I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Even as a kid, with very little taste, I though this had to be about as stupid as anything I've ever seen. First of all, the two men, Ray Milland and Rosey Grier, look like they are sleeping in the same bed and got stuck. Nobody knew what to do with their necks. Of course, the question is, "What would happen to a being with two heads?" This is an uncomfortable question when you think of everything. I won't criticize it too much because the campy idea of a black mand and an old white man stuck in the same body with their own thought processes is entertaining to a point. I just couldn't buy it.

This film is bundled on a DVD with THE INCREDIBLE 2-HEADED TRANSPLANT and while they are both very bad, perhaps THE THING WITH TWO HEADS is a bit worse--though this is like comparing cholera to cancer--they're both quite nasty!! This film from American-International is a strange melange of genres--being a horror, Blaxploitation, action comedy all rolled into one. And, sadly, it really does none of these genres very well.It begins with a rich racist doctor (Ray Milland) announcing that he's dying and only has a couple weeks to live. It seems that his body is dying and he has a crazy notion to graft his body onto a donor body AND eventually have the donor's head sliced off--placing him in total control of the body. Considering that this is illegal and immoral, they decide to find a guy on death row. But the only available donor is the very large and very Black Rosey Grier. This is a serious problem not just because the head and body would not match, but because Milland plays a very, very racist man and he's not happy when he awakens to see his new body! Rosey isn't particularly thrilled by the new arrangement and instead of just sitting by passively until they saw his head off, he decides to run away in order to prove he isn't a murderer as well as to get someone to remove Milland. In this escape scene the film degenerates to amazingly low levels of entertainment. The getaway seems to last almost a third of the film and looks more like an episode of "The Dukes of Hazzard" or SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT with its ridiculous police chase. It begins with Grier/Milland AND a Black doctor jumping on the back of a mountain bike in a race. Grier's riding ability is better than that of anyone in the race as the others just keep falling off the bikes again and again--leading to Grier et all actually winning the race!!! Then, cops begin to give chase and in the process 14 police cars are totaled and the guys escape!! Talk about ridiculous! There's more to the film than this and it actually is occasionally funny (I love the line the girlfriend says when she asks if they have two of EVERYTHING), but in spite of this it still really stinks. But, if you are a bad movie fan, you actually might like it because it's THAT bad--so bad you will laugh along with it--particularly since the film never really takes itself very seriously.

THE THING WITH TWO HEADS, first of all, is a comedy. It's is obvious that everyone involved in the making of the movie was well aware of what they were creating. This isn't an earnest cautionary tale like THE MANSTER nor a sensationalistic exploitation sleazefest like THE INCREDIBLE TWO HEADED TRANSPLANT. It is a movie that was created, most likely, when some filmmaker friends got drunk one night and started throwing the most absurd ideas they could conjure out on the table.To many, seeing a Hollywood legend (and legitimately great actor) like Ray Milland "reduced" to starring in schlock like this, X-THE MAN WITH X-RAY EYES and FROGS in his later years must be sad, but I don't agree. Milland chews the scenery with such relish, I can't help but think that he had a ball making these movies. I can picture him sitting with his agent and saying, "Hey, I won my Oscar, I'm getting older, I might as well have some fun." While Milland and "Rosey" Grier are far from Abbott & Costello or even Martin & Lewis, the two have a certain odd chemistry that works well, especially since their characters are supposed to be from completely different backgrounds. Milland is a rich, loud-mouthed, bigoted surgeon, Grier is a poor, soft-spoken ex-con. Grier is no actor, but that actually works in Milland's favor as virtually his entire performance is from the neck up.The movie does work as a bizarre allegory for racial relations but mostly it works as a goof. It barrels along at a break-neck pace with subplots involving everything from a two-headed gorilla escaping and going on a rampage to or our hero(s) infiltrating a BMX bike race while being chased by what appears to be the entire LA police department.If you're looking for logic or intelligence keep looking. If you're looking for a silly good time, THE THING WITH TWO HEADS will do the trick admirably!

Must been seen by all! Should be required viewing along with Airplane, Buffalo 66, Anchorman, Napoleon Dynamite, Team America World Police, Sideways, Bad Santa, Windy City Heat, Zoolander, Kingpin, Best In Show, Meet The Parents, Office Space, Austin Powers The Spy Who Shagged Me, This Is Spinal Tap, Raising Arizona, Dr. Strangelove, Kentucy Fried Movie, Monty Python and The Holy Grail, Life Of Brian, Meaning Of Life, Vacation, Used Cars, After Hours, Caddyshack, Ed Wood, The Rutles All You Need Is Cash, The Jerk, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, There's Something About Mary, And Now for Something Completely Different, Fletch, I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, Hot Shots, Hot Shots Part Deux, Scary Movie 3, Heaven Can Wait, American Psycho, Sixteen Candles, Pee Wees Big Adventure, Top Secret, A Fish Called Wanda, The Naked Gun, Naked Gun 33 1/3, The King Of Comedy, Crumb, The Man With Two Brains, Real Life, High Anxiety, Pink Panther, A Shot In The Dark, Pink Panther Strikes Again, Return Of The Pink Panther, Revenge of the Pink Panther, Bad News Bears, Young Frankenstein, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Blazing Saddles, The Producers, Tommy Boy, The World According To Garp, The Survivors, The Big Lebowski, Dirty Work, Beavis And Butt-Head Do America, Better Off Dead, Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, Accidental Tourist, Young Doctors In Love, Bottle Rocket, Johnny Dangerously, Wallace & Gromit in The Wrong Trousers, Wallace & Gromit in A Close Shave, & Kung Pow: Enter the Fist.