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Posted (edited)

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...

Edited by Onboard 2.0
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Posted
  On 9/6/2020 at 12:40 AM, 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.

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

Posted
  On 9/6/2020 at 12:46 AM, yoladu said:

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

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My point was he stopped being funny making movies, and started making "films" (totally air quoting here)....  some were OK, but never as strong as his comedy.

Posted

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.

Posted
  On 9/6/2020 at 1:57 AM, 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.

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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.

Posted

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.

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Posted
  On 9/6/2020 at 11:24 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.

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 Everyones taste is different of course. Just curious, which of Woodys movies have you seen ?

Posted

Pretty much all of them. I may have missed one or two of his newer films, but back in the day you didn't have much choice in what was on TV.

Posted
  On 9/6/2020 at 12:35 AM, Post Oak said:

I did enjoy Midnight in Paris.  

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  On 9/6/2020 at 12:55 AM, futureman said:

deconstructing harry is pure genius. 

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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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Posted

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.  

Posted
  On 9/6/2020 at 12:26 AM, yoladu said:

you are asking why a guy who made a funny movie when he was 35 is not making funny movies 50 years later at 85?

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

Posted
  On 9/6/2020 at 4:15 PM, ztejas said:

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

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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.  

Posted

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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Posted
  On 9/6/2020 at 12:09 PM, 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. 

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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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Posted

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.

Posted
  On 9/6/2020 at 11:24 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.

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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.  

Posted
  On 9/6/2020 at 12:55 AM, futureman said:

deconstructing harry is pure genius. 

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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."

Posted
  On 9/6/2020 at 6:26 PM, 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.

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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.

Posted

Damn, I'm gonna have to watch MMM again now.  

"You know how General Motors will recall defective cars?  You gotta go in for tune up."

I get that there are people who just don't get Woody Allen. But for those who do, he's a treasure.

 

Posted

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!"  

Posted

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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