Walter Hollander (Allen) is the ““cursed caterer’’ from Newark trapped with his family in an American embassy behind the Iron Curtain. His wife, Marion (Julie Kavner), dragged him and their 21-year-old daughter, Susan (Mayim Bialik), to communist Vulgaria on vacation. The Reds think they’re spies or something, but the plot is just a wafer-thin excuse for Allen and Kavner to kvetch. Him: ““I can’t see any baseball! I can’t get an egg roll! You know I’m lost without my neurologist!’’ Her: ““Calm yourself.’’ She waxes floors compulsively while winsome Susan falls in love with the befuddled junior diplomat in charge, Axel Magee (Michael J. Fox). ““I wanted to kiss her,’’ Axel confesses. ““But her lips were chapped and I didn’t want to cause her any pain.’’ It’s vintage Woody, played to perfection by an eclectic cast (from Edward Herrmann to Dom DeLuise) and filmed in his comedy verite style: hand-held camera, characters running in and out of the frame like inmates of a neurotic asylum. Just like old times.
