A pimp (Howard Hesseman) gets into trouble so he cons a nerdy professor (Dan Aykroyd) into posing as his partner, a flamboyant pimp named Doctor Detroit. On paper this looks like it could be funny. Maybe with John Landis handling it, it could have been. But it's not. I have tried this movie three times in the last five years, desperately hoping each time I will finally "get it." But now I am accepting there just isn't anything to "get." It's just a very boring comedy that, despite a solid cast, has no laughs. It's not that I mind the silly paper-thin plot. It's a comedy so I don't expect much from the plot. I don't mind the subject matter. If anything, the movie suffers from not being raunchy enough. It's an 80's comedy about prostitutes and pimps yet it's pretty tame compared to similar films of the time. I don't even know how to pinpoint what is wrong with it except to repeat that it didn't make me laugh. Not once. Sorry. It blows.
Review of Doctor Detroit
