The Dream Team stars Michael Keaton, Christopher Lloyd, Peter Boyle, Stephen Furst, and Lorraine Bracco. It is a 1989 comedy produced by Christopher W. Knight and directed by Howard Zieff.
The story focuses on four psychotics: Billy (Keaton), Henry (Lloyd), Jack (Boyle), and Albert (Furst). They are patients in a mental institution in Trenton, New Jersey. Their shrink, Dr. Weitzman (Dennis Boutsikaris), is planning a field trip for them to attend a New York Yankee baseball game. But things don’t go exactly as planned. Halfway to the park, Albert has to relieve himself. The doctor goes with him to an alley, after they find out that the filling station they had stopped at has a broken toilet. When Weitzman is waiting for Albert to finish, he hears a struggle taking place at the other end of the alley. He arrives just in time to see two men murder another man. The two men see him and attack him. Before they can finish him off, another witness sees what’s happening and the men flee. The other three patients, unaware of the events that had just happened, wonder what happened to their doctor. When Albert returns knowing what just took place, he can’t speak about it because his ailment is he can only talk about baseball. So now the four men are left unsupervised in the middle of New York City. Later the two men who attacked Weitzman, who we now know are cops, come back to finish him off. But Billy, Henry, and Jack finally get Albert to talk about what happened to their doctor. So now the four of them search every hospital in the city for Weitzman to prevent the crooked cops from finishing the job.
Michael Keaton and Christopher Lloyd work well together. Keaton’s character, Billy, is an angry writer who is always looking for a fight. He frequently bumps heads with Lloyd’s Henry, an obsessive-compulsive man who worked for a sanitation place. During a group therapy session, Billy deliberately moves his chair out of place and sits down. Henry sees this and tells him to straighten out his chair, to which Billy says, “my chair is straight and all the others are out of order”. Henry says that if Billy won’t straighten out his chair, he will do it for him. Billy finally seems to agree and gets up to move his chair. But he doesn’t just move it, he kicks over another one and tries to throw his out the window. Later on in the film, when the four are waiting for Weitzman to return, they get into it again when deciding what to do next. Billy wants to leave, but Henry wants to stay and wait. Billy eventually leaves while Henry says that only the doctor can give permission and he is “the doctor until the doctor comes back”.
Peter Boyle plays an excellent former advertiser who is fixated on Jesus Christ. Early on, Henry knocks on his door to tell him it’s time for group. He opens the door to find Jack completely naked. Henry says he can’t go like that. Jack replies by saying, “we are all naked in the eyes of the lord”. Further on in The Dream Team after Billy has just left, Jack tries to leave too. When Henry gets out of the van to stop him he says, “I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. Out of my way, asshole.”
Also, the field trip becomes an opportunity for the four of them to visit their pasts and recuperate. Billy goes to visit his girlfriend Riley (Bracco) and reconciles with her. Henry sees his wife and daughter for the first time in years and finds out his family still loves him and will wait for him when he gets out of the institution. Jack goes to see an old friend from his advertising agency and discovers that very little has changed since he left the firm. Albert finally feels comfortable enough to speak about something other than baseball. These events add a dramatic aspect to the film.
To wrap, The Dream Team is a perfect movie for you if you love warm-hearted comedy with a few serious moments on the side.