Crazy As Hell (2002)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Good movie but grossly overrated

The acting in this movie is really good.

The acting in this movie is really good.

First of all I did not know Mr. Lasalle was so talented. I watch this film over and over. Its story plot is very prophetic. If you pay very close attention to things in the movie you will understand its underlying plot. I don't want to give any other information as it may spoil the view for you. This film has not gotten the recognition it should have, which is very unfortunate. Anyone concerned or not concerned about their spirituality should watch this movie...I don't know what Mr. Lasalles driving force for making this movie was. But I would sure like to know what he was thinking when he wrote this story.This movie is definitely a must see. If you watch it and like spread the word. I didn't see it until 2005 and the only way I heard about it was by word of mouth.

***SPOILERS*** Early in "Crazy as Hell" the head nurse of the Sedah State Mental Hospital where the movie takes place Nurse Danza, Jane Carr, is asked by the head doctor there Dr. Ty Adams, Michael Beach, what she would ask "The Devil" if she ever had the chance to talk to him. Nurse Danza said the following statement that was absolutely stunning: "I'd ask him why he spends his time punishing those that he's supposed to adore to make a point to a God that he's supposed to despise?". The same statement, word for word, is later said by non other the "The Man" or "The Devil" himself to Dr. Adams. This started to make me feel that I wasn't watching some light comedy, about "The Devil", but a very serious and penetrating movie about a subject that has been on the minds of great thinkers since the dawn of recored history."Crazy as Hell" comes full-circle when it reaches it's climax. By that time I wasn't at all disappointed in what I saw in the film. Even though at first I didn't at all expect to see it when the movie started. Dr. Adams is invited to be the head psychiatrist, where there's to be made a documentary on his work on curing mental illness, at the Sedah State Mental Hospitle for a month. This is to use his ground breaking theories of curing those that are mentally ill without the use of mind-altering drugs or strong medication, like shock treatment.At first Dr. Adams' methods work as he seems to cure one of the most psychotic patients at the hospital Cheryl, Tracy Pettit,from her self-destructive actions with out the use of drugs, which up to that time had little effect on her. As Dr. Adams starts to settle down and get into the swing of things in the hospital all of a sudden a person appears there as a new patient calling himself "The Man" or what he's better known as to us "The Devil" Eriq La Salle. From then on it's all down hill for the good doctor. Dr. Adams is told by "The Devil" that he's really upset because of all the bad press that he's been receiving over the last thousands of years. He wants to set the record straight about himself and wants Dr. Adams to help him in that endeavor. At first Dr. Adams thinks that "The Man" is just a harmless eccentric. Later he sees that he knows a lot more about his past and background that he'll willing to talk about with "The Man" or anyone else."The Man" gets so under Dr.Adams skin that one afternoon at a picnic in the park with the other patients he loses it and almost comes to blows with him. Slowly Dr. Adams starts to lose his grip on reality to the point where he talks to his both deceased wife and daughter Veda & Brianna,Shelly Robertson & Khylan Jones. This strange conversation by Dr. Adams is picked up on video tape and, after seeing it, makes the administrator of the hospital Dr. Delazo, Ronny Cox, think that Dr. Adams needs to be treated for mental and psychological trauma himself.Feeling very hostile toward his patient, which is very unprofessional for a doctor, Dr. Adams now drops his non-orthodox methods in regard to "The Man" and has him put on strong drugs and put in a padded cell and in a straight-jacker for 24 hours. Unknown to him "the Man" has a big surprise for Dr.Adams. When it finally comes it's going to shock him back to where the movie started when his troubles with "The Man" was just beginning.Different yet vastly superior movie about "The Devil" and how he operates here on earth and in his underground kingdom. Michael Beach is very sympathetic in his role as the troubled Dr.Adams who's sparring with "The Devil" during the movie brings the best out of "The Devil" and the worst out of him which was "The Devil's" plan all along. The end of the movie was both sad and shocking when we, as well as Dr. Adams, see the "Grand Plan" that "The Devil" set into motion for Dr. Adams. It reveled the most darkest secrets that Dr. Adams was hiding from himself, and everyone else, that he kept hidden deep in his sad and troubled soul.Eriq La Salle was both fascinating and scary as the sharp and witty Devil and played his part as the "Man from Hell" to the hilt. The scene at the picnic with the confrontation between "The Man" and Dr. Adams showed for the first time the other side of the coin of Dr. Adams cool clam and collective personality. As he lost his cool and ended up as crazy, if not more so, then the patients that he was treating.

Contains Spoiler I saw it, because I was in it.Fine, call me naive. But there it was on the shelf at the IL' Blockbuster. Lordy! Look, I don't think I met the minimum time spent in LA to get all jaded and ultra cool about these things. When you live in the real world, being an extra is pretty nifty.However, the Crazy as Hell is not nifty. What can I say? If you rent it, and watch all of it, you are, in fact, crazy as hell. Or just really really bored. Or maybe rehab would not be the worst idea?The whole thing makes little sense. Including a gratuitous scene showcasing LaSalle's odd dancing skills stuck in the middle of nowhere. There's a trick ending where you think all along Eriq is Satan, but...he isn't! Ronnie is. Sort of. At least as best as I can tell. Hell, what do I know?Maybe "What the Hell" would be better? It's just amusing to spend time working on a "production," and to see how gawdawfully seriously these people take these things, and themselves, and then find the end product so laughably bad. Didn't LaSalle watch this thing before he put it on the shelves? If I were him, I'd be, frankly, embarrassed as hell.But, what the hell, I'm in it. A bit resentful that they cut my best scene, but hell, you can still see me. I'm famous... ..like hell.

i didn't really appreciate this film. the dialogue was decent but they seemed to tread a thin line between spiritual and emotional, as if the writer was trying to dodge stereotype.personally, i spent a lot of time trying to figure out the "who-dunnit" scape of the cast. i first thought la salle's character was a figment of ty's psychosis in dealing with the loss of his daughter. at one time i thought that ty was a schizophrenic that killed his family, or whose family was made up to torment him. for a while i was convinced that he was in hell cause he had jumped, and his daughter was a rep of his mortal form. the director i figured as ty's real psychiatrist who was trying to convince him to go on meds for his schizophrenia. then that completely unconnected scene in the club with the girl was ridiculous, and i have yet to realize what significance the video/documentarian crew played except to limit the supernatural in the plot, and maybe develop ty's character (making it more confusing).i don't know what else to say. i ranked it 4 cause i'd rather watch something that poses intelligent with a promise of depth, than something that's all 8th grade level understanding. i just think they could lead us a little more and not be afraid to wrap it up.