It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

8/6/2019

It's every man (and old bag) for himself. It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World is one of those films that as a child I went to the cinema to watch and then proceeded to talk about it enthusiastically in the playground for weeks afterwards. So I find myself here in my middle age with mixed feelings after just revisiting this extravaganza for the first time in many a year. It's very much a film of three parts to me, and each part impacts differently on the entertainment scale. The first part of this multi cast piece is as madcap and as mirthful as you could honestly wish to see, but this sadly ill prepares you for a middle part that outstays its welcome to the point that you can't believe they stretched it to an original cut of 3 hours! The final third of the film saves it from smug overkill b

7/6/2020

_**Epic screwball comedy-adventure with an all-star cast is overlong**_ Released in 1963, “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” is grand comedy-adventure about several motorists in the remote desert of Southern Cal learning of a buried cache of moolah in Santa Rosita State Park along the coast 200 miles south. A mad scramble to get to the money ensues. The cast is superlative with too many old-time greats to cite. The opening is compelling, the first act culminating with an amusing sequence where Jonathan Winters’ character levels a gas station in the desert. The wild close with the fire truck ladder and corresponding hospital gag is also superb entertainment. The middle of the film, while fun, can get tedious because emptyheaded shenanigans can only hold your interest for so long. In o

1/14/2025

Maybe not since Michael Anderson managed to put together a stellar cast for his "Around the World in Eighty Days" (1956) have we seen quite such an ensemble group of famous faces peppering a light-comedy. This time, it all starts with Jimmy Durante being thrown from his crashing car and surviving just long enough to tell the gathered crowd of a $350,000 fortune buried under the "Big W". Initially the gang decide to work together to find and share the loot, but they can't agree on a formula to distribute it and so quickly it's every man (or dame) for themselves. How to get there? Well there are cars, trains and even an aeroplane put to good use as their "Wacky Races" style antics see friends and families fall out, fall in, row, squabble and use quit a bit of ingenuity to get to the Santa Ro