Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Dalton (A) on July 31, 2002 at 23:15:48

In Reply to: "The Great Race" posted by mikenyc on July 27, 2002 at 02:46:37:

Nice picture on the DVD. Too bad Warner didn't spend more time on the soundtrack though (especially since this movie received Academy Award nominations for best sound and sound effects and has a great score by Henry Mancini). For instance, some of the dialogue early on is muddled, there's that boos/cheers mix-up in the opening credits that everyone noticed straight away, and there's a very audible still camera autowinder sound evident throughout the pie fight scene.

Despite the imperfections, it's nice to finally get this campy "guilty pleasure" on DVD. "They" don't make them like this any more. If made today (by Hollywood commitee) this movie would feature several of these among other possibilities: an "United Nations" cast complete with precocious pre-teens, hijinx with bodily fluids, computer-generated explosions, slow-mo martial arts fights, brief nudity, a rap soundtrack, and the characters' complete prescience of current topics of Liberal concern. This may be far from the funniest comedy ever made, but it has a charming innocence about it (it stays set in 1908 and has at least some wacky rule of logic to it), epic scope with beautiful cinematography, and a certain joie de vivre that makes up for it.