10 Best Carl Reiner Films

The Jerk toyed with absurdist humour, but it grounded it within some sort of reality. In The Man With Two Brains, Martin and Reiner gladly abandon all that, firmly planting the movie in the world of fifties B-movie sci-fi. Even the colours from the later-era films are lifted from the labs of cinema's maddest scientists, with purple and blue-tinted bricks in hidden castles.

Both Reiner and Martin understood that the same bright-fluorescent aesthetic could be applied to heightened comedy just as effectively. The script, with the exception of a few stand out jokes, could be played mostly straight just a few decades earlier, as Martin's Dr. Hfuhruhurr falls in love with his deceased colleague's experiment.

The film even includes an extraneous subplot about a serial killer stalking the area, commonplace to many such films it's lovingly spoofing. The identity of the serial killer, however, is pure Martin. The supporting cast, with a great malicious turn from Kathleen Turner and a winking David Warner, only add to Two Brains' pedigree.

Too many spoofs, especially today, wear from recycling the same jokes or attempting to be hip to the current times. Reiner found a better formula.