The Man With Two Brains (1983)

Directed by Carl Reiner. Starring Steve Martin, Kathleen Turner, David Warner, George Furth, Paul Benedict, Peter Hobbs, Earl Boen, James Cromwell, (voice) Sissy Spacek. [R]

Martin plays a brain surgeon (inventor of the “cranial screw-top” technique) whose “brilliant research in brain transplantation is unsurpassed, and will probably make [his] name live beyond eternity.” After hitting sexy gold-digger Turner with his car, he performs emergency brain surgery and marries her before she’s even out of the hospital; Martin’s sexual frustration from a wife who won’t touch him beyond finger-sucking causes him to fall in love with a brain in a jar voiced by Spacek (and if you think that last detail escalated the story too far into silliness, a. you’re probably unfamiliar with Martin’s early film career, and b. you’d best traipse elsewhere). Martin is in his element here (and therefore, very funny) and Turner is always fun as a seductress (especially when her technique is clearly not on the level); when the cluttered plot gets in their way, the humor and pace suffer. Don’t let anyone spoil the identity of the “Elevator Killer.” Look for Jeffrey Combs as a doctor with a razor.

76/100