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It’s a movie of definite 90s origins that has aged incredibly well.
John Ritter is a regular Joe stuck in a lousy job who spends all his time watching TV to the point he has ignored his wife ( Pam Dawber) to the brink of leaving. He unknowingly makes a deal with Spike ( Jeffrey Jones). Spike runs the underworld collecting souls for the devil. Spike’s right-hand man, Crowley ( Eugene Levy), gets on Spike’s nerves and gets himself thrown into TV land to fend for his undead self. Crowley helps the Knables ( Ritter and Dawber) traverse this sadistic world in different satanic tales on popular TV shows. Don Calfa ( Weekend at Bernie’s) and Erik King ( Dexter) play supporting roles. Also, watch out for Captain Lou Albano and One Man Gang in a wrestling segment. It’s one of the goofier but very fun scenes.
I feel the effects are great, even by today’s standards. The CGI looks par for the time but hasn’t aged too badly. Even with the subject matter, it does an excellent job of not being too silly for a PG rating but still fun enough for kids. Duane’s Underworld will always be the best and one of the highlight sections of the spoof. It makes me want to watch Airheads for some reason. Someone with less than a decent knowledge of 70’s and 80’s TV shows might miss some references though.
The director would go on to direct Sudden Death and Time Cop with Van Damme and End of Days with Arnold. Shame this was a box office failure. It’s incredibly entertaining. Has quite a few laugh-out-loud parts.
