ThomasBleedPHD Imagine for a moment, you are Judy Belushi, a grieving widow with a funny name. Your husband is John Belushi, one of the most talented and beloved actors of the 1970s. He died tragically in a drug overdose in a seedy motel, a speedball of heroin and cocaine in his system. Leaving your grief-stricken and alone.All of the sudden, you meet Bob Woodward, the world-famous reporter who broke the Watergate scandal. He tells you that he wants to write a biography about your husband, showing his grand life and his tragic downfall. You of course agree, reasoning that the world deserves to know your husband's whole story. The good and the bad.But when the book comes out, something goes terribly wrong. There's a whole lot of the bad, but virtually none of the good. The happier moments in your husband's life are either glossed over or woven into moments of piggish selfishness, and the bad moments are focused on with a heavy-duty microscope, exaggerated tenfold or outright fabricated.Now you know the story of "Wired." A bizarre and confusing chapter in the book of Woodward, the only book he ever wrote that wasn't about politics. And that would be an unfortunate and tasteless enough end to this story were it not for this movie's production.A mere year after publishing his hatchet job, Woodward was trying to auction off the film rights to his book, but no one wanted anything to do with it. Woodward eventually secured a low-budget studio's cooperation and production on this cinematic abortion began.Even the gullible fans of Bob Woodward's Wired don't enjoy this film. What could have been a straight-forward Bio-Pic about the troubled life and times of a famous actor turns into a bizarre Three Stooges-style farce. Apparently the filmmakers decided that what a hard-hitting biopic about the raise and fall of a real person needed was comedic fantasy sequences of John Belushi's ghost traveling around with a wise-cracking Hispanic taxi driving guardian angel literally named "Angel."The movie is a confused mess of bad ideas, poor execution and bad storytelling as the narrative goes back-and-forth between hammed up, exaggerated dramatizations of situations that vaguely resemble things that really happened, low-budget reenactments of legally safe bootleg versions of SNL sketches, and the insufferable "It's a Wonderful Life" subplot. The "Angel" character is one of the most unlikable characters in the whole film, spending his time either being Scrappy Doo levels of annoying and cracking bad jokes, or going on morally righteous tangents about how John Belushi ruined his life with drugs and is a piece of crap who deserves to die. He really is the heart and soul of this movie. The black, withered, shrunken heart and soul.Woodward claimed Hollywood didn't want this movie made because it contained "too much truth." An assertion that becomes absurd once you actually watch the film. Even ignoring all of the ridiculous fictional elements, the "Real life" elements are just as out-of- touch with reality. People who were enablers and willing participants in Belushi's drug use become dotting parents who lecture him on the dangers of drugs, incidents that were totally innocuous are rewritten as bombastic pivotal disasters, and major moments in Belushi's life are either glossed over in seconds or totally ignored.But by far the most insane and bizarre thing about this movie, even more bizarre than the inclusion of Angel the magic cab-driver and Ghost Belushi, is the inclusion of Bob Woodward himself as a character. Woodward, who served as a consultant on the film, is inexplicably featured in the story as a heroic protagonist unraveling the mystery of Belushi's untimely death. Watching this film would give you the impression Woodward was a brave hero everyone loved and Belushi was a mean junkie who everyone hated. But getting angry at this film is pretty pointless, since it was a massive commercial and critical bomb. It's highly anticipated premier at Cannes ended in boos and a disastrous press conference and it's controversy and dubious quality ensured it never got a full home video release.So is there anything redeemable about this film? Well, Michael Chiklis is great as Belushi. He looks like him, sounds like him and captures his attitude and behavior perfectly. Too bad this movie nearly ruined his career. At least him and Jim Belushi tearfully reconciled years later. Can Chiklis really be blamed for taking this part? This was his first real movie ever.The story of Wired is far more interesting than Wired's story.This film is an interesting piece of film making history and an intriguing chapter in the life and times of Bob Woodward. But as an actual film? It's a real stinker. Don't even bother with it.

jaylee33 and I have seen a lot of films. I saw this in the theatre in 1989 and to this day I remember the sickening urge to walk out. If you like John Belushi, respect his talent, or even the sanctity of the cinema-- this film has nothing to offer you. It is mostly a pathetic showcase for the writer of Belushi's biography, Bob Woodward. As we see the progression of Belushi's life pass on the screen, Woodward actually shows up in the film like a ghost character. The most offensive scene occurs when Belushi is dying, looks up from his deathbed to see the author standing above him and he weakly utters "Breathe for me, Woodward." There are too many terrible things to mention them all, the least of which is the opening that has Belushi jumping out of his body bag in the morgue and getting into a taxi driven by a guy named "Angel." I'll leave it at that.

imddaveh ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** It's truly a shame that Michale Chiklis' dead-on characterization of John Belushi was wasted on this film. Director Larry Peerce, in a weak effort to create high-concept, avant-garde art has instead created a disjointed mess that trashes Belushi and bewilders the audience. Based very loosely on Bob Woodward's book, "Wired" is a sort of cross between "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Naked Lunch". John Belushi dies and is whisked off to the morgue, where a cynical, jaded attendant wheels his corpse to the autopsy room and admonishes Belushi's body for being stupid. Then, complete with hokey lightning, Belushi unzips the body bag, sits up and ambles out of the morgue to a waiting cab. The cab is driven by "Angel", a fellow druggie who ODed in Central Park. Angel then proceeds to drive Belushi through his life in a series of unconnected vinnettes, confusingly and distractingly presented in no order whatsoever.As if the film hadn't engaged in enough lame cliche, it gets worse. While Belushi is taking a ride through his life, Bob Woodward is contacted by Belushi's widow who asks him to investigate his death. Woodward flies to Los Angeles to trace Belushi's last days. In the only interesting technique employed by the film, Woodward finds himself witnessing events in Belushi's life firsthand. Unfortunately, this effect is destroyed when the characters in the flashbacks start to interact with Woodward. Cathy Smith, as Woodward watches, looks up as she is administering the fatal injection of heroin to Belushi and says, "Wanna shot, Woodie?". Lame. Then, as Woodward is alone in Belushi's room, watching him die...the two get into a conversation which ends with Woodward telling Belushi, "I would help you John, but you did this to yourself". In another scene, Belushi is awake for his own autopsy. The film is ruined by several such lame attempts to be shocking, disturbing, or artsy, and only succeeds in being crude and offensive.John Belushi's death rocked Hollywood and changed attitudes about drugs. Drug humor was no longer funny after his death. "Wired" thankfully does nothing to try to reverse this or glamourize drugs. Unfortunately, what could have been a entertaining-if-tragic tribute to Belushi's talents is instead a muddled mess with no sympathetic characters, no warmth, no message, no point, and Chiklis' brilliant performance wasted on a film of virtually no value.Rest in peace, John.

Balou-6 I like this movie, because I am essentially a HUGE fan of John Belushi. But this film lacked many things that could make this a great movie. First of all, Michael Chiklis HAS NO CREDIBILITY in the role of John Belushi. He doesn't look like him, and every moves he did was a pale copy of the great Belushi ! But, in all, I loved this movie because every biography of great actors or movie legends fascinates me. I found the feedbacks from his death to some parts of his life annoying, but I learned some things about him that I didn't know.With JAMES BELUSHI to play the part of his own brother could've made this movie A GREAT AUTOBIOGRAPHY.