Don't Drink the Water
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Movie Reviews of Don't Drink the Water
Movie Review: Great fun!
Summary: 4 Stars
I enjoyed the film very much. Good high energy performances (and far superior to the Jackie Gleason/Estelle Parsons early '60s version....Gleason, who was brilliant in so many other areas, just couldn't get this right).
Correction: Allen's wife is not played by Julie Hagerty (ref "Airplane" and "Lost in America," but Julie Kavner, who had appeared with Allen previously in "Oedipus Wrecks," from the short film compilation, "New York Stories."
Movie Review: Stagey Gem
Summary: 4 Stars
This one is a must for fans and will certainly earn Woody more of the same. I like it because it was very stagey, no surprise for a filmed play. Woody has made some brilliant films and this isn't one of them, but its fun, energetic and we see him in classic Jewish Kay/Hope/Marx/Lewis/Allen mode. Great fun. And dont forget the marvellous Julie Hagerty, voice of Marge Simpson, but even so much better as a comedienne.Movie Review: Woody Allen - Don't Drink the Water
Summary: 4 Stars
A cute mid-90's Woody film that was originally released on
network television, believe it or not. A solid effort of
one of his minor films. Good performance by Michael J. Fox.
Movie Review: A very surprisingly average comedy.
Summary: 3 Stars
`Don't Drink the Water', directed by Woody Allen and based on a Broadway play by Allen is distinctly different from most of his other films due to its dated and just ordinarily funny plot and jokes.
As amazing as it may be to say this, almost all of Allen's movies hold up extremely well over time. There seem to be no serious dependencies on the events of the day. Even Zellig, which takes place in a definite time in history, stands up as well as, for example, `Casablanca' or `The Godfather' based on the durability of the story. The movie under consideration, however, depends a lot on early cold war situations as they may have played out in an American embassy in Prague, Budapest, or Warsaw in the early sixties. Much of the background depends on the pre-Cuban Missile Crisis Kennedy administration. Even the title pictures Eastern Europe as not much more advanced in public sanitation as a Banana Republic, let alone our favorite target of such jokes, Mexico.
I believe this movie, which may have been made for television, was filmed relatively recently, probably after Michael J. Fox left `Family Ties' and while or before he began his last TV series before retiring due to Parkinson's Disease. I have strong suspicions, however, that the play was written in the early sixties, not too long after the time in which the play takes place.
One result of this being an adaptation from a stage play is that there is little or none of Allen's visual humor. All on screen business is written to be done on a stage with one scene on stage at a time. There are also practically none of Allen's favorite topics and plot tricks. This is nothing more than a stage comedy, and virtually none of Allen's other movies are `nothing more than stage comedies'.
That does not mean this is not funny. Allen is as good a joke writer as he ever was. It's just that the movie doesn't engage our interest. Compared to, for example, two average Allen movies, `Shadows and Fog' and `A Midsummer's Night Sex Comedy', the characters simply don't sustain our interest. This may be due in part to weaker acting by Fox, Kavner, DeLuise, and Herrmann, when compared to Mia Farrow, John Malkovich, Jose Ferrer, and Tony Roberts, but I don't think so, as the principle's are pretty well cast into parts for which they are eminently suited. Julie Kavner, for example, plays almost exactly the same role as she does in the excellent `Radio Days'.
Even the plot resolution and the minor love interest are predictable.
So, while I am a great Woody Allen fan, I suggest this is one of the very few of his works you can pass up without feeling any sense of loss. It is enjoyable to watch once, but it has little staying power.
Movie Review: Should be given 6 Oscars
Summary: 1 Stars
Woody Allen's audiovisual version of an early play which was originally staged on a premiere during a military parade for the Egyptian president Anwar Al Sadat, who was carnaged with his cabinet in the early eighties by his own air force.The embarassment of the jewish author, who strangely didn't attend the staging due to pregnancy (and started the well known gossip story of a love affair with the dignatary), made him start a re write, which lead him to just leave the title and change everything else (including his famous B&W credit card to the more festive Filemón Pacheco, which sadly didn't make it to the final cut).
If you wanna see Michael J. Fox not traveling to the future (or the past) this is the movie you want to steal from a relative who already owns it and is not that aware of the things he has bought.
If you're tripping in acid maybe you'll discover how this is the prequel to Star Wars' Episode I (if you do, please post a message).
Let's just enjoy our beloved hypocondriac, always funny, always being analyzed in New York!!!!!!