Life Stinks

Having spent many fallow years producing sub-standard slapstick, Brooks here returns to the message-in-the-madness formula which once made him great; and if the result is extremely uneven, it's a huge leap forward from the inanities of Spaceballs. Selfish billionaire Goddard Bolt (Brooks) bets rival Vance Crasswell (Tambor, superbly slimy) that he can survive a sojourn communing with the city's homeless. Temporarily stripped of his wealth and taking to the streets, Bolt is swiftly swamped by the manic milieu of urban deprivation. Brooks plays out the inevitable schmaltzy conclusions with predictably tepid results: Bolt finds true friendship and love in the midst of misery, and finally turns the tables on the money-grabbing developers. More rewardingly, the grim, black humour of yore sporadically breaks through the glossy sheen, providing moments of vintage vitriol.