Drei Amigos!

Underrated John Landis comedy with fun music. Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short star as three silent film stars who are asked to defend a Mexican town from bandits. A plot reminiscent of The Magnificent Seven. It's such a fun light-hearted movie I don't see why it has so many detractors. Perhaps the humor isn't crude enough. This is certainly one of Landis' least vulgar comedies. To me the movie has an old-school kind of charm about it. It's full of lots of great sight gags, memorable lines, and cute Randy Newman songs. It moves at a nice pace and seems to enjoy its story instead of overloading you with one "bit" after another. So give it a shot if you like Landis' work or the work of the three stars. It's one of my favorite 80s comedies.

Before comedic artists came into Hollywood demanding they attempt a role in a very serious film, there were films like Three Amigos. Riddled with laughs, upon laugh, upon laughs, this wildly enjoyable romp through the open desert could only have been accomplished by three of our favorite comedians.

Those are Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short. To say that anyone in today's cinema can come close to the genius of these three powerhouses would be a lie. While I do believe that Ryan Reynolds is a very close to becoming the next Chase, nobody else can match their style, humor, and elegance. Comedy was not just a job for these three, it was an art.

Three Amigos places us in a small town that is searching for some heroes that will help them get rid of some local hoodlums. Mistaking the opportunity as work, our three protagonists rush into the town prepared for the show of a lifetime. Little do they know, they are soon going to be fighting life and death. Thankfully, seriousness is in low amounts in this film, and comic hijinks ensure. Our three stumble through bars, the desert, and the final hide-a-way before their creative finale.

I remember watching this film with my family when I was really young. I remember laughing at everything these three bumbling idiots did, and how impressed I was by the grace they did it with. As I grew older, this film remained with me. These three actors represent some of the funniest moments in cinematic history, and here they are gathered together to make a film. I loved this movie. I loved the absurdity, the randomness, and the sheer fun of these types of films. I miss this type of physical, pseudo-intellectual humor. I miss laughing as much as I did when I first watched this film, and when I watch it over and over again. The simplistic nature of this film allows it to be enjoyed at any time during your life. Martin, Short, and Chase are at the top of their game and never let go. It is sad to see these actors getting less and less work today.

Overall, this film impressed me. It is funny, enjoyable, and so silly that you don't need to wade through the bathroom humor to get to the good stuff. It is all right there. I suggest this film to anyone that is looking to laugh and be entertained!

Grade: ***** out of *****

This is a funny movie and has some of the funniest actors in it. Chevy Chase, Martin Short and Steve Martin are brilliant in a movie that relies completely on their given talent - comedy. It's sad that not many movies were made, having different comedians in them, like Spies like us, also starring chevy chase opposite to Dan Aykroyd.

A nice attempt to make a movie without a real story, but instead have the actors make up for it. 7/10

The Three Amigos is one of those movies that can be hugely entertaining and amusing but only if you keep in mind that it is not a serious film. Chevy Chase, Martin Short, and Steve Martin, some of the funniest men ever to work in comedy, all team up here as The Three Amigos, a group of out of work actors in early Hollywood cinema. The unfortunate thing is that this is not a movie that is greater than the sum of its parts, since I would expect more from actors with the caliber of Martin, Chase, and Short, even working individually, but even the fact that they are all not used to their full potential is not enough to bring down the rest of the comedy here.

The story involves the three out of work silent film actors, who suddenly find themselves unemployed and broke when they receive a telegram from a small village in Mexico desperately asking their assistance. I liked how clever the ploy was where the woman who sent the message was so poor that she could not afford enough words to make her desires clear, so the Amigos read the message and think that they are about to be paid a fortune just to make an appearance in this village. Naturally they jump at the chance since they have nothing better to do.

Most of the rest of the film deals with their adventures in this village, which they are supposed to be protecting from an evil villain but do not realize that this is real life until one of them gets shot. You would think that they would have caught on sooner, but on the other hand, they DID happen to stumble into the only tiny village in Mexico where no one speaks Spanish, so it's not hard to understand why they thought the whole thing was a set up. If I went to Mexico and was walking around a dusty village with nothing but endless desert on every side and every single person was speaking only English, I would also wonder what movie set I had just wandered onto.

There is some interesting biblical content, which is made interesting really only because of the great satire. As the Amigos are walking through the valley in the shadow of death, they come upon not the talking bush or the burning bush, but the SINGING bush, and can't seem to get it to stop singing long enough to answer their question. `Will you please stop singing and tell us if you are the singing bush!' There's a hilarious sequence right after this about the invisible horseman, and just before was one of my favorite moments in the entire film, when Chase attempts to get off his horse but only succeeds in getting onto the horse next to him facing backwards and seems to be unsure about what just happened.

A lot of this movie is made up of funny skits which are strung along a thin and less than convincing clothesline of a plot, but even though the plot itself is not very believable the movie is still very entertaining. There are a lot of scenes that seem to go too far or just don't really seem to fit with the rest of the film (such as the campfire scene where all the animals join in to the campfire singing), but for the most part the comedy is very good and there are a lot of memorable scenes (the canteen scene in the desert for example, is one to remember!). Not a film that was meant to win any Oscars, but there is definitely some great comic entertainment to be had with The Three Amigos.

5 reasons to love this film: 1. The sight of Ned Nederlander (Martin Short) telling the incomprehensible, self-indulgent story of when he met Dorothy Gish ("you know, Lillian's sister") to a bunch of patient, albeit bored Mexican kids. 2. Lucky Day (Steve Martin) trying to get his buddies' attention as they break into the studio--progressing from an owl's soft "hoo" to a crowing "LOOKUPHERE...LOOKUPHERE" 3. The opening song and Elmer Bernstein's great score (he also scored the classic comedies "Animal House" and "Stripes") 4. The Three Amigos singing "My Little Buttercup" in a Mexican cantina 5. The Amigos fighting back tears as Lucky Day informs his buddies that, in fact, they have been summoned not to perform, but actually to fight the evil El Guapo--Martin Short's tearful line, "Why am I in Mexico?" is hilarious, almost as funny as Steve Martin's follow-up, "I've been shot already!"

This is an intelligent comedy, one that pokes fun not only at the mythology of the Hollywood western, but at Hollywood itself. The three Amigos is a delight to watch, and a great addition to any family's film collection.