¡Trois amigos!

I looked up this movie on IMDb fully expecting to find a lot of comments that reflected my opinion, that this is a great little film. I was quite surprised at how many people don't feel the same way I do.

Some of the movies detractors seem to suggest the movie is a bit slow and that it misses opportunities for packing in lots of jokes. I can't agree, I think the pace is just right and that the movie's direction is more deftly handled than you might think. Some of the set ups in this film are developed meticulously over time allowing plenty of humorous moments along the way to the pay-off. And when they pay-off, they pay-off beautifully.

For example I love the scene in which a German mercenary enters a really dangerous looking Mexican bar. The room is full of thugs and cut-throats who laugh at the German's prim appearance and so he kills a few of them. He then instructs the rest of the patrons to be more respectful of strangers and to expect some friends of his to drop in later. The mercenary leaves and soon the Three Amigos arrive wearing camp looking Mexican costumes. It's not long before they start to sing an extremely girly song to the patrons of the bar called "My Little Buttercup".

The song is accompanied by the most effeminate dance routine committed to film. The mystified bandits all assume the Three Amigos are the German mercenary's friends and go along with the song and dance routine which after a while becomes so cute it makes you feel physically sick.

And here is the pay off, the Amigos leave as the real mercenaries arrive, one of the bandits notices the pearl handled revolvers one of the strangers is wearing and yells "Look at the sissy guns". Carnage ensues, the German sharp shooters finish off the rest of the patrons in a bloody gun fight, the confused looks on the bandit's faces throughout this whole routine is hilarious.

This film isn't desperate to pack gags into every available space, and because of this it feels more controlled and less try-hard, to me most of the jokes are of a high enough quality they don't need a lot of superfluous back up gags. I also enjoy the overall up beat tone of the film, even the bad guys are actually really nice to each other ( the sweater Scene is touching ). I think it's the warmth between the characters that really makes this film for me, I think if the gags kept coming at a breakneck speed we wouldn't have a chance to warm to the characters, the Mexican atmosphere and music the way that we do.

I give this a ten out of ten even though it's not a perfect film, it makes me feel as good as a perfect film would.

The spaghetti western meets the three stooges. Martin, Short and Chase deliver one of their most memorable performances as three out of work actors hired, unwittingly, to be real gun fighters.

These three comic greats work with a beautiful chemistry, to make you laugh hard enough to split your pants, every time you watch this movie. One scene rolls, painlessly, into another without making you look at your watch once as The Three Amigos attempt to stop the evil banditos (grungy, greasy, cavorting, drinking and shooting at everything - just as in the spaghetti westerns, but with a sillier and lighter edge versus a serious and menacing one) from taking advantage of the poor peasants.

This is a classic comic film, with real comics pulling out all the stops, that I feel everyone should see. Guaranteed to make everyone laugh!

Chevy Chase and Martin Short deliver the performances of their lives while Steve Martin's performance is second only to his flawless performance in "The Jerk". In addition to the main stars, the rest of the cast, no matter what the role, seem to produce laughs. Alfonso Arau's performance as El Guapo is particularly fascinating. El Guapo is about as evil a villain as they come yet one can't help but find hilarity in his wide range of emotions, whether it be his utter delight in receiving a sweater for his birthday in the middle of a desert in Mexico or his disappointment at his failure in courting a woman he captured from her own village (literally grabbing her and hoisting her on his horse) and whose village he had repeatedly pillaged and harassed.

The scenarios director John Landis creates (in relation to the Amigos thinking their bout with El Guapo's gang is part of a show they were hired to perform), the cultural misunderstandings, the negative effects of stereotyping put on display... it has far more comedic material than can be found in, say, 10 strong comedies of today.

There are numerous scenes and lines that, on the surface, may not seem entirely funny at first, but, upon repeated viewing, are appreciated for the hilarious situations they really are. Three Amigos is a comedy that will never be confused with a drama or romantic film, yet the jokes are so subtle and well-delivered that those who do not normally find slapstick funny will appreciate that Three Amigos gives one the opportunity to laugh without being told to do so.

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.

I can't believe what a low rating this movie has on here! This is one of the most classic comedies of all time. If for some reason you haven't seen this movie, go rent it and watch it! Me and my friends use quotes from this movie all the time. This movie is definitely on my top ten for comedies. 5 out of 5.