Brain Donors

Stars: John Turturro (Barton Fink, Miller's Crossing, Men Of Respect), Bob Nelson (Kindergarten Cop), Mel Smith (The Princess Bride). From the team that brought us The Naked Gun and Airplane series comes one of the worst comedies ever made. John Turturro flounders in the role of Roland T. Flakfizer, an ambulance-chasing attorney who lands a major endowment deal when a wealthy widow hires him to oversee the creation of a new ballet company. He is aided by the relatively indistinguishable Jacques and Rocko who are apparently trying to be Larry and Curly to Turturro's painfully unfunny Groucho (we realize this is a crossing of the Three Stooges and the Marx Brothers, but believe us, this film is a bastard in more ways than one.) We don't want to spill the beans, but the biggest laugh comes from a fart joke--and that oughta tell you something. Brain Donors doesn't even come close to doing for ballet what The Naked Gun did for baseball, and the only interesting thing about the film is the Will Vinton clay-animated opening credits. That, and the fact that the title has nothing to do with the movie. (Our guess is that it relates to the last thing the filmmakers did before starting this film.) Audience: No big name draw here, but prominent mention of the Zucker Brothers and their earlier efforts will reel in the unwary. And comedy draws anyway...but there won't be any good word-of-mouth on this one.