Lee Eisenberg "The Couch Trip" is one of those silly comedies that they cranked out in the '80s. In this case, Dan Aykroyd plays a mental patient who poses as a psychiatrist, and he goes to Beverly Hills to sub for Charles Grodin. Most of the movie's humor springs from their satirical look at Beverly Hills and people's empty lives there (a woman has a power struggle with her maid).It's the sort of movie that you just watch to have a good time. Don't expect any kind of religious experience. But you'll most likely laugh a lot at how the Beverly Hills people flaunt their wealth. Also starring Walter Matthau, Donna Dixon, Arye Gross and Victoria Jackson (of "UHF").

Boba_Fett1138 This was a good and enjoyable 'silly' comedy, that is filled with a whole bunch of crazy fun characters. A typical great '80's comedy, with also some great '80's comedy stars in it.The movie is truly uplifted by its cast. Dan Aykroyd is really great. It's funny but I don't I've ever seen him play the main character before in a comedy. I already always liked him as the sidekick but with this movie he proofs that he can also handle a comedy in which he plays the main character. The movie also further more features Charles Grodin and Walter Matthau, among others. Esepcially Charles Grodin is also great as the stressed out psychiatrist. Walter Matthau seems a bit out of place, since his character doesn't serve a significant enough purpose in the movie, comical-wise.The concept and the story show great comedy potential. An escaped 'menthal' patient takes the place of a psychiatrist. He and his radio show become an huge success. But of course soon things are starting to go crazy again when people start to see through his scam and the real psychiatrists shows up. It provides the movie with some great silly moments and some real great laughs. The movie made me laugh out loud at times, due to how silly it all became at times.But things start to get really crazy toward the ending of the movie, in a not so positive way. The movie tries to put way too much in the ending, both comically and dramatic/morally. The movie gets very crazy and unbelievable and things get rushed way too hard. Even the characters start to not work out as good anymore. The movie tries too hard but it simply fails. The ending just doesn't feel right and satisfying enough. A shame, otherwise I would had surely rated this movie higher.A movie definitely worth watching for a couple of good laughs but it just isn't the best 'silly' '80's comedy around.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

qljsystems The Couch Trip bears all the hallmarks of a failed vehicle to inflate the principal actors' fame at the expense of long-term product saleability. Just watching it, you catch moments that would appear in a trailer - one-liners mostly - yet the overall plot is far-fetched and ridiculous. Some may say that the movie is supposed to reflect the insanity of its protagonist Becker (Dan Aykroyd), but I disagree. The acting is wooden more times than not and the plot's clunkiness is too noticeable to overlook.Aykroyd delivers his character and dialogue with Aykroydesque aplomb, but never really breaks through an invisible barrier of being... Dan Aykroyd playing an obviously Dan Aykroyd role. Matthau delivers perhaps one truly funny line (see the scene where he literally sucks all the jelly out of the donuts using straws: "If anybody wants a donut without the jelly, they're ready.") but the rest of the time he treads out a tired role in a way that clearly indicates how unhappy he was making this film. Grodin is just more of the same... a pent-up, angst-ridden bag of nervous energy on the verge of a complete mental collapse - a parody of his repertoire - and delivers a prosaic role.The humour is overtly physical, though much too inferior for successful slapstick. The scripting problems come down to the fact that it was written to the actors' needs rather than the audience's benefit. It accommodates them in all their clichéd glory. No scene illustrates this better than when Aykroyd is in a limousine with the TV on in the background. A semi-witty condom commercial starring Chevy Chase plays - an obvious reference to their on-screen partnership in Spies Like Us - and even here Chase succeeds in being a send-up of himself.Most of the Saturday Night Live crew were involved in many of memorable family of comedies in the 1980s, of which Aykroyd and Grodin are members. The Couch Trip comes across as a quickly thrown-together, industrially-produced, colour-by-numbers replica of National Lampoons, promising funny actors, never delivering.It's a lazy piece of film-making that was intended to give Aykroyd more air-time (forgive the unintentional word use) and barely makes use of Matthau except as a parody of himself.Truly unforgettable.

mcfly-31 Only one comment (as of this writing) on IMDB?? Which is the ultimate example of why this is a very underrated comedy dealing with Aykroyd's escape from a mental facilitly (more like a den for misfits) and masqerading as his hated supervisor/doctor from the nutbarn. He heads to L.A. with his assumed name to sub for an unstable radio shrink (Grodin) and his candid approach garners him city-wide attention. He fast talks his way into a big contract and seems on his way. He gets distracted, though, by knockout Dixon (his real-life wife, how lucky), who is some kind of shrink-producer and also by Matthau's perceptive homeless schemer. He's onto Aykroyd and says he'll keep quiet if Dan splits the cash with him. That's just a little of what's going on in this busy little conman adventure, as at the same time Grodin is getting wise with the real doctor Aykroyd is impersonating. And Grodin's wife is also involved with his lawyer, who is seeing dollar signs in Aykroyd, as well is a kiss-butt producer, and annoyingly assisting Grodin is Clennon, the real doctor who is supposed to be replacing him. There are a lot of great jabs at the psychiatry profession, and the entertainment business, the best being the short but very memorable scene where Aykroyd takes calls on the radio, one of the funniest scenes I've ever watched. Unfortunately, the film ends abruptly and could've used a better knock out blow. But, from beginning to (near) end this provides a lot of solid laughs and it's too bad that the kind of plot it has doesn't permit another trip to the couch.