Mercenários de um Reino em Chamas

"All the Castles...all the chapels, All the Rocks, the stones, the trees, the flowers, the mud, the dirt.... And I SHALL BE QUEEN"

This movie is hilarious....I saw it on TV a LOOONG time ago, and then I saw it on DVD and bought it, now my sisters and I can't get enough of it....it's classic...."three feet of Persian rug..." haha...."later that night, 1789"....this movie made "pleasure their business" and it's a pleasure watching it.....Whatever...and we can't stop quoting this movie...."I thought it was a costume ball"

It's a great movie....some people don't know what funny is when it hits them in the face...

Ten years before the Zuckers made Airplane, television producer Bud Yorkin (All in The Family, Sanford and Son) got in and out of the movie business very quickly with Start the Revolution Without Me (1970), a hilarious parody of just about every movie made about the French Revolution or based on the novels of Dumas. Gene Wilder and Donald Sutherland play dual roles as two pairs of mismatched twins. One pair are Corsican noblemen conspiring with Marie and the Count DiSicci to depose the king. The other pair are Parisian peasants trying to escape the fighting. Wilder and Sutherland make a great comedy team (even doing a take off on the patty-cake bit, from the Hope/Crosby Road Pictures). With an introduction by Orson Wells, Hugh Griffith and an assortment of English character actors attempting French accents (I saw this once on a double bill with Tom Jones, and many of the principles are in both films) and a great deal of location footage filmed on the grounds of Versailles including a very chaotic battle scene.

I loved this movie and it's one of my all-time favorite comedies, though I realize it is NOT for everyone's taste.

To enjoy this movie, you MUST have a high tolerance for the weird and silly. So, this means that the movie would go over well with Monty Python fans but would not appeal to most teenagers or those who MUST view only conventional comedies.

The plot is a hopeless mish-mash of both Alexander Dumas' books and French history. Is it historically accurate? Not even close!! But, its non-stop energy and weirdness is VERY infectious if you give it a chance. The story begins with the Count DeSisi and his wife stopping at a country doctor's home as the Countess is about to give birth. Only minutes later, a commoner, Mr. Coupe arrives with his extremely pregnant wife as well. BOTH women give birth to identical twins but the babies are mismatched and both families raise both a DeSisi AND a Coupe child.

Years pass until the poor Coupes are mistaken for the highly dangerous (and psychotic) DeSisis--and then the fun begins!!! People who would like this film are also those who love The Producers, Monty Python and the Hold Grail and Strange Brew. If any of these movies make your head hurt or just don't make sense, then avoid Start the Revoluition Without Me--because it WILL hurt your head and make NOT ONE BIT OF SENSE.

"Are you HAPPY?!.......You've Broken My Bird!!!"

In a time when so many films are just plain "forgettable," it's good to be able to look back and fondly recall a film that was both funny and memorable.

This movie has it's own unique flavor of comedy while still being reminiscent of great films like "Catch 22," and "Help!" (Maybe it's the appearance of Orson Wells and Victor Spinetti that does this for me...)

There's much more than just slapstick to be had here. Definitely worth the look.

This film takes slapstick and douses it with farce at absurd proportions. It delivers laugh after laugh with no thought as to its higher purpose. Its Brechtian nature turns the fourth wall into a comedian's stage and pokes fun not only of the story, but of the conventions used to tell it. Fabulous performances by Gene Wilder and Donald Sutherland are even more exciting when we think of the nuances they bring to each of their characters. Hugh Griffith turns in a charming performance as a King who is nothing more than a chicken with a crown.

This is a must see for anyone excited by classic slapstick-style comedy.