Modern Problems

Modern Problems (1981)

Chevy has the power to make this Christmas the funniest ever!

Jealous, harried air traffic controller Max Fielder, recently dumped by his girlfriend, comes into contact with nuclear waste and is granted the power of telekinesis, which he uses to not only win her back, but to gain a little revenge.

Date of release
1981-12-25
TMDB
5.4 / 10 (99)
Runtime
1h 29m
Genres
Comedy, Science Fiction, Romance
Director
Ken Shapiro

Casting

Interesting facts

Modern Problems is a 1981 American comedy film written and directed by Ken Shapiro and starring Chevy Chase, Patti D'Arbanville, and Dabney Coleman. The film grossed $26.2 million on an $8 million budget.

Production

Michael Shamberg and Doug Kenney had a deal with Ken Shapiro to make a film—Kenney had a title, Teenage Communists from Outerspace and Shapiro wanted to make a film about telekinesis. This led to Modern Problems.

Filming started in July 1980. It was Chase's fifth movie in two years following Caddyshack, Seems Like Old Times, Oh Heavenly Dog and Under the Rainbow. "There were problems doing the film," said Chase later. "There were times when I wasn't happy at all with the way things were going. Though I'm bound to say [...] he's come up with a very funny film."

Chase was nearly fatally electrocuted while filming a flying scene involving wires and had to spend several weeks in the hospital.

The film's release was complicated by the 1981 air traffic controller's strike.

The film was recut prior to release to avoid an R rating, which upset the writers, who felt the film's best laughs were lost.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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