Gus, uma Mula Fora de Série

Good old Tim Conway.

No matter what, you can always count on Tim Conway for a good laugh; in the movies or TV.

Especially here, in "Gus".

Never mind the fact that Asner, Knotts, Dick Butkus and a field goal-kicking mule provide big laughs here, this is Tim's movie.

Never was there a modern-day pratfall king like Tim, and the scenes featuring him and Bosley (as two losers who kidnap the mule to make Gus' team forfeit) give this movie the laughs that it has.

You'll love the supermarket scene. Guaranteed.

Eight stars. All for Tim's work. He's a national treasure.

Oh, and a nice mule, too.

I saw this film for the first time when I was a little boy, which was when it came out. I remembered two funny parts: 1. The supermarket sequence, where everything gets messed up. 2. A lady's hat gets eaten, showing the woman being bald. As I got older, I understood more of the story and finally was able to tape the film off of TV and then Disney (no commercials). The film is not very realistic, but pretty funny. The opening sequences showing how bad the Atoms team are are so ridiculous that you think a Pee Wee football league could beat them. Also, how come they don't fire the Coach, played by Don Knotts? Could Hank Cooper be such a loyal friend that he can't do that? Also, notice how the owner, Mr. Cooper, is always on the sidelines during the games? What owner does that today? And you also have to wonder why the opposing team doesn't score each time, since the Atoms are so bad, right? Still, it is a fun movie and you can't take it so seriously. It was also nice to see a twist on the winning play, which I won't reveal here. Oh, here's something else. Notice how muddy the field is during the Super Bowl. When has it even rained on that day in real life? NEVER! Would like to see it happen, though, and have the field be so muddy. I'll also mention that the actors are pretty good, especially Gary Grimes as Andy, who feels in his brother's shadow, Ed Asner as the Atoms' owner, Don Knotts as the befuddled Coach of the Atoms, and Tim Conway and Tom Bosley as Crankcase and Spinner, two con men hired to prevent the Atoms from winning the Super Bowl. They had great chemistry-almost and Abbott and Costello relationship. Disney really doesn't make these films anymore and it is too bad.

This drags.

I actually don't mind how silly the premise to 'Gus' is, yet even so it's such a slow and predictable watch. There's a few decent gags spread across the 96 minute run time, but there's so much plainness with everything else. The plot itself is something that feels seen before, across Disney's many high school/sport comedies from these early decades.

As for the cast, Ed Asner is the best performer as Hank Cooper. Don Knotts (Venner) and Tim Conway (Crankcase) are in a film again, following on from 'The Apple Dumpling Gang'; though they aren't a pair here, Tom Bosley (Spinner) teams up with Conway instead. Regardless, none of the three are all that amusing. There are a few other OK but forgettable roles, while the sports commentator bits are way more annoying than they are funny.

Not a production I would recommend, even if you could pick many worse live-action films from this studio to watch.

This has to be the only football movie where a team does its majority scoring with field goals. Then again if I had a kicker like Gus the mule I might realign my offense as well especially if it was as weak as the California Atoms.

Ed Asner is the owner of the team and he's made what is a foolish bet with Harold Gould that if his team gets to the Super Bowl Gould will tear up the note that he holds on Asner, a kind of team mortgage. But with Gus the Yugoslavian mule and his handler Gary Grimes the Atoms start winning for Asner and coach Don Knotts. Can't forget Knotts he's quite the inspirational coach.

Gould is down but not out. He hires a pair of recently released con men from jail, Tom Bosley and Tim Conway for some dirty tricks. As you can imagine they come up short. The final sequence with them is chasing the kidnapped but escaped mule through a supermarket. It's a page right out of the Marx Brothers and their chase scene in The Big Store.

Bob Crane has a good bit part as a broadcaster with Hall of Fame Johnny Unitas sharing the play by play with him. He's every know it all announcer you just love to hate and loves the sound of his own voice.

This Disney film holds up well after over 40 years and a lot of familiar players get to do their stuff.

Gus is yet another of those movies that I feel has been judged too seriously. It's intended to be a football parody, being purposefully made to look goofy and cheesy.

The actors succeed very well at their awkward, funny roles. You may even recognize some of the actors, like Don Knotts and Tim Conway. The jokes are actually funnier than the other reviewers here want to admit, and the theme of the movie - a young man wishing for his parents to be proud of him - is actually quite touching for a comedy. This is a good movie for children to see, with the barest amount of mature content.

People who specialize in nit-picking films, however, will probably not like this movie, however. Two scenes of the film - the second and the last - are filmed almost entirely in slow motion. My guess is that the filmmakers chose to do so just so their film could be 96 minutes long. Also, the effects are admittedly very dated, sometimes purposefully, other times not.

Nevertheless, if all you want is a funny family film, this movie will satisfy all of your wishes. Let your whole family and maybe your mule, if you own one, watch it. Just be sure that no mules are around when a character says, "Oich!"