Good news everyone! Walmart has decided to re-release a small selection of movies with new minimalist artwork that's merely glued to the front cover of their older budget release Blu Rays and DVDs!
Ok, so I guess that's not entirely good news, but the real good news is that classics like West Side Story, Dances with Wolves, Robocop, and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World are once again readily available for the masses. That alone wipes away all the damage that they done by lazily redesigning the pre-existing artwork.
So, let's get one with the movie:
1963 was a fairly memorable year in cinema. James Bond made his second appearance in mainstream cinema, Steve McQueen attempted to escape from a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp, and Cleopatra almost toppled 20th Century Fox.
It was also the year that something as simple as the idea of buried treasure set off the greatest chase film that we've ever seen run through a projector gate.
Stanley Kramer's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is a huge movie. Like, I'm not even sure if I can call it a simple comedy. Filmed using the Ultra Panavision camera system, its pretty much the Ben-Hur of comedies. Its an epic in every sense of the word - sets are huge and lavish, stunts are over the top, the cast is filled to the brim with star players, and it runs two and a half hours without running out of steam.
Name me a single comedy that can match the resume that Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad brings to the table.
The film's premise is rather simple: a man dies in a tragic car accident, and reveals to the 5 witnesses of the event that he's left 350,000 dollars buried underneath a landmark in a state park in southern California. The witnesses end up blasting off in a free for all race to claim the money, leaving a trail of destruction and insanity in their wake.
Its as if someone setup an extremely convoluted set of dominoes, the kind that's extremely criss-crossed and loops around through like 8 branching paths, paths that somehow manage to all end in the same place.And then they grabbed a camera and pointed it at the entire spectacle for two and a half hours as they all fell down. That's as accurate of a description of the movie as I can possibly give you.
Seriously, this movie has everything: a sidesplittingly exhilarating plane sequence, a multitude of high speed car chases, collapsing buildings, huge explosions, close quarters car chases, fist fights, and even a little bit of river fording - not once does anyone pull out a poop joke, or kill anyone. Its comedy of the highest class, and it totally respects the audience - something I think we ought to see more of in modern comedies.
The film is carried by an absolutely all-star cast, as I mentioned before. I mean, just take a look at the names in the credits list - Mickey Rooney, Ethel Merman, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, and Milton Berle. And a list of cameos so long and so deeply rooted into classic Hollywood stars that I didn't even catch most of them.
It just works. It works so well, that even as it began to fall apart during the finale, as plenty of non-comedies and comedies alike do, that it manages to pull itself back together in a manner that could only work with the talent behind this film.
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is an expertly photographed, masterfully edited, and skillfully directed comedy that, in the hands of someone else, could have easily turned into a mess of cameo sketches and incoherent plot sequences. Instead, we get one of the greatest comedies - no, the greatest epics of all time.
You owe to yourself to pick up this work of art, especially since its currently in print and only 9 dollars at Walmart. Purists can even check out the 30 dollar Criterion, which includes a cut of the movie that runs an EXTRA hour. It's an absolute no-brainer. Go buy, and fall in love with this film as I have. - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Ok, so I guess that's not entirely good news, but the real good news is that classics like West Side Story, Dances with Wolves, Robocop, and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World are once again readily available for the masses. That alone wipes away all the damage that they done by lazily redesigning the pre-existing artwork.
So, let's get one with the movie:
1963 was a fairly memorable year in cinema. James Bond made his second appearance in mainstream cinema, Steve McQueen attempted to escape from a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp, and Cleopatra almost toppled 20th Century Fox.
It was also the year that something as simple as the idea of buried treasure set off the greatest chase film that we've ever seen run through a projector gate.
Stanley Kramer's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is a huge movie. Like, I'm not even sure if I can call it a simple comedy. Filmed using the Ultra Panavision camera system, its pretty much the Ben-Hur of comedies. Its an epic in every sense of the word - sets are huge and lavish, stunts are over the top, the cast is filled to the brim with star players, and it runs two and a half hours without running out of steam.
Name me a single comedy that can match the resume that Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad brings to the table.
The film's premise is rather simple: a man dies in a tragic car accident, and reveals to the 5 witnesses of the event that he's left 350,000 dollars buried underneath a landmark in a state park in southern California. The witnesses end up blasting off in a free for all race to claim the money, leaving a trail of destruction and insanity in their wake.
Its as if someone setup an extremely convoluted set of dominoes, the kind that's extremely criss-crossed and loops around through like 8 branching paths, paths that somehow manage to all end in the same place.And then they grabbed a camera and pointed it at the entire spectacle for two and a half hours as they all fell down. That's as accurate of a description of the movie as I can possibly give you.
Seriously, this movie has everything: a sidesplittingly exhilarating plane sequence, a multitude of high speed car chases, collapsing buildings, huge explosions, close quarters car chases, fist fights, and even a little bit of river fording - not once does anyone pull out a poop joke, or kill anyone. Its comedy of the highest class, and it totally respects the audience - something I think we ought to see more of in modern comedies.
The film is carried by an absolutely all-star cast, as I mentioned before. I mean, just take a look at the names in the credits list - Mickey Rooney, Ethel Merman, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, and Milton Berle. And a list of cameos so long and so deeply rooted into classic Hollywood stars that I didn't even catch most of them.
It just works. It works so well, that even as it began to fall apart during the finale, as plenty of non-comedies and comedies alike do, that it manages to pull itself back together in a manner that could only work with the talent behind this film.
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is an expertly photographed, masterfully edited, and skillfully directed comedy that, in the hands of someone else, could have easily turned into a mess of cameo sketches and incoherent plot sequences. Instead, we get one of the greatest comedies - no, the greatest epics of all time.
You owe to yourself to pick up this work of art, especially since its currently in print and only 9 dollars at Walmart. Purists can even check out the 30 dollar Criterion, which includes a cut of the movie that runs an EXTRA hour. It's an absolute no-brainer. Go buy, and fall in love with this film as I have. - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
