A first time watching this today and honestly, its pretty damn near perfect. The makers of this film basically went through the phone book and called ever vaudville or animated comedian from 1932 to the (then) present day and asked if they were available and...for the majority, the answer was seemingly 'yes.'
It's a screwball caper involving a group of folks trying to find a stash of 350k buried under a giant 'W' and the adventures and mishaps they get up to on the way. And honestly; thats all you really need to know.
The scripts PERFECTLY balanced keeping a consistant pace, running the three acts as a slowboil on plot and a quick boil on character pieces, The tone is near perfect for the full runtime, the dialogue is ripped straight out of the world of fast talking, charismatic vaudville and music hall stylee. Though; this film explores the full buffet of comedy stylings of the time, so expect slapstick, witty wordplay, physical comedy, visual gags. The LOT.
It never feels slow, it never slows down, this isnt about the race, its about the journey the folks go on while ON the race. and most importantly of all; IT STICKS THE LANDING! Which is CRUCIAL to the success of a movie like this.
The direction is decently styalised, broadly speaking its nothing overly complicated, but the set pieces are grand and astounding, intricate and complex. Its a film that feels confident in what it wants to do, and how it wants to do it. SO confident in fact; that its more than happy to let the script and cast do the talking, only pulling out the 'Big Guns' when IT wants to, rather than when the execs say it should.
The cine is colourful, vibrant, superb composition, its a frame PERFECT edit for the most part with impeccable comedic timing across the full runtime.
Even if the script, the comedy, the style, the direction, the cine and the editing wernt your cup of tea. The performances will almost certainly win you over, with sincere and lively takes from some of hollywoods best and brightest for the time. They're quick, hot on the dialogue delivery and most importantly of all seem MORE than happy to be involved in this thing. And thats not even MENTIONING the cameos...Put it this way, when a 'blink and you'll miss it' cameo from Jerry Lewis...or 'The Three Stooges' can be SO impeccably timed as to raise the roof, the rest of the cast aint got nothing to worry about.
All this scored with a dizzying and playful score thats as unique as the movie itself. honestly? im kind of sad at the fact this things over 2 and a half hours long...As it means finding time to rewatch it is going to be quite difficult. It absolutely doesnt FEEL over 2 Hours and 40 minutes long...but surprisingly it is!
They say that familiarity with a work, brings comfort and nostalgia, but I had NO trouble slipping into the weird and wild world this film creates. I was INSTANTLY comfy (despite having never seen it before) and as the credits rolled, my only real thought was 'Damn...I wish I had time to just hit 'play' again on this right now!'
If you have a taste for older comedy stylings and in particular screwball comedies. This ones an absolute must. its a near perfect comedy in my eyes. and MORE than worth your time.
source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/its-a-mad-mad-mad-mad-world/
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