- Accidental Aesop: You shouldn't do drugs because if you die because of them, a lot of people will condemn you as a drug addict post-mortem and ignore everything else you did right while you were alive.
- Anvilicious: Drugs are bad! If there's something this movie wants you to understand about John Belushi's life, it's that he did drugs and his life was very bad because of it, with everything else he did being secondary.
- Audience-Alienating Premise:
- Even without taking into account the surrealistic elements, a biopic based on a controversial book centered around a very beloved comedian that subsequently spends most of the runtime trashing and condemning him, rather than celebrating any of his achievements, was always going to be a hard sell to the public. It doesn't help that the plot is substantially different to that of the book, which had a rather straightforward narrative. Either way, it wasn't salacious enough to appeal to fans of tell-all biopics, nor was it compelling enough to justify the odd tonal shifts and narrative structure, earning just over a million dollars against a $13 million budget.
- A more somber biopic about Bob Woodward investigating Belushi's life (a la Citizen Kane) or an irreverent Black Comedy in the style of Belushi's comedies could have worked. Mashing both those elements together, complete with a Framing Device that tries to jam three disparate eras of Belushi's life into a single film, meant it was ultimately going to satisfy no one (the anger from Belushi's close friends and family about the book and the film notwithstanding).
- Awesome Music: Basil Poledouris delivers a score leagues above the film it was made for. Only three selections were released on the film’s soundtrack: “The Choice”
, “Angel of Death”
, and the end credits piece “Eulogy”
. - Harsher in Hindsight: Seeing Angel denounce Belushi for drug use and promiscuity is difficult, due to his actor Ray Sharkey's own problems in those areas, leading to him contracting AIDs and dying at the age of forty.
- Hilarious in Hindsight: Upon learning that Bob Woodward is going to write a book based on Belushi's life called Wired, Angel mockingly states that the book is going to trash his good name, leading Belushi to despondently respond, "I'm fucked." The Irony was not lost on Brad Jones, who remarked, "And that's just the book! You don't even want to tell him about what the movie is gonna do!"
- Nightmare Fuel: The autopsy scene, where John is being cut open by coroners as he screams for help. Also lapses into Accidental Nightmare Fuel, as much of the scene is an attempt at Black Comedy, what with the addition of a Laugh Track and the coroners slowly turning into Hibachi chefs happily slicing up John as if he was fish.John: Get me the hell out of here! I'm cold, it's cold—!
- Questionable Casting: It's not clear why the Hispanic Angel was played by the not-Hispanic-at-all Ray Sharkey. In addition to being a bad look in general, it actively undermines the film's (already inexplicable) attempt to smear Belushi as a racist.
- Signature Scene: The opening sequence/recreation of Belushi performing "King Bee" during SNL's first season is generally held up as one of the (f not the) best scene in the film, as Michael Chiklis does a near spot-on impersonation of one of the comedian's most famous numbers, complete with replicated stage cues
. - They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- A John Belushi Biopic in of itself isn't that bad of an idea, nor is playing it as a comedy with a tone akin to Belushi's films as a way to honor his legacy. Unfortunately, this movie was made by people who seem to just absolutely loathe John and see him as nothing but a depraved drug addict and take every chance to kick him while he's down.
- The movie also has clashing Framing Devices, either of which could've worked under the right conditions. One is a straightforward, down-to-earth, somber affair where Bob Woodward interviews various colleagues of John's for the Wired book that calls to mind the way Citizen Kane told the life story of its title character. The other is an irreverent, fantasy Black Comedy where John's ghost is guided by his guardian angel through snapshots of his life that seems to be trying to go for the type of humor John's films often went for. Both get stuffed into the movie and so we get a film with a really indecisive tone to approach its subject matter with and both are done with an extreme contempt for Belushi who the film is actively disinterested in treating as anything but a selfish, unlikable drug addict.
- Took the Bad Film Seriously: For all the film's issues such as its reductive and inaccurate portrayal of John Belushi, heavy-handed attitude towards his addictions, moments of tasteless and inappropriate comedy, and poor casting of important supporting players like Dan Aykroyd (who was so insulted by its portrayal of his friend he refused to work with people involved in the project), it's generally agreed that Michael Chiklis was a fantastic choice to play Belushi and that he does his very best with the material, perfectly capturing John's manic energy, tics and habits as a performer and his skills at physical comedy and does well in the dramatic scenes too, especially John's scenes with his wife Judy which are basically the only redeeming or kind moments the film gives him. All of this is made even more impressive considering this was Chiklis' first film. Brad Jones noticeably gives the film a very harsh review for the above flaws but has nothing but praise for Chiklis, saying he almost makes the film worth watching just to see how good he is. Aykroyd even forgave Chiklis for his involvement years later.
- Uncertain Audience: The film can never decide if it wants to be an irreverent black comedy about Belushi's life done in the style of his comedies, or if it wants to be a somber exploration of addiction and the pressures of fame. This results in a film that switches wildly between the two from scene to scene and struggles to pull off either, not helped by both being extremely unsympathetic to John and putting an emphasis on his addictions above everything else.
- Values Dissonance: The lack of any kind of sympathy for John and his drug abuse and instead exploiting his life and death to deal a heavy-handed Drugs Are Bad aesop plants this film right in the middle of The War on Drugs. Nowadays, a biopic on John would likely be more sympathetic when addressing his problems.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Ymmv/Wired
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