VIBES (1988)

VIBES (1988)

Tagline: The psychic comedy that's out of its mind.

(Comedy, Adventure, Romance) [PG-13]

Oh man, so when you really start looking at Jeff Goldblum’s movie list of appearances prior to JURASSIC PARK, it’s pretty rough with very few exceptions. This is one of those freakin movies where when I saw the previews back in the ’80s, I remember thinking…we are skipping that sucker. These days I am taking more chances on watching some of these things because occasionally you get something mind-blowing like VOYAGE OF THE ROCK ALIENS. 

In this one both Nick (played by Jeff Goldblum) and Sylvia (played by Cyndi Lauper who has actually done a few acting parts here and there over the years) are psychics. Nick is more of an intellectual explorer of this stuff, where Sylvia is actually being inhabited by another woman’s spirit. Hey, this is the plot, don’t look at me like that. They are asked by this dude Harry (played by Peter Falk most famous for being Columbo) to find his missing brother in Ecuador. After a lot of money gets them to Ecuador, the two become more and more intrigued with what Harry is really after. 

This movie starts off pretty slow, but we do get a scene at the beginning with various psychics trying their skills out on others and that part is actually pretty funny and interesting. After that, we get about an hour of almost nothing cool happening and a really awkward but sort of cute relationship budding between Sylvia and Nick. The last half hour is more engaging, but the payoff is weak and ultimately the movie ends up being a complete waste of time. 

I guess the idea here was to get a bit of a comedy out of this thing, but even the eye-opening premise can’t rescue this thing from just being overall dull and mediocre. The villains are corny, and the direction is beyond bad. I mean this thing looks like it was shot by someone that could care less. Cyndi Lauper’s character sometimes gets in a smart remark but is mostly used as the dumb, scantly clad but sometimes helpful character. Nick gets in a few quips but only serves up light chuckles at best. Some people think the two worked well together, but I didn't really get that at all. 

On the plus side, it was nice seeing Cyndi Lauper do something besides sing, but her accent starts to grind on you a bit because we all know she can sing with the best of them with virtually no accent at all. The fact that it’s very New York isn’t the problem. Lots of actors and actresses pull that off extremely well, it’s just her in this role. Goldblum is a bright spot, but sadly this thing is just a giant pile of garbage. This is coming from a dude that loves cheese piled to the sky and digs quirky fun stuff. This isn’t any of that for most of its running time, and the glimpses we do get are simply not enough for me to recommend this freakin thing. 

I have to give VIBES a 2 out of 7. For me, this was a bomb and it’s one of the reminders that the 80’s movies weren’t all hits being smashed out of the park.

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