Movie review: ‘Middle Age Crazy’

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A few years ago, I saw “Middle Age Crazy” after too long of a time – and I had to drag up my VHS copy (as well as the VHS player), but it was worth it. “Middle Age Crazy” is a really solid motion picture and not just some throw-away 1980s flick that pokes fun at a guy turning 40 and the sexual consequences of his “craziness.” “Middle Age Crazy” is worth watching from start to finish and you’ll find superlative performances from headliners Bruce Dern and Ann-Margaret to the comedy provided by his best friend. You can’t find this one on DVD (except pirated copies on auction sites) and it’s not available via any streaming service. So, if you have it tucked away on VHS, watch “Middle Age Crazy,” you won’t regret it.

‘Middle Age Crazy’
(1980; 97 minutes; rated R; directed by John Trent and starring Bruce Dern, Ann-Margret and Graham Jarvis.)

LIFE’S STRINGS BRING SERIOUS ‘CRAZY’ TO THIS GUY

(NOTE: I expanded this review with additional opinion and trivia and the updating of links on April 1, 2026.)

You might believe from the title that “Middle Age Crazy” is just a funny film about a guy going overboard when he turns 40. Yes, there is solid but stereotypical comedy here, especially from supporting actor Graham Jarvis, who says all the things you might be thinking but don’t have the nerve to speak aloud, but you’d be wrong believing that it doesn’t go beyond stereotypes.

“Middle Age Crazy” is the story of a guy turning 40 and who has sexual fantasies and then a fling with a younger woman (a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader, of course) despite a wonderful home life including a wife who likes to count every time she has a “bingo” – you’ll have to watch the film to completely understand the context. However, the story gets totally serious and somewhat dark for all the wrong reasons between the husband and wife and isn’t what you really thought it was going to be.

Oh, and beware that “Middle Age Crazy” is from 1980 and so it will be difficult if not impossible for many to ignore the black lawn jockey statue in front of the main characters’ home. Otherwise, it is interesting to see the technology of the era including a “Betamax” reference and a projection TV. Now, back to the movie review …

A promotional still photograph from the movie “Middle Age Crazy.”

Bruce Dern and Ann-Margret star as “Bobby Lee Burnett” and “Sue Ann Burnett.” They’re living the upper-middle-class lifestyle to the fullest. However, that relationship’s particular ship is headed full-speed onto the rocks through family issues. Dern’s increasingly pressing concern is that he feels the world closing in on him – and begins having fantasies from being with his son’s girlfriend to seeing his old girlfriend (who’s still a virgin waiting for him after 20 years) to giving an outstandingly frank speech as valedictorian at his son’s high school graduation or giving the finger to a Texas highway patrol officer while ripping past in his new Porsche.

Along the way, you have Ann-Margret totally in love with Dern but also having to deal with a bunch of issues herself – from a husband becoming distant to family issues that I won’t spoil for you. Toss in a limited but great supporting cast, with the grandfather and Jarvis being tops, and you’ll watch a real winner.

The best thing about “Middle Age Crazy” is that it balances some comedy and the deep, dark dramatic moments between both a husband and wife betrayed. Leavening the serious side to marital infidelity is Jarvis’ short time on screen … and it’s an absolute hoot. Toss in that Dern’s fantasies are well-done and not an insult to your intelligence with most stereotypical stuff – although the fantasies are not particularly innovative, they are executed to near perfection.

Some complainers would – and some critics noted at the time – that the film isn’t completely a marital drama or comedy and that each component detracts from the other. I liken it to a roller coaster ride where you have your ups and downs. It’s not a raunchy-funny-hilarious movie throughout (take “Bachelor Party” – click here to read my review) and its certainly not a complete dark drama (take “Panic” with William H. Macy – click here to read my review), but what makes it good is that it is both.

Now, is this Oscar material? No, of course not. However, it’s better than 90-percent of the dreck being shoveled out by Hollywood these days.

Here’s a look at the few cast members worth mentioning …

  • A two-time Oscar nominee (not for this one), Dern is quietly great here despite some of the blustering by his character. He does a solid job in his good and bad interactions with Ann-Margret, especially when he nearly gets violent with her, but really shines in the vignettes of his fantasies – such as where he dreams of telling the high school graduates to “stay 18 forever!” From a glance to his voice’s intonations, you know you have an actor with Dern presenting a character that could have been a joke. I liked him better as a domestic terrorist in “Black Sunday” (click here to read my review), but he wasn’t up to his usual level with the comedy “Down Periscope” (click here to read my review). Dern was nominated for “Coming Home” with Jane Fonda and “Nebraska.”
  • A promotional still photograph from the movie “Middle Age Crazy.”

    Also a two-time Oscar nominee, Ann-Margret brings a believable vivaciousness to her character but by the end shows her real acting chops with a lost-my-joy-in-life voice. It’s a character of contrasts of a woman counting her orgasms or sharing an unintentionally stimulating lawn mower ride with a friend before tennis with one who has to deal with family problems and the infidelity of the husband she has invested herself completely with. All-in-all, a winner of an effort by Ann-Margret. She was nominated for “Tommy” and “Carnal Knowledge” and, like many who came to see her later in her career first, enjoyed her work with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in “Grumpy Old Men” and its sequel.

  • A promotional still photograph from the movie “Middle Age Crazy.”

    Jarvis as Dern’s obviously long-time, blue-collar friend and employee “J.D.” just steals every great comedy line in the film – just about all of them sexual (from what the hot water in the hot tub is doing to daydreaming about a young lady behind the McDonald’s counter and the franchise’s signature burger). Thankfully, “J.D.” has no filter when talking to Dern. Jarvis, who had a somewhat prolific career of 137 acting credits spanning six decades, is seen in just the perfect balance of screen time. Any less, you’d be cheated; any more, and you’d tire quickly of his act. Before his death at 72 in 2003 of multiple myeloma, Jarvis did work in films such as “ Mom” and “Misery” as well as a bundle of TV shows including “Six Feet Under,” “Home Improvement” and “Married … With Children.”

  • Eric Christmas plays grandfather “Thomas ‘Tommy’ Burnett” and he’s very good here, too. His character has one of the most memorable lines in the film when he says that being old is “the sh&^s.” That one’s repeated several times. Christmas had the grandfatherly thing down pat and doesn’t disappoint in this one. However, I liked him best as “Principal Carter” in the “Porky’s” franchise (click here to read my review of the original) and he was also in the cult fave “Harold & Maude” as well as “The Andromeda Strain” and a bushel of TV roles including on shows from “L.A. Law” to “The X-Files.” I liked him best on TV in an episode of “Home Improvement” where he’s an incompetent magician. Christmas’ career is few credits short of Jarvis’ total, but his spanned seven decades from the first in a TV movie in 1939. He died at 84 in 2000.
  • Helen Hughes plays grandmother “Ruth Burnett” and she drops one-liners on Christmas at every turn. She does a workmanlike job with the expected lines by her character, but she doesn’t distinguish herself (and I don’t know if she could have done anything more). Hughes was in “Tommy Boy” and “Billy Madison” and acting came somewhat late in life for her, as her first credit was in 1977 when she was 59 and she rang up 66 until the last in 2014. She did TV series from “Eight is Enough” to the oddly titled “Puppets Who Kill” in which she was in the equally strange-titled episode, “Buttons and the Geriatric.” Hughes died at 100 in 2018.
  • Geoffrey Bowes plays son “Greg Burnett” and he has the least screen time of all the primary cast, but he actually gets the most out of those minutes. He has the stereotypical interaction with Dern while headed off to college to major in a subject he doesn’t want to study. However, he steps up his game and is much better with Christmas in the middle of the flick and then with Dern at the end. Frankly, they should have cut grandma’s screen time and given him a bit more. Bowes was in “Due South” and “Goosebumps.”
A promotional still photograph from the movie “Middle Age Crazy.”

Unfortunately, the weakest link in the acting chain in this one is Deborah Wakeham as beautiful home-wrecker “Nancy Henerson.” Actually, of course, it is Dern who wrecks the home for falling for Wakeham, but that’s what the other woman was called at the time of the film. Like others in “Middle Age Crazy,” Wakeham didn’t manage to elevate her character and so “Nancy” is forgettable the second she’s off screen. Wakeham was in “Major League” (click here to read my review) and “Spider-Man,” but hasn’t notched an acting credit since 2003.

Screenwriters don’t get great credit all of the time, but Carl Kleinschmitt’s screenplay based on co-writer Sonny Throckmorton’s title song (made semi-famous by Jerry Lee Lewis), is a real winner here. He is the one who made sure that the drama was balanced with just the right amount of comedy and that the characters never fall into yawning stereotypes with their dialogue.

Kleinschmitt wrote for a variety of iconic TV shows including seven episodes of “Gomer Pyle: USMC,” one for each “Love, American Style” and “Welcome Back, Kotter” and “M*A*S*H” (in an episode with Ron Howard as guest star). Best yet, he wrote the teleplay for the first “Love Boat” TV movie and its sequel … plus, to my delight, he wrote the “Oh, Dale!” portion of the second episode of season one of the series that starred a cross-dressing John Ritter (click here for my take on the TV series).

I’d like to write a bit about director John Trent, but his work here is praised for not getting in the way of the actors or the screenwriter. He does a solid job because he doesn’t fumble the ball and what could be a movie of stereotypes isn’t one. Ah well, Trent had 16 directing credits at his passing in 1983.

I’d have to surmise that there is a passel of legal issues surrounding “Middle Age Crazy” because it is not available in April 2026 on any streaming service and can only be found on eBay on VHS tape or, apparently bootleg DVDs.

“Middle Age Crazy” is another film that somehow slips through lists of films of box office earnings on even notable websites. “Middle Age Crazy” is reported to have been the 53rd film of 1980 with $13 million, according to The Numbers, but it doesn’t show up on the totals for both Box Office Mojo and IMDb.com. It was made on a budget of $5 million. The No. 1 film (naturally) was “Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back” with $209.3 million and it nearly doubled the No. 2 film “Nine to Five” (click here to read my review) with its $103.2 million. You found many great and memorable flicks that year from “The Shining,” “Airplane!,” “The Blues Brothers” and the golf classic “Caddyshack.”

Here are the films from 1980 that I’ve reviewed for my blog:

Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):

  • Ann-Margret’s full birth name is Ann-Margret Olsson and she has the nickname “Slugger;” and Dern’s middle name is MacLeish.
  • Jarvis was Canadian born, while Christmas was born in the UK. Both actors used their given names throughout their careers … and Christmas’ middle name was Cuthbert, while Jarvis’ was Powley.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “The film in 1981 was nominated for two Golden Raspberry Awards at the inaugural event. These were for Worst Director and Worst Screenplay but the movie failed to take home a Razzie in either category.”
  • Apparently, “Middle Age Crazy” is so obscure or forgotten that IMDb.com has only four entries on the film’s trivia page.
  • The list of actors in the credits runs to only 22, with an additional one uncredited (Gene Forsythe as “Man Driving Porsche”).
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “In the first scene, when Bobby Lee and Sue Ann are in bed together, the Tonight Show is on with Johnny Carson doing Carnac. When they finish making love, Sue Ann points out that it is past midnight. Carson is still on, which would be fine on the East or West Coast, but the movie is set in Texas, in the Central Time Zone, where the Tonight Show came on at 10:30 and would have been off by then.” This entry is a goof unto itself as the movie was released in July 1980. “The Tonight Show” went from 90 minutes to an hour in September 1980. So, therefore the film is correct and the person writing the “goof” is actually the goof.

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