Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Yellowbeard
*** Yellowbeard. Comedy.
Directed by: Mel Damski.
Starring: Graham Chapman, Peter Boyle, Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, Peter Cook, Marty Feldman, Eric Idle, Madeline Kahn, James Mason, John Cleese.
This silly pirate movie, that I bought on recommendation from the
Ruthless pirate Yellowbeard (Graham Chapman) discovers that his son Dan (Martin Hewitt), on whose head he'd tatooed the map to his treasure, is an intellectual. Everyone from the Navy to his old crew is on a race to find the treasure, leading to the classic "stagger, stagger, crawl" directions.
Madeline is in her usual hilarious form as Dan's mother, and Cheech & Chong outdo themselves in silliness as El Segundo and El Nebuloso, respectively. In fact, all the vast cast of comedic actors seem to be just as amusing as usual.
So I'm not sure why it fell flat for me. Look through my movie reviews--I love silly and cheesy. The all-star cast should have done the trick, and certainly most of the Amazon reviewers thought it worked. I think it was the plot, of which there wasn't much.
I love silly, but I need there to be a point to it. Otherwise, it's just a bunch of people running around doing silly things, and that's entertaining for a while, but then it just gets boring.
I am glad I saw it, if only so I can repeat and paraphrase those treasure map directions ad nauseum. I just would have been happier if I'd rented it rather than purchasing it.
As for the son whose gift it was, he got impatient with it before I did. I think that's because he wasn't as familiar with the all-star cast, and thus wasn't as willing as I was to give them the benefit of the doubt at the beginning... at least I think he did. He's 12. Sometimes he'll forego an honest critique in favor of scathing sarcasm just because he finds the latter more amusing.
...more
Categories: Movies, 3stars, Comedy
Labels: 3 stars, comedy, Movies
