Richard Pryor makes the most of the situation in this 1982 comedy which some viewers could continue to find distasteful. He's Jack Brown, a broke writer, supposedly working on a book, who's also been trying to get a job on a newspaper. Since work is awful hard to come boy, he takes a job as a "cleaning lady", and while goofing around in a toy store one night, he's spotted by Eric Bates (Scott Schwartz), a spoiled brat son of a pompous zillionaire (Jackie Gleason). Eric's under the impression that he can help himself to anything as long as he has the money, so Jack is hired as a plaything for the boy.Based upon the French comedy "Le Jouet", it's understandable that one would wince at various indignities to which Pryor must be subjected. But he and his fellow comic talent Gleason are able to mine a fair amount of laughs from various scenes and lines. Pryor really is at his best when reacting to other characters, while Gleason is perfect as a man who lives with his own version of reality: because he has all the wealth and power, he can make others do whatever he wants them to. Young Schwartz is appealing as the kid who must learn the movies' blatantly stated "you don't buy friends, you EARN them" message.The whole cast is great, though: Ned Beatty as sniveling flunky Morehouse, Wilfrid Hyde- White as Barkley the butler, sexy Teresa Ganzel as Gleasons' air headed trophy wife # 3, and Annazette Chase as Jacks' activist girlfriend.While not always terribly funny, there are some good gags, such as Jack marching into supposedly piranha infested water and getting his clothes cut to ribbons. The evolving relationship between Jack and Eric really is the heart and soul of the movie, though. Gleasons' activities sort of get glossed over by the end, but we can see that he is also a father who does genuinely love his son and does want to make a connection with him.If you're a fan of Pryor or Gleason, you'll likely have a good time with this.Six out of 10.

Just rewatched this Richard Donner movie starring Richard Pryor and Jackie Gleason after 30 years on Netflix Streaming just now. In this one, Pryor plays Jack Brown, an unemployed reporter whose house may be put up for sale unless he gets a job so he finds employment, initially as a maid, for Gleason's U.S. Bates before being reassigned as his son, Eric's (Scott Schwartz), "toy". I'll stop there and just say that despite the silly premise and some potentially stereotypically offensive situations, I did laugh plenty again at many of Pryor's shenanigans with Schwartz and Gleason still was good for some reaction shots especially when he says "woof". Also funny are Ned Beatty-who previously was in Pryor's Silver Streak but has scenes with him here for the first time since co-star Gene Wilder had the lion's share of lines with him there-as toady Mr. Morehouse and Teresa Ganzel as Fancy, U.S.'s (or in her pronunciation-You Ass) wife. It does get really contrived near the end but still, The Toy was fun and somewhat inspirational to me still. With that out of the way, if you're familiar with my reviews, you know that I always like to cite when productions have something associated with my current hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Well, this movie was shot there and I always like recognizing many of the city's landmarks like a brick structure I noticed at the beginning as Pryor encounters a limousine with his first meeting with Fancy there or a scene inside Goudchaux's Department Store-a building that still exists though the store is no more-with his riding the Wonder Wheel or the Indian Mounds near LSU that Jack and Eric walk on and, most awesome of all, two scenes of the State Capital-one seen through the windows of U.S. Bates's office as he makes Morehouse take his pants off in front of Jack and Eric and the other as the latter two are walking near the building's grounds. Also, a couple of players are familiar to me: Linda McCann, who appears in a party scene and at the end, was a teacher of a classmate of mine during my days before high school. She plays Honey Russell. And Robert Earle, who played a poker player at the beginning, was known to me as Bob Earle, president of WIBR-AM 1300, who did promotions for and introed many old-time radio programs for the Top 40 station during the 1979-80 season before it switched to country as I-13 during the latter part of the year. That station went off the air after Hurricane Gustav went through the area on September 1, 2008. Oh, and one more thing, I also like to cite when someone from my birthtown of Chicago, Ill. is associated with the production who in this case was screenwriter Carol Sobieski who had also adapted Annie starring Albert Finney and Carol Burnett earlier in the year.

I know there was a lot of controversy around this film, due to the fact we have a rich white man buying a black man for his son, but I think that people just took this film way too seriously. Richard Pryor is one of the best comedians of all time, so I definitely became interested in seeing this film after I saw it on VH1's "I love the 80's" show, once again though, it seemed like they were giving the film a hard time. Well, I saw this at a store and figured for 5 dollars, what the heck? It's the rental price, if I liked the movie, I might as well own it. Well, I watched it this morning, I have to say that I thought that this was a very cute film that I'm sure if you have an open mind, you'll definitely enjoy it.Jack is a journalist looking for a job, he's not getting anything though, at first he starts as a cleaning lady, but is fired by a snobby rich man. Then he's security at a toy store where the snobby rich man's son is shopping for anything he wants, he sees Jack and thinks he is funny, he wants him as the toy. When offered enough money to save his house, Jack agrees to it, but he's getting just a bit humiliated when he is constantly mocked, understandably. But when he gives the little boy a chance, they end up becoming great friends.The Toy is just a fun movie that I'm sure you'll get a kick out of if you just give it a shot. It's a definite 80's classic that had great comedy in it, Richard was absolutely hilarious. He and Scott Schwartz were very adorable together and looked like they had so much fun together. I would recommend this film for a fun comedy, you're guaranteed a few laughs.7/10

Richard Pryor again plays the bumbling idiot in this comedy with a morality twist. The premise revolves around Richard losing his house, an opportunity to make a lot of money fast being a human toy for a rich store owner and the hilarity that ensues. While the film (and Richard) are indeed funny, it's hard to watch at times as the movie ATTEMPTS to balance racial/social class commentary with blaxpotation comedy. In one scene, Richard is giving the kid a lesson in friendship and the next we watch him running around bug eyed. And in the end, Richard plays the stereotypical blaxpotation character while Jackie Gleason is the great white rich dad. Its fun to watch but hard to digest.