The Dream Team

If you took the day trip from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and extended it into a feature-length film, The Dream Team is what you'd end up with. Which is not to say that this cleverly scripted comedy is not an enjoyable lark--it is; it just mines a familiar vein. Four mental patients--Michael Keaton, Christopher Lloyd, Peter Boyle, and Stephen Furst--are separated from their doctor on their way to a baseball game. Loose on the streets of New York, the batty quartet work together to save the doc from a pair of murderous policemen. The comedy is hit-and-miss, with the characters of Boyle and Furst drawing the least laughs. But Michael Keaton proves once again that he is one of the hottest natural comic actors in the business today. And Lloyd, who starred in Cuckoo's Nest, is wonderful as the Type-A who feels compelled to pick up the trash off the New York City sidewalks (he asks one litterbug: "Do you want to talk about this?"). Recommended for larger fiction collections. (R. Pitman)