Spaceballs

This has got to be the most-OVERRATED comedies of all time,I have no idea why everyone haved been raving about this silly SO-CALLED CULT-CLASSIC,sure that's what i expect from a movie like this and i do enjoy the genre,but the cookie-cutter script just frankly lacks BREAK-AWAY humor and the humor is too dull for my taste,I'll go with PORKYS, BLUES BROTHERS or AIRPLANE! anyday!!

Alright, folks... here's your riddle of the day: Whaddaya get if you cross the Three Stooges with the Greek poet Homer?

"O Brother, Where Art Thou?" that's what!

Here is another superb comedy finely crafted by screenwriters /producers/ directors Joel and Ethan Coen. Starring George Clooney, Tim Blake Nelson, and John Turturro, it features a brilliantly written script, superb acting by a wonderful ensemble cast, and a musical score that's simply second to none.

"O Brother, Where Art Thou?" is a simple story really... set in the Mississippi delta region during the Great Depression, it's the tale of three petty criminals who escape from the chain gang in quest of buried treasure and experience a series of misadventures along the way. Ulysses Everett McGill (Clooney) is the silver-tongued, self-appointed leader of this odd trio, a man who claims to have stolen and buried over a million dollars in cash. Delmar O'Donnell is the docile, sweet-tempered dimwit (played to perfection by Tim Blake Nelson). The third member of our little gang is an irritable, acerbic fella named Pete. Together they set off, chained to each other, in search of McGill's treasure, which is buried somewhere about to become a man-made lake. Our heroes have only four days to find the loot before it's lost forever at the bottom of the newly created reservoir.

As they begin their journey, the run across an old blind seer who prophesies that they will find a fortune, but not the one they seek. with a posse of law enforcement officers and vigilantes hot on their heels, Everett, Pete and Delmar ditch their chains and prison garb and continue on their quest.

Our trio's journey is anything but quiet and uneventful. They continually run into strange people and situations... At one point, soon after stealing a car and picking up a guitar-playing hitch-hiker, they stop at a local radio station and, posing as an "old-timey" music group called the "Soggy Bottom Boys," they cut a record that's soon all the rage throughout the region. Later they encounter a Baptist congregation at river's edge, singing a beautiful song, lulling our heroes into sweet forgetfulness for a few brief moments. They happen upon three washer-women, also at river's edge, whose siren-like song ensnares our three miscreants... George Nelson, a bank robber on the run, who nearly co-opts our heroes into a REAL life of crime... the one-eyed, fast-talking Bible salesman Dan Teague (played by John Goodman) who offers Everett, Pete, and Delmar a hard lesson on economics and life in general in the Depression-ravaged Deep South... and other characters as well: Governor Pappy "Pass the Biscuits" O'Daniel, running for re-election against a reform-minded candidate named Homer Stokes... Everett's ex-wife Penny, soon to me re-married to a real drone named Vernon Waldrip... and a whole gang of fellas dressed in white sheets and hoods who take exception to our heroes' intrusion into their ceremonies.

One of "O Brother, Where Art Thou's?" greatest strengths is its musical score. As the Coen brothers point out, nary a scene goes by without some kind of music in the background. The songs - 19 of them by my count - are all wonderful. It's a sublime mixture of old-time gospel and country music and African-American spirituals. From James Carter and the Prisoners' "Po' Lazarus," through Alison Krause's sweetly simple and reverent "Down to the River to Pray" (with brilliant harmonies added by the First Baptist Choir of White House, Tennessee); the old-time country classics "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" and "Hard Rock Candy Mountain," and "You Are My Sunshine;" to the old-time Gospel classics "Keep On the Sunny Side;" "I'll Fly Away" and "I Am Weary (Let Me Rest)," (and many other songs as well), the music adds an extra dimension to this already multi-faceted film. (By the way, all these songs can be found on the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack compact disc... but that's another review!)

I've now watched "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" about a dozen times. Each viewing has been a genuine pleasure for me. This film is clever in its conception, extraordinary in its execution, sublime in its storytelling, and masterful in its music. In short... wonderfully entertaining in every respect. A definite "must-see" for movie-lovers everywhere!

Carl Reiner shines as director and Steve Martin & Bernadette Peters shine as Navin Johnson and his future bride. The film opens up somewhere down south with Navin and the family of sharecroppers who took him in. Navin begins to see how "different" he is from his family and they soon tell him he was adopted. His mother (Mabel King) proudly tells him she would love him if he was "the colour of a baboon's *ss. Navin soonafter leaves home going out on the road in front of his house. He then begins hitchhiking when a truck comes down the road, the guy stops and says to Navin. "How far ya goin?" Navin says. "St.Louis, how far you going to which the driver says "To the enda this fence". Navin says"Ok" hops in throws his bag into the back of the truck and rides to the end of the fence. The film has similar events(you can't help but laugh) at Steve Martin's style and skill at being comedic in whatever he does. He then finds a job at a gas station owned by (Jackie Mason) who offers Navin a job as president of Texaco Oil (go figure) The film had me laughing start to finish.