This film seemed hysterically funny when I saw this in the movie theater upon its initial release. I continued to find it funny when it came out of VHS and recommended it to my regular customers at the video store I worked at. Some customers came back very pleased while others were disappointed, finding the parody of the Marx Brothers in poor taste or just not funny. Seeing it nearly 30 years later, I find it amusing, if not as hysterical, but in watching it in a double bill with "A Night at the Opera", it is certainly worth a third and fourth look every 27 years or so.

Truly wonderful claymation opening credits set up the stage for a delightful parody of "A Night at the Opera", setting it in the world of ballet instead, and featuring the always wonderful Nancy Marchand terrific in the role of the befuddled Lillian Oggelthorpe, a modern day version of Margaret Dumont. John Turturro is frenetic and often exhausting as the Groucho like attorney, an ambulance chaser who the manipulative charm won over Lillian as a client. An inept gardener (Bob Nelson) represents Harpo, and Mel Smith is a hyper taxi driver, parodying Chico.

George de la Pena, playing the ballet dancer version of "Night of the Opera's" Walter Woolf King, is hysterically vain, but I wouldn't want to work for the crazy Turturro as he is here. There are bland performances by Spike Alexander and Juliana Donald, representing Allan Jones and Kitty Carlisle, and their attempt to modernize ballet seems like something more appropriate for VH1. John Savident is delightfully stuffy though as Marchand's longtime solicitor who suffers from all sorts of indignities.

This follows the plot of "A Night at the Opera" incredibly close, and indeed some of the gags are very funny. But others land with a thud. The three clowns honestly lack in the chemistry department that the three brothers had, and only Turturro has had any career of note. But if it was able to get younger viewers to explore the classic styles of the Marx Brothers and other teams, then it did some good.

Well first of all let me just state that I'm not a fan of The Three Stooges or The Marx Brothers. That kind of silly stupid humor is just not my thing. It's okay to have a ridiculous scene every now and then but not for all the time and that's exactly what this movie is about. Endless silly scenes that make absolutely no sense at all, not immediately something I would call fun. I admit that I smiled like four or five times but that's about it, for the rest it's just too dumb to make me laugh. Mel Smith always made me laugh in Alas Smith & Jones so he was the main reason why I watched Brain Donors but maybe I should just have skipped it when I read that it was humor à la Marx Brothers. My bad!

This is by far one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. John Turturro (one of my favorite actors) was hysterical. Bob Nelson and Mel Smith were great as well. I have a few of Dugan's movies. I love his work with Sandler and I also enjoyed Beverly Hills Ninja, but this movies blows them all way. Hollywood needs to make more silly slapstick films like this one. I believe a good Comedy needs 2 things. 1. The Comedy has to be consistent and 2. The Conclusion of the Movie has to be the funniest part of the movie. Brain Donors delivers well on both of these accounts. I also respect that this is a clean comedy (PG). Being able to make someone laugh now a days without the use of fowl language is remarkable. Without thinking twice this movie is a definite 10 out of 10