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Woody Allen used to be so funny...

Onboard 2.0

By Onboard 2.0
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Onboard 2.0

Onboard 2.0 9083

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Just caught the last few ending sevens from Bananas. Such a great flick by a guy who was just funny as shit.  The marriage consummation scene with color comment by Howard Cossell is a classic....

 

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOU WOODY !!!??  I mean besides the pedophelia...

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yoladu

yoladu 4094

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4 minutes ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

His early stuff was just funny. Bananas, Zelig, Love and death, Everything you always wanted to know about sex,  A Midsummers night sex comedy all strong.

i mean, artists get old, the Rolling Stones having written a classic Stones song in 40 years.

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DougO

DougO 5250

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He was a pretty good comic in his early days, too. One in a while in his later years he could make something decent, but not too often.

Bananas is a classic. He was great as young Jimmy Bond in Casino Royale, a comedy version of Bond.

I liked most of his early stuff through Stardust Memories, which is sort of a non-slapstick, more sarcastic kind of introspective darkish comedy. Take the Money and Run, Sleeper, Play It Again Sam, Love And Death, Zelig all were pretty enjoyable.

What's Up Tiger Lily is a fun one, as well. A Japanese 007 type move that he overdubbed as a comedy.

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Onboard 2.0

Onboard 2.0 9083

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14 minutes ago, DougO said:

He was a pretty good comic in his early days, too. One in a while in his later years he could make something decent, but not too often.

Bananas is a classic. He was great as young Jimmy Bond in Casino Royale, a comedy version of Bond.

I liked most of his early stuff through Stardust Memories, which is sort of a non-slapstick, more sarcastic kind of introspective darkish comedy. Take the Money and Run, Sleeper, Play It Again Sam, Love And Death, Zelig all were pretty enjoyable.

What's Up Tiger Lily is a fun one, as well. A Japanese 007 type move that he overdubbed as a comedy.

Yep a strong list.  Forgot about sleeper. You can see that round house as you drive west from Denver out to the ski resorts in the front range I believe.

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South Austin

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12 hours ago, Post Oak said:

I did enjoy Midnight in Paris.  

 

12 hours ago, futureman said:

deconstructing harry is pure genius. 

Both great movies.

This one isn’t a comedy, but it’s a fucking great film.  Match Point.  With Scarlett Johansson. 

Those three Woody Allen movies are the only ones I’ve enjoyed in the last 30 years.

I’ll also say that the opening of Manhattan is fantastic. 

 

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Liquor and Poker

Liquor and Poker 3659

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When I was a kid I thought Love and Death and Sleeper were right up there among the funniest movies I ever saw.  The McDonalds gag, the whole duel sequence, the bit with the metal sphere.  All hilarious. Bananas was also really funny.  
 

Play it Again Sam and Annie Hall were too talky for me at the time but later I got the whole bit.  But he kind of switched to satire and premise from pure comedy around there. 
 

But I have had a hard time separating art from artist in the last decade or two.   I think the last Woody Allen movie I saw (at least the last one I remember seeing) was the one where the movie star came out of the screen.  
 

Knowing what I know now, Manhattan is pretty distasteful.  

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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49 minutes ago, ztejas said:

What ever happened to Charlie Chaplin? Dude was killing it there for a stretch. 

He apparently didn't win a Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest.  So he got depressed, switched places with another depressed artist who also had hit rock bottom in his career.  And used that anger to fuel a three front war with most of the Earth.  

I like most of Woody's work.  But then, he made 50 fucking movies.  Obviously he's gonna have something funny in there for everyone.  He's like a musician who's made a ton of records playing only 3 chords, but he's made some great gems hidden in there on those 3 chords.  One thing that baffled me is he makes a movie with Larry David, at peak Larry, and it was not remotely funny.  I don't think I laughed once during that whole movie.  How is that possible?  But he's usually funny to me.  I'll just be honest with myself and admit that I've only ever watched about 15 of his 50 films.  And that's plenty for me, no desire to see the others.  

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Bama Llama

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I enjoy his films but not the sideshow into which he turned his life.  Perhaps his neuroses were caused by living under the roller coaster at Coney Island.  Or was it inside the screen at a drive in?  His rejoinder about the quality of orgasms, though, is immortal.  "Bad orgasm?  How can you have a bad orgasm!? Every one I ever had was pretty much right on the money."

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 54238

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5 hours ago, TonyTexas said:

Annie Hall is one of my favorite comedies of all time. It doesn’t have fart jokes or pratfalls so it might not be Surly’s cup of tea. 

Yep, one of the best.  "Don't knock masturbation.  It's sex with someone I love."  And this:

 

I also love Take the Money and Run and Sleeper.

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DougO

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There was a documentary about Woody going on tour playing clarinet with a jazz band. It wasn't really funny, but an interesting doc about a mediocre amateur player, just doing what he loved being a fairly regular guy, even though he's not terribly regular. But I watched the whole thing. Anybody seen that? I think it was on Sundance or something back in the day, when they actually showed movies.

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Go Pokes

Go Pokes 979

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On 9/6/2020 at 6:24 AM, RPM said:

Never thought he was funny, but was trying really hard to be funny. Not a single film of his is worth a damn in my estimation.

It took a few years but we've finally found something in the TV/film world where I believe you are 100% wrong.  He was fucking hilarious, he didn't have to try to be funny at all, and the last line isn't even worth commenting on.  But you're still cool in my book.  

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Augustus

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On 9/5/2020 at 5:55 PM, futureman said:

deconstructing harry is pure genius. 

It is.

Among his more recent stuff, Vicky Christina Barcelona, Midnight in Paris were on par with his earlier hits, imo.  Blue Jasmine got a lot of love, but I didn't click with that one.

Annie Hall, and Hannah and her Sisters are probably my faves.

His stand up back in the 60's was pretty great.  "This was my grandfather's watch.  On his deathbed, he sold it to me."

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Augustus

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On 9/6/2020 at 11:26 AM, GhostOfTomJoad said:

I think the last film of his I saw in a theater was Manhattan Murder Mystery. I enjoyed it. Might need to stream it again soon.

Burst out laughing at one line.

They're arguing back and forth, Keaton's trying to convince him to break/enter the suspect's apartment.  Woody is of course animatedly refusing, at which point she admonishes him not be a "fuddy duddy."

The incredulity of his response, "a FUDDY DUDDY?!?!" had me crying.

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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Yeah, glad to see some love for that movie.  Mira was brilliant, and gorgeous, in that film.  She has literally about 80+ credits after that movie, and I don't know that I've ever seen in her anything else after Mighty Aphrodite.  

"Everyone Says I Love You" is also an underrated gem.  It's an unusually large ensemble cast, even by Woody standards.  I still say the exchange between Alan Alda and his German chef out loud about once a month.  

"The Italians need sauce?...The Italians were weak!"  

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Rip76

Rip76 4928

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When I was about to start college, I started a long period of love for the "New York" comedy.

And of course that started with Woody Allen and Neil Simon.  I thought Neil was a better writer and a bit more cerebral. 

I actually liked a little of everything Woody did from 1971 to about "Deconstructing Harry."

This is a pretty good stretch:

Play It Again, Sam

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex*

1973 Sleeper

1975 Love and Death

1977 Annie Hall

1978 Interiors

1979 Manhattan

1980 Stardust Memories]

1982 A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy

1983 Zelig

1984 Broadway Danny Rose

1985 The Purple Rose of Cairo

1986 Hannah and Her Sisters

1987 Radio Days

 

 

 

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