If laughing matters to you, you owe it to yourself to acquire this movie by any means.
We all have our pet oddities. Things we are ashamed of liking, maybe (Spielberg's "1941"). Things we know only anoraks find funny (Tati's "Playtime"). I'm not going to stand on a soap-box and rant at the world for not sharing these predilections with me. You probably won't like them; don't let me waste your time! But I guess I have a bit of the boring-old-crank about me, because I feel moved to assert that "Hercules Returns" is the most neglected great comedy of all.
It is worth making an effort to see. It is worth searching for on e-bay. It is worth downloading on dial-up. That good.
Measured in terms of laughs-per-minute, and quality of jokes, "Hercules Returns" is simply without peer in the English language: only the Marxes at their best come close. It should be on every hot-hundred list of comedies, and well up there, too.
There are quite a few comedies that overdub "source footage" brilliantly: "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" is one of Steve Martin's finest hours. Woody Allen's 'What's Up, Tiger Lily' has an almost identical premise, the victim-movie being a terrific Japanese James Bond film, strangely intercut with an appalling Lovin' Spoonful track (I'm not making this up, you know.) But "Hercules Returns" is the apotheosis of the idea. It fulfils the premise impeccably.
The juxtaposition of inherently ludicrous images from an old Italian muscle-epic with a cartoonish Australian voice-track would be funny anyway.
But the writing! If you ask me, good jokes are enough to make a great comedy movie: a sit-com like "The Philadelphia Story" is not inherently better than "The Pawnshop", and "Singing in the Rain" isn't better than "Hellzapoppin".
There are more good jokes in "Hercules Returns" than in Mel Brooks's entire career; only 'Airplane' is in the same league. Indeed, the 'chicken-who-missed-his-cue' gag mentioned by another reviewer is one of the greatest unexpected jokes in the history of cinema; up there with the Janet Leigh shower scene.
(For antipodeans, there's an added layer of funny: this was done at a time when Oz comedy was embracing local ethnic stereotypes, and there's a hilarious subtext where the Italian characters seem to behave like upwardly-mobile Mediterranean immigrants. Italian faces are Aussie faces; the nymphs who bathe in the sea early in the movie could just as well be a group of Aussie girls: so OF COURSE they'll do some synchronised swimming!) There are comedies that make you chuckle knowingly ("Kind Hearts and Coronets") There are comedies that make you smile happily (Tati). There are comedies that make you cheer ("Safety Last").
But read the other comments here, and be warned. There are also comedies that have the capacity to render you incontinent.
We all have our pet oddities. Things we are ashamed of liking, maybe (Spielberg's "1941"). Things we know only anoraks find funny (Tati's "Playtime"). I'm not going to stand on a soap-box and rant at the world for not sharing these predilections with me. You probably won't like them; don't let me waste your time! But I guess I have a bit of the boring-old-crank about me, because I feel moved to assert that "Hercules Returns" is the most neglected great comedy of all.
It is worth making an effort to see. It is worth searching for on e-bay. It is worth downloading on dial-up. That good.
Measured in terms of laughs-per-minute, and quality of jokes, "Hercules Returns" is simply without peer in the English language: only the Marxes at their best come close. It should be on every hot-hundred list of comedies, and well up there, too.
There are quite a few comedies that overdub "source footage" brilliantly: "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" is one of Steve Martin's finest hours. Woody Allen's 'What's Up, Tiger Lily' has an almost identical premise, the victim-movie being a terrific Japanese James Bond film, strangely intercut with an appalling Lovin' Spoonful track (I'm not making this up, you know.) But "Hercules Returns" is the apotheosis of the idea. It fulfils the premise impeccably.
The juxtaposition of inherently ludicrous images from an old Italian muscle-epic with a cartoonish Australian voice-track would be funny anyway.
But the writing! If you ask me, good jokes are enough to make a great comedy movie: a sit-com like "The Philadelphia Story" is not inherently better than "The Pawnshop", and "Singing in the Rain" isn't better than "Hellzapoppin".
There are more good jokes in "Hercules Returns" than in Mel Brooks's entire career; only 'Airplane' is in the same league. Indeed, the 'chicken-who-missed-his-cue' gag mentioned by another reviewer is one of the greatest unexpected jokes in the history of cinema; up there with the Janet Leigh shower scene.
(For antipodeans, there's an added layer of funny: this was done at a time when Oz comedy was embracing local ethnic stereotypes, and there's a hilarious subtext where the Italian characters seem to behave like upwardly-mobile Mediterranean immigrants. Italian faces are Aussie faces; the nymphs who bathe in the sea early in the movie could just as well be a group of Aussie girls: so OF COURSE they'll do some synchronised swimming!) There are comedies that make you chuckle knowingly ("Kind Hearts and Coronets") There are comedies that make you smile happily (Tati). There are comedies that make you cheer ("Safety Last").
But read the other comments here, and be warned. There are also comedies that have the capacity to render you incontinent.