Life Stinks Movie Review - Starring Mel Brooks and Leslie Ann Warren

By David Terr

"Life Stinks" is a serious romantic comedy starring, written and directed by Mel Brooks. The movie addresses the issue of homelessness in a rather amusing way. The acting is quite funny although much of the film is rather depressing. Still I think it's a great film.

Goddard Bolt (Brooks) is the billionaire CEO of Bolt Enterprises in Los Angeles. He is ruthless toward poor people, putting his money and business before their needs. Bolt plans to build Bolt Tower, a billion dollar project, in an LA slum, which would require tearing down the slum and displacing its residents. Meanwhile, Vance Crasswell, another billionaire who owns the slum, also wants to use it to build his own project. Crasswell ends up making a bet with Bolt that if he can live in the ghetto for 30 days without any money or form of identification, he'll give Bolt the land. Bolt takes Crasswell up on his bet.

Life in the slum proves very difficult and demeaning for Bolt. For two days he is unable to make any money or obtain food or shelter. Finally he meets an attractive young homeless woman named Molly who tells him how to get to the mission, where he can get a free meal. There he meets and becomes friends with some other derelicts, including an old man named Sailor and a black man named Fumes. Sailor gives him the nickname Pepto since he slept on a bottle of Pepto Bismol and the word Pepto got rubbed off on his face.

Bolt barely manages to survive for 30 days in the slum. He nearly gets killed by a gang of drug dealing thugs and nearly loses the bet by accidentally stepping out of the neighborhood boundary. As his 30 days runs up and it looks certain that he'll win the bet, Crasswell decides to betray Bolt by asking his lawyer associates to deny that the bet took place and make it look like Bolt had had a nervous breakdown. Meanwhile, Bolt and Molly fall in love. They both go to his mansion, where he is greeted by Crasswell as well as his lawyer assistants, who deny that the bet took place, whence Bolt and Molly are forced to return to the ghetto.

Now Bolt starts to go crazy. He plans to make a list of all his possessions but fails. He ends up being taken into a badly-run health clinic. A doctor there over medicates him and he nearly dies, but Molly comes to visit him and tells him that she loves him, which ends up curing him.

Back in the ghetto, Crasswell shows up with the media and a wrecking crew, planning to destroy the ghetto. Bolt decides to fight him. Bolt operates a fork lift, which he uses to fight off Crasswell. Eventually he beats Crasswell and forces him to concede the bet. Bolt builds a large, fancy community for the homeless people in the neighborhood and marries Molly.

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