Stuart Saves His Family
Directed by Harold Ramis, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Al Franken, Laura San Giacomo, Vincent D’Onofrio.

This is the most bizarre local release I can remember: Stuart Saves his Family is opening only at Movies 12 and will only be shown there once a day. We all know that Al Franken’s Saturday Night Live character Stuart Smalley — the 12-Steppers’ 12-Stepper — was a loser, but little did we suspect that even Rodney Dangerfield gets more respect. Of all the wretchedSNL movie spawns that litter our world, we do not understand why Stuart is treated like a runt and given this embarrassing, token release. Initial reviews were generally lukewarm but noted the presence of some well-aimed comic barbs. Director Ramis is a comedy pro (Groundhog Day and countless writing hits) who should at least be able to turn in a competent product. So why is Stuart getting iced? Is he not good enough and smart enough?

This article appears in April 28 • 1995 (Cover).

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Marjorie Baumgarten is a film critic and contributing writer at The Austin Chronicle, where she has worked in many capacities since the paper's founding in 1981. She served as the Chronicle's Film Reviews editor for 25 years.