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List Price: $9.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 19496
Released: March 30, 1999 |
| Our Price: $2.15 |
| Used Price: $0.70 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Widowed, world-famous neurosurgeon Michael Hfuhruhurr (Steve Martin) is trapped in a loveless marriage with Dolores Benedict (Kathleen Turner), who is only interested in Hfuhruhurr's money. On a trip to Vienna to attend a medical conference, Hfuhruhurr falls in love with a bottled brain (voiced by Sissy Spacek), and finds himself in the middle of murders committed by the elevator killer. Year: 1983 Director: Carl Reiner Starring: Steve Martin, Kathleen Turner, David Warner, Paul Benedict, Richard Brestoff, James Cromwell
Description of The Man with Two Brains:
Meet Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr (Steve Martin), the famous brain surgeon. Perhaps the name is not unfamiliar, though it is unpronounceable; the good doctor is the inventor of the celebrated "screw-top" method of brain surgery, in which the top of the skull twists off as easily as the lid of a pickle jar. The man may be a medical genius, but his talent for love leaves something to be desired, which explains his marriage to a gold-digging vixen (Kathleen Turner). Ah, but Dr. Hfuhruhurr may yet find true love, in the form of the disembodied brain he discovers in the lab of a mad scientist--David Warner, gone the Frankenstein route. (Lovely image: Hfuhruhurr in a rowboat, taking the brain out for a romantic ride on the lake.) Thus, in its own utterly goofy way, does The Man with Two Brains delve into the eternal dilemma of male indecision: does a man fall in love with a woman's body, or with her mind? Along the way, of course, there are gags both highbrow and very, very lowbrow, a mind-body split that might be why critics have tended to prefer the more sophisticated slapstick of All of Me (directed, like this film, by Carl Reiner) and Roxanne among the early Steve Martin outings. Still, this is one of Martin's funniest pictures, and a game Kathleen Turner, fresh off her Body Heat success, ably spoofs her own sultry image. The cerebral love object is voiced by Sissy Spacek. --Robert Horton
The Man with Two Brains Reviews:
Dumb but very funny. 
2009-09-18 - This is one dopey movie but Steve Martin is perfect in this role. Super, mindless fun. So dopey it is great.
Ranks Right Up There With Martin's Funniest
2009-03-17 - Here is another Carl Reiner-directed "farce" that also stars Steve Martin (the two collaborated before in the '80s in "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid"). This is the best of that duo with a lot of laugh-out loud scenes. There are tons of gags, both obvious and subtle. In fact, I think is one of Martin's funniest performances.
I had remembered this as a strictly light comedy but was surprised when I viewed it again this year and heard all the sex jokes. Reiner turned out to be a dirty old man but he write and direct some very funny movies. It's unusual for a comedy to be rated "R," but that was the appropriate rating. If you know and don't care if its a bit raunchy, this is a very funny movie.
awesome in an 80's late night movie sorta way 
2008-09-07 - Steve Martin is so funny and so underrated, it's a shame. Only 'The Jerk' rates higher on my Steve Martin comedy-o-meter. He has a very distinct sense of humor, so if you're a fan you'll love this movie. One of my top 10 favorite movies of all time. Yes, it's that good.
Laugh
2008-08-11 - I had not seen this movie in a long time and it was great to share this movie with my family. I laughed as much today as I did when I saw it last. It was a great buy, would reccomend it to all my friends to see.
My favorite Steve Martin film betrayed by mediocre DVD. 
2008-03-11 - I encourage anyone who likes Steve Martin in ANYTHING to get this; I believe it's easily his most consistently funny film, and actually has something to say about relationships. I believe, at the time, "All of Me" was a more "successful" Steve Martin film than this, and conveyed basically the same message. Coming after the funnier and more original "The Man with Two Brains," that film seemed very derivitive and inferior to me.
I paid more for the shipping on this purchase from one of the Amazon affiliated sellers than I did for the actual DVD, so I don't feel as bad; but, I would have been willing to pay full going rate if I would have had the option of buying this in the original format, instead. I would feel like a chump to pay more than $2 plus shipping for any motion picture that was re-edited by some hack technician.
Given that we are the universe of people who care enough about cinema to buy individual titles on DVD, I am angry that they don't give us enough credit to be willing to watch them in any format other than what fills up a standard aspect ratio television tube. It feels like the only restaurant in town deciding that we, the public, are too pedestrian to appreciate anything that can't be offerred as all-you-can-eat, trough-style.
