dand@dadla.UUCP (Dan Davis) (03/06/86)
Why do Woody Allen's movies -Play It Again, Sam- and -A Midsummers Night Sex Comedy- get such zero press. When the critics fawn over -Annie Hall- etc. as his best, the two others are almost totally ignored. To my mind, they are two of his best, if not THE best. -Hannah And Her Sisters- is surely a wonderful movie, but -...Sam- and -...Comedy- are classics. Any opinions one way or the other??? Or is it just me???
chuq@sun.uucp (Chuq Von Rospach) (03/07/86)
> Why do Woody Allen's movies -Play It Again, Sam- and -A Midsummers > Night Sex Comedy- get such zero press. When the critics fawn over > -Annie Hall- etc. as his best, the two others are almost totally > ignored. To my mind, they are two of his best, if not THE best. > -Hannah And Her Sisters- is surely a wonderful movie, but > -...Sam- and -...Comedy- are classics. Well, Woody has a couple of problems -- he refuses to play by the establishment rules (prefering to play jazz with his group to going to the Oscars, for instance) and he's not afraid of to poke fun at the insecurity of the lesser people who like to call themselves critics. I recently re-viewed the movie 'stardust memories,' where Woody takes critics, fans, and the literaci to task -- a great Felliniesque sendup of all the things that makes Hollywood so great. It got panned by all the critics except the ones that were secure enough that they didn't worry about getting their bubbles burst. (great line: "I love your movies -- especially the early funny ones!"). Now I agree that "Play it Again, Sam" deserves more attention than it gets, but I think that MSNSX wasn't that great a film -- it wasn't bad, it was just a little piece of fluff. There are a number of movies I'd rather see get attention than that: Zelig is a cinematic wonder; Love and Death is a beautiful tolstoy pastiche; Sleeper; Interiors. My favorite movie of his for all time has to be Annie Hall, with the runner up being Broadway Danny Rose -- another movie that hasn't gotten the attention it deserves. The real bitch of the situation is that if Woody Allen were French or Swedish, the world would go ga-ga over him. Unfortunately, he is making films better than 90% of the foreign films people go ga-ga over, but being american they don't take him seriously. sigh -- :From catacombs of Castle Tarot: Chuq Von Rospach chuq@sun.ARPA FidoNet: 125/84 {decwrl,decvax,hplabs,ihnp4,pyramid,seismo,ucbvax}!sun!chuq Somehow, Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore...
kathl@tekcbi.UUCP (Kathleen Wilkman) (03/08/86)
In article <587@dadla.UUCP>, dand@dadla.UUCP (Dan Davis) writes: > Why do Woody Allen's movies -Play It Again, Sam- and -A Midsummers > Night Sex Comedy- get such zero press. When the critics fawn over > -Annie Hall- etc. as his best, the two others are almost totally > ignored. To my mind, they are two of his best, if not THE best. > -Hannah And Her Sisters- is surely a wonderful movie, but > -...Sam- and -...Comedy- are classics. > > Any opinions one way or the other??? Or is it just me??? I agree with you that _Play it Again Sam_ has never gotten the press that it deserves. It is Woody at his best. I felt that _A Midsummers Night Sex Comedy_ was a bit forced in places. I look forward to seeing _Hannah And Her Sisters_. I've heard only good about it.
reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (03/10/86)
In article <587@dadla.UUCP> dand@dadla.UUCP (Dan Davis) writes: >Why do Woody Allen's movies -Play It Again, Sam- and -A Midsummers >Night Sex Comedy- get such zero press. . . . > >Any opinions one way or the other??? Or is it just me??? Well, "Play it Again, Sam" got a lot of press on release, but it has somehow become a more or less forgotten Woody Allen film (relatively speaking, at least). I think that, because it doesn't fit conveniently into either his other earlier films (not as gaggy, more solid plot) or his later films (not about relationships, really; basically not serious in intention), it gets easily forgotten. Too bad, as it's very funny. As far as I'm concerned, "A Midsummer's Night's Sex Comedy" is a little slight to qualify as flimsy. Like it would blow away in a stiff breeze, or maybe even the tiniest puff of wind. A few good lines, not much else. For me, "A Midsummer's Night's Sex Comedy" was one of Allen's most disappointing films. Actually, I haven't really been that impressed with Allen's last two films. I thought that "The Purple Rose of Cairo" and "Hannah and Her Sisters" were not nearly as strong as many people felt. I just saw both "Hannah" and "Annie Hall" in the last two weeks, and "Annie Hall" seemed much, much better to me. Don't get me wrong, "Purple Rose" and "Hannah" were both good, much better than most films which come out, but not really prime Woody Allen. I preferred "Broadway Danny Rose" to both of Allen's more recent films. -- Peter Reiher reiher@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU {...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher
msm@teddy.UUCP (03/10/86)
> Why do Woody Allen's movies -Play It Again, Sam- and -A Midsummers > Night Sex Comedy- get such zero press. When the critics fawn over > -Annie Hall- etc. as his best, the two others are almost totally > ignored. To my mind, they are two of his best, if not THE best. > -Hannah And Her Sisters- is surely a wonderful movie, but > -...Sam- and -...Comedy- are classics. A lot of his movies are bypassed. "Love and Death" is, I think, about his best. Besides being a great parody on the epochal style of films, it's got great sight gags and one liners. His closing lines for example: "One shouldn't look at death as an ending, but rather as a very effective way of cutting your expenses." "What's up Tigerlilly" is another you never see, or hear about anymore. Woody took a Japanese spy movie and put an American (read New York Jewish) dialog on it. Seeing this big Japanese killer asking for his Rabbi as his last dying words is great, not to mention a Japanese spy named Phil Moskowitz. "Casino Royale", while a collaboration with John Huston and Orson Welles, is perhaps the ultimate spoof of the spy film. You may get to see this one at 2a.m. on a local UHF station. It's too bad Cable TV doesn't revive some of these movies in their uncut versions. - MSM
tbg@apollo.uucp (Tom Gross) (03/10/86)
> Why do Woody Allen's movies -Play It Again, Sam- and -A Midsummers > Night Sex Comedy- get such zero press. When the critics fawn over > -Annie Hall- etc. as his best, the two others are almost totally > ignored. To my mind, they are two of his best, if not THE best. > -Hannah And Her Sisters- is surely a wonderful movie, but > -...Sam- and -...Comedy- are classics. > > Any opinions one way or the other??? Or is it just me??? I agree. I have not seen "midsummers night..." but have always thought "SAM" is Allen's best film, and one of my all time favorites. Likewise I have always thought that "Annie Hall" was overrated. Another nice comedy but not the profound film about relationships I guess some critics took it for. I mean really... I was the only person in the theatre laughing when Woody comforts Diane Keaton after he comes over to kill the spiders. Give me a break. I always thought that the reason "Annie" won the oscar was because it contained so much satire about the California lifestyle and the members of the academy wanted to show they could take a joke. Always thought it was a shame that "star wars" didn't win that year. Tom Gross Apollo Computer, Inc. Chelmsford, MA
dave@onfcanim.UUCP (03/11/86)
In article <3334@sun.uucp> chuq@sun.uucp (Chuq Von Rospach) writes: > >The real bitch of the situation is that if Woody Allen were French or >Swedish, the world would go ga-ga over him. Unfortunately, he is making >films better than 90% of the foreign films people go ga-ga over, but being >american they don't take him seriously. > >sigh Hey, I'm *glad* he's American. At least this way, I get a chance to see all his movies, even if I'm living in a backwater somewhere. If only that were true of even the top 10% of foreign films... (Note: this is not chauvinism; I'm not an American).
tomp@amiga.UUCP (Tom Pohorsky) (03/15/86)
> > Always thought it was a shame > >that "star wars" didn't win that year. > > Give me the biggest fucking possible break. > Talk about your overrated movies. > While I admire your eloquence, I won't spare you that break. It, and the rest of the series, were good movies and outstanding productions. So there. BTW, this discussion shouldn't continue. The best break it could possibly deserve is e-mail only, and barely that.