For starters, Busey and Haim > Mac and Me. Though Mac and Me had that wildly adventurous, oddly hilarious, death-defying wheelchair plunge off of a cliff. Seriously though, they make for the best tag team since the Hart Foundation. I wish I had an Uncle Red, boy do I. Most of mine did drink like monkfish, perhaps the only commonality they shared with Uncle Red. None had his mechanical acumen. I wasn't allowed anywhere near fireworks and had to settle for sparklers. Anyway, good things happen in bad ways when you let oft-imitated, never duplicated horror master Stephen King write the screenplay to the movie based on his own novelette, Cycle of the Werewolf. Namely, the best human to lupine transformation ever filmed...though, in reality, it wasn't too much of a stretch for the very hirsute reverend to transition to wolf. He was the hairiest dude in the flick. Nobody was buying that the bereaved, bald as a baby's bum, slightly effeminate dad was the werewolf. Maybe the Stepfather, none other than Terry O'Quinn, may have been suspected early on by bush-league sleuths. But back to the pros and cons of this classic horror/comedy film. Pros: the aforementioned human to lupine transmogrification; top notch acting by Haim & Busey; coolest wheelchair ever; awesome car/wheelchair chase scene; convincingly real demonstration of the inherent dangers of fireworks; highly informative tutorial on how to make a silver bullet; hysterical drunken jokes by creepy Uncle Busey; self-deprecating jokes by the crippled Haim (regarding his legs). Cons: vilification of hirsute men; victimization of bald men; alcoholism as a cool thing; Busey's teeth; Busey creepily touching young Megan Follows and watching her recoil in horror (doubt that was scripted); insanely cruel, very un-PC jokes at the expense of the handicapable; a family surname that sounds like the grossest side fixin' ever: Cole Slaw. Seven fixed stars because it was the best, most Kingly, Werewolf VHS tape of the 80s!
Review of Silver Bullet
