Brain Smasher... A Love Story

MOVIE #2,152 • SCORE 6/10 • 11.21.24
SERIES: ALBERT & AKERMAN

Ed. note: I goofed. Sequentially this is Pyun’s third film of 1993 and I mistakenly watched it before Arcade and Knights. At first, I thought I could cover this up and say I just watched the films of said year in alphabetical order but, sadly, A comes before B — what are the odds? I digress.

In the opening moments of Brain Smasher… A Love Story starring Andrew Dice Clay, we see Andrew Dice Clay looking directly into the camera and stating, “I'm known as the Brain Smasher”...


This is very silly, but I think it's legitimately funny in spots too. Pyun clearly had a good sense of humor and the screenplay is laced with deceptively clever dialogue and jokes. The running “we’re not ninjas!” goof goes from good to bad and then good again via sheer volume and commitment to the bit. On some level, you're either a fan of Andrew Dice Clay (The Actor — I make no claims to his career as a ‘stand-up comic’) or your can't stomach him (I'm in the latter group), but there are many auxiliary characters who stand out and are well-cast (Jerry Seinfeld’s Florida mom Liz Sheridan plays the Diceman’s mother in a brief but memorable role, and Pyun vets Brion James, Tim Thomerson and Charles Rocket are classic Pyunian noir-style detectives — their screen-time is also slight and completely detached from the tone and narrative of the rest of the movie, like so much here this is good in a vacuum but detrimental to the whole). Teri Hatcher is the love interest / dual-protagonist and seems to know how absurd this is, speed-running many of her lines as a result (but she’s basically fine).

It only takes him 80 minutes of run-time and roughly 500 punches to do this, but we learn that “Brain Smasher” is not just a clever nickname or something ‘cool’ to get stitched on a faux varsity jacket…


Still, this is very much light on action, especially compared to his recent run of over-the-top violence in Nemesis. But this also feels intentional. Pyun proves once again that he's impossible to pigeonhole. There's still the requisite punching and kicking, but at its core, Brain Smasher is a romcom. I didn't think he had it in him (although, in the end, it doesn't totally work), and it's wonderful that he's still able to surprise.

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⫷ MOVIE #2,151 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #2,152 ⫸

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Brainsmasher... A Love Story is a 1993 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Albert Pyun. It stars Andrew "Dice" Clay as Ed "The Brainsmasher" Malloy and Teri Hatcher as Samantha Crain. It was released on November 17, 1993.