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In Reply to: It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World ? posted by SR on April 07, 2002 at 11:44:36:
I think Mad, Mad World is a comedy classic that pays a lot of homage to the movies director Stanley Kramer grew up on. I love the movie and have seen it many times. Why so many critics hate it is a puzzler. Maybe they don't want to watch a well made film with a good cast that's one gag after another. Maybe the pace is so fast they can't keep up.Or maybe they just had something against Stanley Kramer.
Follow Ups:
It's a later film of Kramer's that has a heavy, negative, cynical edge missing from his other films. Compared with the rest of Kramer's ouvre, this sticks out like a genuninely "sore thumb". It's also a very cynical, dark comedy; he wasn't known for his humor but for his films of the human condition, expressed in the hope of the individual of overcoming his dark side(s), etc.. He rarely strayed from these general themes, but when he did...it just didn't ring true.I mean this guy is the director of a film about the few survivors of a nuclear war..."On the Beach", "Inherit the Wind", "The Defiant Ones", "Home of the Brave" and "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner". Message films...high quality, well crafted stories.
I won't get into a pissing match about this film. Mad, Mad World is more than anything Kramer's homage to the films of his youth. He said so himself. As a film buff I recognize many of the little in jokes and asides in the film. It's been one of my favorite comedies since it was first released.Beneath all that madcap foolery is an intelligent movie with something to say about greed and stupidity. I don't think it's crass or unsubtle. If people don't get it, they aren't paying attention.
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