![[box cover]](../../reviewimgs/r/ryderpi.jpg)
Ryder, P.I.
The reason why the low-budget comedies of the 1980s are full of gratuitous tits and ass is because without unnecessarily naked women all that remains are unfunny, unwatchably dull disasters like Ryder, P.I. The DVD of this 1986 T&A-free, public-access-quality un-comedy is being marketed by Focus Films as featuring a young Howard Stern, and, indeed, Stern does make a brief cameo in the movie's only remotely amusing scenes. Unlike everyone else involved, Stern has charisma, delivery, and timing, but like the rest of the cast ("over sixty nationally known New York-based comedians!") and crew, he didn't have the good sense to turn this project down. Despite The Internet Movie Database's absurdly high user rating, the only "zaniness" to be found is a number of weak celebrity impressions and a monkey who thinks he's a duck. Which is not as funny as it sounds. Widescreen transfer (1.85:1) from low-grade source material, and unspecified sound format. Features 20 minutes of mostly Stern-centric outtakes which, although repetitive, are vastly more entertaining than the feature. Keep-case.
—Gregory P. Dorr
