Delirious (1991)

I was a big John Candy fan through the 1980s. I remember seeing him in “Stripes,” “Spaceballs,” “Summer Rental,” “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” and “Home Alone,” but for some reason, “Delirious” doesn’t get the respect of his other movies. This is my favorite John Candy (and Emma Samms) movie of all time. Part of it is because as a writer and a fan of television, the idea of getting into one of my favorite TV shows and be able to control the outcome has enormous possibilities for a fantasy. Plus, using the framework of a soap opera parody as the plot to carry it along makes it that much more funny. In the movie, John Candy plays TV producer Jack Gable who is in love with his leading actress played by the stunningly beautiful Emma Samms and struggling to keep creative control over his series from his co-producers played by Jerry Orbach and Renee Taylor. Meanwhile, he keeps stumbling quite literally into Mariel Hemingway as the struggling potential actress trying to get a role on his show and as a rival TV writer named Fetterman tries changing his universe even with his own typos creating havoc. After mysteriously ending up on his show, he keeps trying to write the plot to win Samms’s heart through gleefully farfetched fantasies, but he instead keeps running into Hemingway. The best parts of this movie are its ability to parody the soap opera theme (brain tumors, favorite sons, absurd declarations, diabolical scheming, series contradictions, et al). Samms seems to enjoy herself in this movie playing a conniving vixen while the versatile Hemingway plays the All-American girl-next-door type with a bit of whimsical awkwardness, but much of the comedy comes from the male co-stars, particularly Raymond Burr as the head of the Hedison clan. Playing the comedy straight, Burr delivers almost every line as a catchphrase. (“You can’t even do that right, can you son?”) Charles Rocket definitely hams up his role as the amnesiac son struggling to get his father’s approval, and Dylan Baker (“Spiderman”) as the preppy favorite son gradually wasting away due to the evil plotting of his sister. David Rasche from "Sledgehammer" (and now “Impastor”) plays Emma's handsome yet not-too-bright doctor boyfriend impervious to her venom and wiles as he tries to hold on to his soul and her at the same time. Robert Wagner, Margot Kidder and Margaux Hemingway have cameos along the way. Are there awkward scenes in the plot? Yes. Candy’s Jack Gable discovers way too easily how to manipulate the escapist reality of his TV show; one of a few scenes that is abbreviated to hasten the plot along. Does the movie have its goofy moments? Yes, but the film does cover the spectrum from droll to humorous without ever losing its steam. Is it funny when the characters start to notice things no longer make sense around them? (“When did you start carrying a knife?”) Yes. "Delirious" is a sort of "Twilight Zone" affair in which a soap mogul is haunted by his old characters, even those he has killed off. (“Len? Len? We killed him off two seasons ago!”) Even though this side of the plot is barely explored, what we have left is a “Brady Bunch”-level fantasy-comedy with all the raucous humor of a spoof of a daytime drama. At its core, “Delirious” is a love story linking Candy with Hemingway to discover what he really wants instead of what he thinks he wants. It has a strong cast, a script that bounces from the weak to the absurd to the amusing and an enterprising premise. “Delirious” is definitely a movie that I will encourage others to watch.

HPB-BELLEVUE...got the dvd delirious on the 8th. Perfect. Thank you very much.

this is a great movie - if you've never seen it - it's a must!!!!

No excessive swearing, no body function gags, sexual tension without bawdiness nor explicit scenes, and essentially a light hearted take on the once very formidable Soap Opera genre that at one time dominated day time TV from the 50s up to the 90s.It's one of John Candy's better movies, though it's not well known. I remember some promos for it on talk shows when it was first released, but not much else.What you have here is every writer's nightmare and dream come true with consequences. Some actors from classic TV of years past team up with more contemporary names in this comedy. The film really wanted big laughs from the audience, and where I like the movie and smiled here and there, I think the film was made perhaps ten years too late as the old soap operas were dying out in the 90s with newer media coming onto the scene.For all that this film takes classic Soap Opera tropes, crams them into the plot, and situates that amongst a writer's delusion as he pens for a local New York base soap called "Beyond Our Dreams", and that should clue you in on the story.It's more fun than funny, but it's still a fun watch. Check it out.Enjoy.

Such a great little comedy piece with inimitable John Candy in the lead, and fabulously funny support cast and cameos. Soap opera writer gets to live in the world of his own creation and things go hilariously awry. Everyone is so committed to the camp and really emersed in their characters - hilarious to watch them! Nothing is over the top, even as the story the main character writes himself into gets more grandiose. Very understated slice-of-crazy dream movie; thoroughly enjoyable little gags and skits throughout. Great find, recommended!

Good writers and Candy= Enjoyment

Very silly if you like that kind of humor, but a lost gem and a rare treat for John Candy fans.

This movie became one of my favorites on VHS, then on DVD in the early 2000's, so when the movie was available for digital streaming purchase, I jumped at the chance. Immediately I noticed that the title song (Delirious) by Prince was edited out and replaced by some soul song by James Brown. This was only a few seconds into the movie. A few scenes in the start of the movie were just completely cut! This includes the first time John Candy's character goes to the "New York Delicatessen." Also, later on in the movie, the piano playing scene at the party is very poorly overdubbed and different than the VHS or DVD version. There's plenty others to mention, but I don't want to bash the film too much because it is still very funny! Great soap opera satire and slapstick combine to make an enjoyable John Candy film. Also, on a side note, Dylan Baker once again plays a very funny part in this movie in a small supporting role as he did in Planes Trains and Automobiles.

je suis heureux - film parfait - je recommande

Perfecto castellano

I remembered seeing this year's ago but couldn't remember what it was called so please that a random YouTube video list gave me the title do I could enjoy this off the wall comedy again, it's a shame that this is not more widely know as it is really good

so you can't really not love it! can you? he plays a screenwriter, who hits his head and wakes up in his own show and realises that what he writes happens around him, he has lots of fun with this for a time (and so do we). through a chain of events he returns to the real world with a refreshened look on his life and makes a few changes for the better. It's a fun uplifting feel-good film, which is what John Candy was all about, and it should be viewed such not seriously and not as an oscar winner, because its not, its a John Candy special. Cheers John!

You don't have to be a fan of American Soaps, just to have seen one of them, to really appreciate this movie.The timing is impeccable, the acting is great and John Candy is at the funniest I have ever seen him. And the greatest part is that, for authenticity, it's full of American Soap actors, including Raymond Burr, Andrea Thompson and the great Robert Wagner, ripping the roles they played to pieces.Short review is that John Candy plays a writer on a daytime soap, who after an accident wakes up on his own Soap, and paraphrasing his own lines, "Oh my God, I've died and gone to hell. This is my hell", but when he realises everything he types happens...I always felt that this was funnier than Soapdish, which came out at the same time, but was much underrated, probably as Soapdish had bigger stars.