MovieChat Forums > Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy (1996) Discussion > I know what this movie is lacking...

I know what this movie is lacking...


Foley. Dave Foley did not participate in any of the writing of this movie, and it just recently occured to me that that may be why it's not nearly as good as the show was. There isn't a sharp, metaphorical sword to skewer society with. Foley is the dry, intellectual wit, and with him out of the equation the balance of this film slides into the realm of too many over-the-top sight gags. I did like, but i have always felt it could have been greatly improved, in the writing that is.

"Take my Knife, please"

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What are you talking about? This movie was way funnier than the show ever was.

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I would have to say that the show was much better.

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I second that.

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Your both fools! Fools I tell you!

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BOTH are great (show and movie)! They took advantage of BOTH medias extremely well and cleverly! No NEED to compare, just enjoy them both!

Now, as to Foley. I noticed he didn't do any of the writing either. In fact, I THINK he might have been busy doing something else, since many of his scenes look like close behind-the-doors-shots (meaning could have been done in off hours with a small crew). He is, after all, the one with the most post tv show success (e.g., "News Radio").

I even think they make fun of this in the movie! Right after the FOUR scientists discover Gleemenex, we see Foley in the background ('just a guy') taking credit for what the other four had just accomplished...much like many will give writing credit to Foley if they don't notice him missing in the writing credits!

That being said, he (and all the the rest of the KITH) are brilliant! WAY before Michael Myers ("Austin Powers") or Eddie Murphy ("Grumps"), these guys perfected being able to play multiple roles OPPOSITE THEMSELVES without 'noticing' the same guy is playing two different parts! For example, Scott playing both one of the scientist and their first patient. Although this is broad character acting (but tempered for the movie, which worked well), it's amazing how different their characters are from one another...

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Forgetting Monty Python are we?

If God could do the tricks we can, He'd be a happy Man. - The Stuntman, Peter O'Toole

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It's all good, man. It's all good.

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I agree with *beep* Series was/is classic...movie too.
Hey, "Ne vous allez pas ou Media"

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David Foley was busy with the TV series, News Radio at the time and was only available for a few days of shooting. He only did the movie as a favour to the rest of the troupe.

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Yes, Dave was busy with Newsradio and that was the reason he wasn't in it as much. As the trivia section points out, this led to false rumors of members fighting within the 5 KITH members. He wanted to be in it more, but you know how these things are. Everyone in the group was and still is fine with each other. Their reunion tours have been amazing, and all 5 still have killer chemistry on stage.


The following scam comes from The Sting, Part 2, so NOBODY knows about it!

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Brain Candy>News Radio>KITH show

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Actually, KITH did start having major creative problems around the time they started working on the film. There was a lot of clashing, the members lived in different places, and all just wanted to go their separate ways. You can find interviews with Foley, McCullough, McKinney, MacDonald, and Thompson online talking about how they were falling apart and this film ended up being a rushed project just to get it over with.

Either way, this movie was 10 years ahead of its time (much like all KITH productions).

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[deleted]

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he was still in the funniest moment of the entire movie, the moment when dr. cooper is called down to speak to rotator and foley is in the rising elevator, kneeling and pressing his face against the floor to see what's going on. hi-larious.

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Every time foley says..."uh...chris..." that is hill larry us

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This movie is not lacking anything. It was *beep* hilarious!

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Most of Foley's stuff was just cut.

Dave Foley had an entire sub-lot just cut out. He plays a fast food employee who snaps from the pressure, kills his parents and leads a cult in an abandoned building. He gives a long speech and reads a poem he wrote.
During the scene where McDonald is leaving the music awards, foley gives it to him.

Another scene at Roritors party is Kevin McDonald making out with Jeanne Garofalo on a tennis court.

Mrs. Hurticure (Thompson) reason for having a "happiness coma" is becuase she took the pill and she was happy and her son complimented her on her tea, so that replaced the original Xmas memory she had. MacDonald calls for help but when he goes outside she has been kidnapped by Roritor industries.

Macdonald tries to get help from Alice (McCullogh) but she is on the drug dating a really happy version of the Depressed German man from the beginning of the movie. for some reason he has a necklace with a hotwheel on it.

Foley (as the crazy Fast food employee) kidnaps MacDonald and gives a speech about his pill being the latest "fast fix franchise" Foley and his Fast food cult steal a Delivery truck and kidnap all the "coma-torium" people, and take over the "Nina Bedford show" at the television studio.

Dave Foley then has the show's makeup artist make him look like a cat form "Cats"

Macdonald can't change anything so he take the drug and goes into a Coma. 5% of the people go into a coma and the rest don't care. That's how the movie ends.

The music was also changed because the cab driver was oringally listening "march of the pigs" by NIN. I don't know if they couldn't get licensing or didn't want to pay.

Hopefully they will have DVD with the extra scenes on it with commentary.

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It's lacking a sense of its place in time. That's because it's retrograde humor. What era of comedy then does 'Kids' make me think of? I'd say to imagine the forties and then to imagine the Three Stooges in drag, mouthing the satiric/comedic intellectual content of a high school student. Then you'll get an idea of what era these guys are about. Key thing to remember however is that the Three Stooges are still occasionally funny. 'Kids' is already so dated that the manufacturer should order a recall of it from the shelves.

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I think the show was funnier too. More Dave Foley surely would have helped.

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I think both the show and the movie are classics. I first saw the movie when I was like 13 and I watched it two times in a row, because I was SO confused. But after the second time, I LOVED it. I do agree, it could have used more Foley, but the rest of the guys did a great job.

I think it's one of those things you either get, or don't get. You have to have a certian taste for KITH.

I believe Diversity is an old, old wooden ship

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I haven't seen it in ten years or so, but I remember thinking the movie was brilliant when it came out. I liked the show, especially the Bruce McCullough skits, but they whiffed as often as they hit, and their misses were often rankly lame and awful. News Radio sucked hard.

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In my opinion, the real issue with Brain Candy isn't that Dave Foley didn't write any of it. The thing that differentiates it so much from the series is that the movie had a PLOT. I think this should be obvious. Brain Candy featured a story arc that began at the outset of the film, and concluded at the end, and every scene...sketch-like though some of them were...was in some way related to said plot. This was not the nature of the series, which was simply a weekly series of mostly unrelated sketches, generally with no real transitional material.

It's the same thing as Monty Python's films (at least Holy Grail and Life of Brian). The Pythons made a TV show that they wanted to have no real "shape" to it...to be anarchic and weird, and showcase a brand of humor that was indefinable...and then, they made films that had plots. You can't compare the two. You can't compare Holy Grail and Life of Brian to Flying Circus. They're apples and oranges. Personally, I think that the Pythons struggled with the changes in their writing that were necessitated by plot. While Holy Grail is a funny film, I think it's vastly overrated. They hit the nail on the head with Life of Brian, though, and plot didn't hamper them one bit. Still, it's a different kind of humor than Flying Circus.

The Kids in the Hall were the same way. In many ways, their series was reminiscent of Flying Circus. Not just because most of the parts were played by the same five guys, and often in drag...but also their comic sensibilities and the off-the-wall nature of many sketches often brought to mind the Pythons' work on Flying Circus. And Brain Candy was the Kids' stab at a feature film where they had to work their comedy into an overall plot. Some may like it better than the series, others won't. But really, it's apples and oranges. You just can't compare TV sketch comedy to a plot-driven comedic feature.

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For some reason, I thought you were going to say it need more cowbell.

*shrug*

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