The Movie:

If we look at the legends of stand-up comedy as a holy trinity, Bill Hicks would be The Holy Ghost, George Carlin would be Jesus, and Richard Pryor would be God. Of course I'm fully aware of the subversion of comparing Hicks and Carlin to religious figures. I'm a huge fan of Richard Pryor and a complete convert to his comedic genius, which revolutionized the world of stand-up comedy with his seemingly effortless yet painfully honest and personal approach to his craft. In the world of comedy, there's a "Before Richard Pryor", and an "After Richard Pryor". If you want to read me drone on and on about how much I love Pryor's stand-up, check out my review of Omit The Logic, a decent documentary about the legend's life.

As much as I admire Pryor, I have to admit that he never really impressed me with his screen acting. The closest he got to the loose and boundary-pushing Pryor we know and love was through his collaborations with Gene Wilder, and even then, a lot of those films left a lot to be desired. As an intensely troubled man, I don't think he ever felt truly comfortable in his own skin when he was asked to play different characters in movies. The comfort and ease he looked like he felt while bearing his soul in front of a live audience was usually gone from his motion picture output. Incidentally, I believe Pryor was a better dramatic actor than a comedic one, just watch his impressive turns in Blue Collar and Lady Sings The Blues.

Some Kind of Hero, a drama about a Vietnam vet struggling to make a living after being forgotten by the system, had a lot of dramatic promise for Pryor, but the film ends up as an awkwardly paced and acted piece of cinematic frustration, an atonal mess that's best forgotten by Pryor's fans, like many of his 80s output lacking sorely in passion and artistic drive. Don't get me wrong, Pryor gives it his all in order to create a tragic character that's relatable, it's the mess around him that does him in.

The biggest issue with Some Kind of Hero stems from the producers cynically attempting to extract laughs from what was obviously supposed to be a drama. After Pryor was cast in the lead role, the writers were asked to add more comedic scenes in order to capitalize on their star's comedy appeal. This turns out to be a disastrous decision, since every attempt at comedy feels forced and desperate. The comedy in the first act scenes where Eddie, Pryor's character, is stuck in a Viet Cong prison are more forgivable, since we get the feeling that he's using humor to distract him from a painful situation. But once Eddie gets back to his homeland, the jokes, such as a terribly juvenile one where he appears to have pissed his pants while trying to rob a bank with a water pistol, all become grating.

Another problem is the film's awkward pacing and episodic structure. The focus of the story is meant to be Eddie's disappointing experiences as a vet, but the film spends the entirety of the first act in Eddie's prison, leaving the film with not much space to deal with its themes. The Vietnam prison story leads to a romance with a prostitute (A terribly miscast Margot Kidder) that comes of nowhere, only for the tale to end as a badly executed heist thriller. My guess is that Some Kind of Hero was a troubled production that tried to put the pieces together from whatever the filmmakers were able to get from the dailies, thanks to studio interference and Pryor's troubled personal life at the time.

The Blu-ray:

Video:

Olive Films' 1080p transfer is full of dirt and scratches, as well as a soft look that resembles an upconverted DVD. The colors look a bit too faded and this looks like a direct transfer from a 35mm source without much work in between. I'm sure this is the best the film looks on home video, but it's far from impressive.

Audio:

The disc comes with a DTS-HD 2.0 track, which I believe to be a mono mix coming out of the two front speakers. Even though it's a bit tinny, the presentation is clean enough to understand all dialogue, but don't expect much else. As usual with other Olive Films releases, there are no subtitle options, not even for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Extras:

We get nothing.

Final Thoughts:

Even amongst Pryor's long list of cinematic missteps, Some Kind of Hero still falters as a low point for the legend's career. Because of the producers' desperate approach to awkwardly inject comedy into the material, it doesn't work as either a comedy or a drama.

Oktay Ege Kozak is a film critic and screenwriter based in Portland, Oregon. He also writes for The Playlist, The Oregon Herald, and Beyazperde.com