Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
New Yorkers Skip Donahue and Harry Monroe have no jobs and no prospects, so they decide to flee the city and find work elsewhere, landing jobs wearing woodpecker costumes to promote the opening of a bank. When their feathery costumes are stolen and used in a bank robbery, they no longer have to worry about employment — they're sent to prison.
Stir Crazy is elevated almost entirely by the electric chemistry and comedic timing of Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor, whose performances push the film well above its material. The plot is a fairly conventional mistaken-identity/prison comedy — competent but not inventive — and the cinematography is functional at best, typical of late-70s studio comedies with no particular visual ambition. The ending resolves tidily but without much wit or surprise. Novelty is modest: the Wilder-Pryor pairing gives it a distinctive flavor, but the narrative beats follow a well-worn template.