Review of Club Fed

Club Fed (1990)
Tain't funny, McGee
24 June 2023
My review was written in June 1991 after watching the film on Prism video cassette.

Comedy isn't pretty (per Steve Martin), and it's also a fragile commodity, as evidenced by the strenuously unfunny "Club Fed". Direct-to-video release mainly is a showcase for Judy Landers.

Film is produced by Lander's mom, Ruth Landers, who in the spirit of equal time also produced (with the same director, Nathaniel Christian), a vehicle for daughter Audrey Landers titled "California Casanova", another upcoming video release. Siblings have starred together on tv and in the video "Ghost Writer".

Judy, as a murdered gangster's girlfriend, is framed and sent to the new security prison Club Fed. FBI director Joseph Campanella has sen agent Lance Kinsey there as part of an embezzlement scam involving prison warden Burt Young, and film depicts the slapstick high jinks of Kinsey and numerous guest star inmates.

Silly stunts and in-jokes don't add up to laughs, and as usual for a Landers production, there's plenty of sex tease involving low-cut gowns for Judy. Pic's nadir occurs when Kinsey is on the phone and says "I want to speak to the (FBI) director", and helmer Christian steps into the scene for a dumb gag. It might have worked had a recognizable director had pulled it.

Pic's obviously in trouble when extraneous drug routines are essayed by Allen Garfield, Kinsey and Sherman Hemsley. No less than eight writers are credited with "additional sight gags".
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