Delirious (1991)

Best movie of this year hands down!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This movie is a rollicking meditation on the Incarnation. Christian apologists sometimes use the metaphor of a novelist writing himself into his story to explain the implications of Christmas. Play with that idea a bit ... suppose the maker of a world (in this case, a soap opera writer) finds himself inside his world, with all of his creative powers intact? Able to continue writing the story, but this time from the inside? Ah, the perils of being able to get exactly what you ask for! Just to make life even more interesting, a rival writer is also wrestling with the plot line. "Delirious" makes a convincing argument that our Lord's decision to adopt a cameo role was for the best. A flamboyant messiah can't help but warp the thoughts, deeds, and self-awareness of those around him. I strongly recommend this movie for Christian parents who are trying to explain the miracle of Christmas to their children (some bad language). Or for people who do not share this faith, but are curious about those who do.

John Candy worked so hard trying to make something of this turgid script, but it was a waste of his time. Bad writing by untalented people. This movie was just a series of scenes with no forward momentum to the plot. And how many times did they have to run the same boring riff about soap opera plots twists? Once was enough 'cause it wasn't funny the first time! Not an original idea anywhere, but you sure could tell the writers had seen "Groundhog Day." You have to wonder how a studio could commit to making this script, since it appeared that they spent quite a bit of money on this turkey. Another in a long series of films that prove comedy is harder than it looks.

An enjoyable premise and pulled off really well in spots, Delirious is a fun film that spoofs soap's (similar to the TV show Soap)by allowing a soap writer played by John Candy to dream that he is in the soap opera he writes for. While it the dream, he can change what is happening each moment by simply typing it out on his typewriter, most of what he writes involves his anger toward the shows other writers and a vehicle to make himself a sexy leading man while wooing his love interest played by Emma Sands. Because at some moments Candy's character is simply trying to get rid of people, Candy writes some funny, if weird, things that the characters can't even figure out why they are doing them.Although the movie lags in places, it has some of the funniest lines I have ever heard in movies, especially the Robert Wagner lines about Cleveland and the running gag about cable TV repairmen and having to wait for them. The cable gag is really dated (I haven't had black bar issues in about 15 years)as is other parts of the film, but it still works.Raymond Burr does a great deadpan job in his final theatrical performance. Muriel Hemmingway really stinks it up, the rest of the cast is made up of soap actors who do a nice job of spoofing their own genre.Another good flick that spoofs soaps is Soapdish, does not have the fantasy piece of Delirious, but is also very funny.

This is a wonderful idea for a movie - the dueling attempts by writers to change the course of the narrative of the movie itself - one is inside the movie, the other outside. I found the movie hysterical. John Candy is excellent, the lines of Raymond Burr hysterical, Mariel Hemingway charming and sweet and fun, and Emma Samms luscious. I truly don't understand the few who made negative comments - it's one of the 3 or 4 funniest movies of the 1990s - the humor is more physical, but is otherwise on a par with Sleepless in Seattle, While You were Sleeping, When Harry Met Sally - but it doesn't have the serious side in those movies that moved many.