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Bookmark this pageThe Lunatic (1990)
Director: Lol Creme
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
This mind-boggling, often boring comedy/drama sex romp presents a disarmingly naive view of Jamaican life. It's centred on gentle lunatic Aloysius (Campbell) and the ménage à trois he sets up with blonde German tourist Inga (Wallace) and mad, machete-wielding goat-butcher Service Johnson (Bradshaw). They take to sex, then to crime, thence retribution. You could read the movie as a kind of upbeat reggae satire-cum-parody. It dances through all the major social and cultural themes: poverty, education, magic and animism, racism, class, religion, sexual politics, and finally cricket! The music score is by Wally Badarou, and the soundtrack sports such as Black Uhuru and Toots and the Maytals. The patois is easier to understand than in The Harder They Come, and Jamaica looks stunning in a touristy kind of way. A movie that asks to be laughed at.Author: WH
User reviews of this film
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- Sue said...
- Posted on Mar 17 2009 15:35 I thought this movie had gentle charm and humour. It is a parody not only of Jamaican life, but of the single, foreign, mature, overweight white female who travels to the Caribbean in search of sexual adventure. In addition to some gentle laughter, Aloysius (played by Paul Cambell), gives a very touching performance as the so-called lunatic who actually has his life very much together. A feel-good film for Sunday afternoons, when anything else is too taxing.
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Cast & crew
Director: Lol Creme
Producer: Paul Heller, John Pringle
Cast: Julie T Wallace, Paul Campbell, Carl Bradshaw, Reggie Carter, Winston Stona, Linda Gambrill full cast
Genre(s): Comedy
Duration: 94 mins
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