Reviews by Prelude

I finally got around to seeing this classic. It took me a few tries, because I kept falling asleep (to be fair, I always started it late at night, while in bed, so take into consideration). After 3 tries, I finally got around to finishing it.

I had real high hopes for this classic. Being so high up in IMDb Top250, and on top of that, being called Number 1 film of ALL TIME by American Film Institute, well, it did have a lot of things to live up to. Is it a great classic must-see film? Yes, of course, although it can be very tough to watch as the pacing is quite slow at times and film is told in very non-linear flashbacks. But I honestly believe it gets such high marks and acclaim because of the significance of the revolutionary-at-its-time filming style of Orson Welles and the massive controversy associated with its release. Basically, the film is a satirical portrayal of the rich tycoon that plagued the US when this film was released, mainly a mockery of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, who was so infuriated by this picture his banned any mention of this film in his newspapers and actively accused Orson of being a communist, and even offered millions to try to buy the negatives of the film so he could destroy it.

The story, as mentioned before, is told in flashbacks of the rise-to-power of a newspaper tycoon, who becomes corrupted by power, loses all his friends and loves, and dies a lonely man surrounded by all his material gains. On his deathbed, he mutters 'Rosebud' and the media sends out a reporter to interview all the people in his life to try to find the meaning of that word. But there lies the weak point of the film - I really couldn't care less why he said Rosebud, what it means, and what the implications of him saying that as his last word was.

Watch this movie for its historical importance, watch it for its incredible performances, watch it for its controversy, watch it for its outstanding direction by the legendary Orson Welles. But if you are hoping for a captivating story, an adventure, a tear-jerker, an epic masterpiece, you may be disappointed as it's basically a character-study of a man who got corrupted by wealth.

Great film? yes. Best film ever? Not in my books.

I expected a lot more from this film. It started off very well; the scenes when the timid bumbling Indian actor (played by the awesome Peter Sellers) makes blunder after blunder to accidentally ruin a movie production was hilarious. And when he gets invited by mistake to a fancy party by the producer of the film, the scenes where he approaches different gets, gets into trouble almost every step of the way, oh, those scenes were priceless. Top sight gags. Reminded me a bit of Mr. Bean escapades. About 30 minutes into it though, especially the scenes with the drunk waiter, seemed way overdone. Watching a drunk keep making mistakes wasn't that funny, and it took away from our dopey Indian friend. They should've just kept attention on the star of the film. Then it recovered nicely, when he had to urinate and couldn't find anywhere to go, and the scenes with the toilet antics was great too. Pretty much anything that could go wrong went wrong.

But once he fell into the pool, it went downhill real fast, and last half hour was painfully boring, stupid, and un-funny. I wish I shut it off when he falls into the water, because I could've gone to sleep sooner. There was no more jokes afterwards. It turned into a 1960s-style teen bop party, with a baby elephant, tons of teens, lots of dancing, lots of bubbles, and every 5 minutes someone falling into the pool. It felt like they ran out of material for the script and thought bubbles and teens for half hour was great stuff to watch.

So overall, I recommend it, and its a keeper just for the laughs in the first half, but trust me, when he falls into the pool, SHUT IT OFF. You'll thank me later. :)

One of my favourite childhood classics. Come on, which kid DIDN'T want to be Atreju, travelling across Fantasia, and soaring on Falcor, the Luck Dragon? A near perfect 10/10, but I have to take away one point because the special effects, great in their time, look fairly dated today, and also lose another point because of the two embarrassingly bad sequels that followed, weren't needed, and ultimately left a bad mark on the original.

I still enjoy the film these days, even after multiple viewings, and I remember as a kid I used to cheer out loud for Atreju, damn near had tears when his horse was drowning in the swamp, and was genuinely terrified when the monstrous wolf was chasing them. Also, because of this, even though I consider it a kids movie, I still would keep this film away from my toddler. Probably 6 or 7 year olds could handle it, but any younger and they may get nightmares.

[Link removed - login to see]

If someone said to me, 'You can only own one Western DVD for the rest of your life', without a hesitation, this would be it. Not even the legendary 'Once Upon a Time in the West' or classics such as 'Magnificent Seven', 'High Noon', 'Stagecoach' and others would even be considered if there was just one choice. What I'm trying to say is this the ultimate western.... by a WIDE MARGIN.

In fact, even if you absolutely hate westerns, give this movie a shot. I've known plenty of western-bashers that still list 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' as one of their top 10 films of all time. And don't be put off by its Italian name; this is an English-language film. It's an Italian production and directed by Sergio Leone, hence its official Italian title as well as it being referred to as a 'Spaghetti Western'.


The Good................ The Bad................... and the Ugly


Oh, right, about the review itself. For starters, the music. Who can not love the music - the [Link removed - login to see] squealing throughout the film. It gives me goosebumps just humming that tune to myself. And the cinematography, the long pauses on everyone's slightest expressions, the double-crossings, the triple-crossings, the shoot-outs, the hangings, the drag-thru-desert scene, the beating scene while music plays, the civil war bridge-busting scenes, the stand-off in the cemetery. this film is a blast from beginning to end, and you don't even notice its incredibly long 3hrs runtime.

Trailer:

A Must-own, a Must-see, an 11 out of 10. Come on, Listal. Let's make this our new #1. As good as Godfather and Shawshank are, they still should take back row seats when 'The Good, The Bad and the Ugly' is considered.

I want 20 minutes of my life back. That's how long I lasted before I had clued in this is pure retardation at its worst and shut the movie off. I should've known better; same director as MIB:2 and Wild Wild West? Tim Allen is the leading actor?

The movie starts off with a bunch of things happening to bunch of different people, and I bet they are all cleverly mixed up and all their paths cross later on, but everything that was happening was completely lame, predictable, corny, idiotic. And the jokes were simply moronic. Boss: "I want something in here by end of today!" while pointing at computer monitor. Tim Allen stands on desk and says "you can have this now!" as he inserts his foot into the screen. no, i'm not making this up. yes, it is that retarded.

avoid at all costs.

I rented this movie, expecting it to be a great comedy since it is so well recommended on here, and I found it to be about as annoying as watching a movie and over-hearing wanna-be-comics talking all the way thru. If I wanted that sort of experience, I'd invite my friend that never shuts up, even when a movie is playing. This 'movie' if you can call it that is so bad that I actually would've preferred the watch the full undistracted version of the sci-fi B-movie that they were 'trying' to make fun of.

I can see a definate 'cult' appeal which would make this film popular, but thankfully, i'm not part of the 'cult' that finds this funny in any way, shape, or form.

It used to be my favorite show, but lately, it's jumped the shark and nobody seems to notice the show is beginning to stink like a rotting piece of fish.

Same jokes, same jokes, same jokes. AAARGHH!!! i loved the first few seasons coz of all the original puns and jokes they threw at us, but now its like 'oh, the Peter vs Chicken fight was funny and well received in a previous episode, so i know, lets re-use it and make them keep fighting for almost 10 minutes out of our 22 minute long show. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!.... not...

Give us FRESH jokes, please.

If you get a chance, try to find this show if its now shown on your Cable line-up. Look around on the net for episodes if you have to, because this show is just amazing. Yes, it's a car show, but one that even my wife loves to watch and we both laugh through it. You really got to give them credit, for making a CAR SHOW appeal to both motorheads as well as their wives/girlfriends, and to throw so much humour in each episode is quite incredible too. The recent special when they went to Miami and bought 3 cars for under $1,000 each and drove it across 4 states is a gem. At times, it even had a documentary / Borat-style mockumentary feel to it, exposing many elements of society of the deep south of the US of A.

Highly Recommended Viewing. A+++

this film looked interesting and decent and I wanted to watch it, but... it should be classified as a 'FOREIGN LANGUAGE' film! cripes, even though they spoke english, I could barely understand 1 out of 5 words!

And watching an english movie with subtitles is just so wrong. :)

therefore, I'm not rating it. Just warning people, you may need an interpreter for this one. Unless you come from UK. or grew up around people that always talked with their mouth full of food.

To everyone giving this a higher than a 2/10, what have you guys been smoking? Too much cow dung got accidentally mixed in with your ganga?

This movie is (and deserves to be) in IMDB's bottom 100 list, yet here, it's batting a 5.2 average. For god's sake, its beating 'Encino Man', a classic comedy from the early 90s, and Indian in the Cupboard, a timeless childhood classic which I rate as high as the original NeverEnding Story.

So explain yourself, everyone who gave this atrocity more than 2/10. I want to know what drugs you were on at the time, so I know which ones to keep away from. :)