Mr. Magoo

Ha! Ha! Ha! I laughed all the movie. Leslie Nielsen knows how to make "stupid" movies. It's not the comedy of the year but it's great for family and friends who want to take a break from BIG BANG movies.

My Vote: 6/10

This film is inspired by an old cartoon character, Mr. Magoo, a nice old man who refuses to wear glasses even though he is myopic and who, because of that, gets involved in comic confusions from which he always leaves unharmed (mostly by pure luck). The plot revolves around the theft of a huge ruby. Of course, given the comic and stereotyped kind of film and characters, I didn't expect a lot of verisimilitude on this plot, so I wasn't disappointed by it, but I understand those who has something to say on this. The lead character is played by Leslie Neilsen, an actor who has become a synonym for comedy and doesn't leave us disappointed. He is great at his work and manages to bring charm and joy to the character, making him enjoyable. Jokes are generally good but, after some time, we have already guessed what will happen. The rest of the cast does a fairly decent supporting job but doesn't have room for do much more. Villains are usually as clumsy as Magoo except for Luanne, a cunning and seductive villain played by Kelly Lynch.

The big problem with this movie is that it ends up being a guilty pleasure. We're laughing at a blind man, a handicapped person, and that makes us feel a little guilty and angry at the movie. The truth is that today it's fashionable to be politically correct, and I cannot think of a more politically incorrect character than Mr. Magoo, as lovely as he can be. The film itself seems to have this awareness, allowing the audience to guess the jokes before they happen and avoiding discomfort. Its super funny and has quality, but was punished by the public due to this feeling of guilt.

Mr Magoo is as wealthy as he is short-sighted and it is this combination that sees him trapped in the museum he is patron of late one night, when a robbery occurs. The CCTV footage makes him look like he was in on it and the FBI/CIA investigation focuses on him as they try to locate a stolen diamond while keeping the robbery on the low-down. Meanwhile, as he fishes, Magoo manages to have the stolen jewel dropped into his fishing box (best not to ask how) and thus is unwittingly pursued by thieves and cops.

OK. This is based on a old cartoon character so I tried to ignore the modern PC outrage over this film by disabled groups protesting the depiction of partial blindness. According to IMDb it was this that saw the film sliding into video obscurity however I beg to differ. I was outraged by this film – but not for the reasons of objecting to the fact that it gets laughs out of a disability, but rather the fact that it totally fails to get laughs out of a disability. I'd love to pretend to be politically correct and sensitive but there we go! No, the main problem I had with the film is that it is simply not funny. Obviously the gags are all pretty obvious and can be seen coming from miles off but it still surprised me by how lazy it all was.

The plot makes no sense but this was perhaps to be expected, however the total delivery is poor. A constantly "wacky" score is forced upon us in a desperate attempt to make us believe that it is hilarious when it is not. Nielsen was a great choice for the lead but even he can do nothing with this rot and in failing to improve it he just becomes part of the problem. The support cast features turns from Garner, Hudson, Tobolowsky, Lynch, Ferrer and McDowell all of whom are either wasted, look embarrassed or both. As director Tong seems to worry that the jokes will surprise his audience and, I assume, fearing injury from split sides, makes sure that we all get a chance to see each and every gag coming from quite a distance.

Overall then, a film that will appeal to few audience demographics outside of children and those currently drunk. The jokes are obvious and lazy and all that is left is a terrible plot that (perhaps correctly) assumes the audience has the IQ of a basket and just hopes that a man stumbling around is enough to make it – for me personally, it wasn't.

There's a part of me that knows what a godawful, scattershot mess Mr. Magoo is. That part of me begs reason, implores myself to recognize the boldfaced stupidity and flagrant dips into shameless, moronic lowbrow humour barely worthy of a troupe of chimps. There's also another part of me that absolutely loves the movie for all of the reasons just outlined. OK, so I watched it a lot as a kid, and have that nostalgia for it that one can only have with a fond childhood memory of something. But even so, all ridiculousness taken into account, it's a silly bit of fun that doesn't quite capture the tone of the famous cartoon, but fires away on its own whacko cylinders for ninety minutes of eyebrow raising, idiotic bliss. Leslie Nielsen, who has made a career of playing disastrous buffoons, portrays Mr. Magoo, a near sighted elderly gent whose visual impairment leads him on all sorts of adventures and odd situations, which the movie doesn't hesitate to illustrate in bold, silly fashion that gives the animated source material a run for its money. When a valuable foreign jewel which his charitable foundation is tasked with presenting is stolen, he and his asinine nephew Waldo (terminally awkward Matt Keesler) are led on a goose chase to find the two thieves, laughably sultry Kelly Lynch and dimbulb Nick Chinlund. That's about as far as plot goes, and it's all the blueprint you need for the cascade of slapstick muck that bombards your good taste for the better part of an hour and a half. One has to give credit to the stunt crew, who create scene after scene of madness for Nielsen and crew to parade through, from a snow chase on an ironing board, to a South American waterfall derby and all kinds of messiness in between. Some truly talented people got dragged into this, including Jennifer Garner as an Eastern European (HA!), Stephen Tobolowsky as an overzealous, bumbling fed who borders on certifiable, beloved Ernie Hudson as another law enforcement stooge, Miguel Ferrer as a Peruvian drug lord, and the one and only Malcolm McDowell as a sinister crime boss (who else?). The Vancouver locations are cool, especially an over the top Grouse Mountain set showdown. Like I said, it's a whole lot of dumb dumb, and don't say I didn't warn you. But it's also so much Fricken fun, man.

The movie is not THE BEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME, but still this isn't a 3.9 score, seriously now. Leslie Nielsen ( God rest his soul ) was an amazing actor, every single movie that he played, that movie was doomed to be good. Probably here are some guys that don't taste this kind of comedy, they are way to mature and intelligent to laugh at dumb jokes and scenes, but Mr. Magoo (the movie) was funny as hell. You guys should loosen up a little, pull that stick from your ass and learn how to feel good and enjoy a great movie. If in comedies they will make academic jokes no one will laugh because no one will understand them. We need lame as jokes and as stupid and funny as possible. :D

My vote is 8 / 10 ... loved the movie, and Leslie Nielsen, my favourite comedy actor. <3