, was that ever stupid". I am rating it at 3 stars out of 10. It is definitely one of the worst John Candy films I've ever seen. The characters were not fleshed out, the plot was pointless, and the gags were not that funny. Everything was staged to set up a joke that just didn't deliver. I suppose if you have some late night time to burn and you don't care what you watch, this movie will suffice.

Yeah,it's low budget. Yeah,it's one of Candy's earliest films, but it is maybe his funniest! John Candy was not so far removed from his SCTV days in "Going Berserk" and it shows. If you don't crack up when Candy tries to help a guy with his groceries while being hand-cuffed to an escaped cohort in the process of having sex with his girlfriend with only the apartment door separating them (huh?, see the movie!), or the way Euguene Levy (the creator of Kong Fu Yu) is talking to his mom on the phone, or just the countless number of facial expressions that only Candy could deliver you better check your pulse! If you like the John Candy of "Only the Lonely" this may not be a movie I would advise you to see, but if you enjoy the SCTV days of John Candy, this movie is a must see!

If you enjoy the subtle (yes, I said subtle) actions and reactions of John Candy, you can't help but like this film (pronounced "fillum" by Salvatore DiPasquale). The unobservant (and uninformed) watcher always saw Candy as a broad actor - a big buffoon. And sometimes he was (see "Stripes" and "Splash"). But, when given the opportunity, he could really be razor-sharp and quite subtle. It's too bad he was cast in so many roles that only showed his broad side, because we'll never get to see more of the other. Oh, yeah, the movie. One can watch "Going Berserk" over and over (I know I have) with the frequency of "Caddyshack." It's just that good. The plot, although a little convoluted, is actually fairly deep for a farce of this kind. It allows Candy and the always under-rated Joe Flaherty and Eugene Levy to bounce off of Candy...and they bounce HARD. Definitely worth a glance for anyone who enjoyed SCTV or Candy's other work.

yeah, it's a bit of a silly film, so if you are looking for an oscar performance, forget this one......but, if you love John Candy's humor, this is a must-see. We lost John Candy before he made enough of his great brand of comedy, and he is only better in one movie: Planes, Trains, & Automobiles (with Steve Martin). Excellent supporting performance by Eugene Levy, perhaps his best work ever as the hot-headed Sal DiPasquale. Also good acting by Richard Libertini, Alley Mills & Pat Hingle. You must see this obscure and out-of-print film if you are a John Candy or Eugene Levy fan.

"Going Berserk" is actually one of the funniest Candy films I have ever seen, period. Sure, it's kinda low budget, but it's a non-stop comedic tour de force. There are tons of memorable quotes. For instance, when his soon-to-be father-in-law asks him how much he earns, Candy says "Oh, I pull down anywhere between thirty and...eleven thousand dollars a year, sir." Oh course, it is Candy's delivery that sells it. Just classic stuff. Eugene Levy also turns in a hilarious performance as a sleazy filmmaker. A clip of his horrible low budget movie "Kung Fu U" will have you rolling.

So if you are a Candy fan and want to rediscover a forgotten gem, I can't recommend this movie enough.

Okay, so it is very predictable, but it still will provide a laughable hour and a half! This is one of my all-time favorite movies.

John Candy was so funny and this is my favorite film that he has done in his short life! Watch for the phony "Father Knows Best" episode! Dixie Carter is also very awesome!

I bought this movie based mainly on a review I read here, the one which author peed his pants while laughing. I am going to differ with him in two points: The movie is not stupid by any means, it might be labeled nonsensical since it is a venturesome experiment in a ancient literary genre: Nonsense. This movie belongs to the tradition Lewis Carroll and the many anonymous folks who wrote limericks, which happen to be obscenely fraught with dead and sex in the same way this secret masterpiece is. The other point of departure to the person whom I am indebted to, is a minor one; he writes that the first half an hour is tiresome, he states that until a hilarious scene he found the movie dumb. Those thirty minutes are not dumb, they might be considered bizarre and delirious—as the whole piece—but hilarious as well. This movie like almost every single masterpiece works within the rules, at least structurally speaking. Masterly exposition is followed by climax which gives way to resolution. Why did I write such a truism? Because those thirty first minutes introduce us to a different world in which the rules of what we called reality does not apply anymore. If a given viewer feels funny or uncomfortable during the first thirty minutes the reason might be very well dumbness, but the kind we experiment when transported to a realm in which everything we had for sure does not exist anymore, it is our dumbness not the movie's.

This movie is a campy yet well played out break from reality. I saw the whole movie I think it is one of the most laid back non controversial comedy movies from the 1980's.