The Dream Team

Directed by Howard Zieff, The Dream Team follows four mental-hospital patients (Michael Keaton’s Billy, Christopher Lloyd’s Henry, Peter Boyle’s Jack, and Stephen Furst’s Albert) as they’re left to fend for themselves in New York City after their psychiatrist (Dennis Boutsikaris’ Jeff) is knocked unconscious by two crooked cops. There’s little doubt that The Dream Team ultimately fares best in its affable and consistently watchable first half, as filmmaker Zieff, working from Jon Connolly and David Loucka’s script, does a nice job of establishing the goofy yet likable protagonists and their somewhat irresistible chemistry with one another – with the easygoing vibe heightened by the typically strong efforts of a uniformly talented cast (although Keaton, perhaps unsurprisingly, remains the picture’s obvious M.V.P.). It’s only as the movie progresses into its palpably flabby midsection that one’s interest begins to flag, as The Dream Team, saddled with a fairly unconscionable 113 minute running time, suffers from a serious of lulls that are exacerbated by a growing emphasis on its (rather needless) thriller-oriented elements – with the periodic inclusion of comedically-tinged interludes lifting the proceedings out of its relative doldrums on an ongoing basis. The end result is a disappointingly erratic comedy that nevertheless possesses its share of positive attributes, and it’s clear, ultimately, that The Dream Team would’ve been far better off had it topped out at around an hour and a half.

**1/2 out of ****

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