Gus
|
List Price: Our Price: $5.94 You Save: $9.05 (60%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $3.47 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Gus
Movie Review: A Great Movie from Old Disney to get away from the rat-race.
Summary: 4 Stars
OK, so this is not an Oscar level movie but, whats wrong with that? As a kid growing up I loved these flicks from Disney. And, it's a blast to watch them with my kids. I recently saw Million Dollar Baby and came out of the theater feeling like crap even though that's an Oscar level movie. When I watched GUS with my kids, I felt great al the way through and afterwards.
The scenes with the late Bob Crane and Johnny Unitas are hilarious. Don Knotts is great too as well as Ed Asner. I also enjoyed telling my kids about the old drive-in movies during that section and how we would put speakers in our car and also light up those mosquito repelling coils that the snack bar would sell. We forget that the kids don't know about such things. Having Richard Kiel show up inside that VW after Dick Butkus raps on the door was a great touch.
Bottom line, Gus wasn't given the best treatment on DVD, but it's still worth renting and watching when you want to for get all the crap of today. And the little ones will love it!
Now for the new Disney. You guys suck! This was a widescreen movie that deserved to be remastered and offered the same way on DVD. Like Universal's treatment of "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. That one was well done. The Disney of today has none of the values of the Disney of old and we might as well face up to it. They've even take some movies originally formatted as 4:3, lopped off the top and bottom and called it widescreen. And, where is Song of the South??!!!!!
Movie Review: Gus: It's the league's leading laugh scorer!
Summary: 3 Stars
MOVIE: Disney's Gus is a 1976 film that I enjoyed tremendously as a kid, and after a recent viewing still does as an adult. It's hilarious, featuring a large cast, but the comedy antics of the crooks and the mule are what make the movie.
Edward Asner stars, although he's NOT featured on the DVD cover nor on the back copy, as Hank Cooper, losing owner of the California Atoms NFL team. How bad is the team? Well, the opening credits show the defense taking out the offence as Cooper and Coach Venner (Don Knotts) review football films in preparing for the upcoming season. Asner consistently provides a stable and gruff backdrop for the comedy antics of the movie.
Knotts, who IS featured on the DVD cover of this movie in "The Don Knotts Collection," plays the incompetent coach with superior knowledge as he has done throughout his career. He mostly plays idiot to Asner's straight man.
The movie gets going, after Cooper reviews all the troubles of the team, including an overage and overweight clumsy cheerleading squad. In an attempt to sell tickets Cooper sends for Gus the mule and owner/trainer Andy Petrovic (Gary Grimes) for the half-time show. Gus, from Yugoslavia, which NO LONGER exists as a country, has made worldwide news for kicking soccer balls 100 yards. Gus, of course, makes the DVD cover, along with Cooper's aide Debbie Kovac.
Kovac (Liberty Williams before she voiced Jayna on "Super Friends") had pushed to get the mule meets Gus and Andy at the airport and is soon smitten by Andy and he with her. Immediately she loses interest in Rob Cargil (Dick Butkus), leaving the Atoms player to fuss and fume about it until he eventually tackles skinny and unprotected Andy. Richard Kiel has a great cameo, too.
As expected Gus with football holder Andy begins kicking for the Atoms and winning games for them from all the fourth downs. Desperate to win a bet with Cooper and get ownership of the team, Charles Gwynn (Harold Gould) brings in Spinner and Crankcase to harass and eventually mulenap Gus to keep him from kicking and winning for the Atoms.
The scenes with Tim Conway and Tom Bosley as the bumbling mulenappers are the most hilarious in the film. Especially having them try to lasso Gus in a supermarket amid destruction of canned goods, china, flour, ketchup, and lobsters. Gus also shows up drunk for a game because of these two slapstick clowns. Both are quite funny as crooks the family will remember, although the DVD back copy only mentions Conway and Don Knotts. These scenes overwhelm the final football scene, a big muddy goofy one, where Andy earns the respect of his father. It's a nice finish to the film.
Finally in scenes reminiscent of 1973's The World's Greatest Athlete, one sports announcer yaks continuously (Bob Crane in his last film) while the other can't get a word in edgewise (Johnny Unitas as himself). However in this film's fullscreen format, Crane and Unitas are cut off during most of their scenes. That was not a problem with the lesser film's widescreen presentation.
Other similarities between World's Greatest Athlete and Gus involve having a foreign player come to the U.S. to play to save a losing athletic organization, having the old boyfriend become jealous because his former girlfriend becomes attracted to the new star, an animal co-star, and Conway in both.
But I would choose to watch Gus over WGA. Mules are funnier than tigers.
DVD: Not widescreen, so you lose part of movie. No bonus features. Not even the movie trailer. With a better DVD transfer and package, it would rate 5 stars.
Movie Review: Don Knotts and a Mule... you can't go wrong!
Summary: 3 Stars
Gus is a Yugoslavian mule with a real talent: He can kick soccer balls 100 yards with unerring accuracy. When Hank Cooper (Edward Asner), the financially flailing owner of a losing football team, gets wind of Gus's talent from a newspaper article, he envisions a halftime show that might draw crowds (and hence, make money). This also presents an opportunity for bigger and better things to Gus's shy young owner, Andy Petrovic (Gary Grimes). As soon as Gus's hooves touch U.S. soil he starts performing like a champ, kicking the ball at halftime shows with panache time and time again. Before long, thieves plot and carry out the kidnapping of the gifted mule, planning to hide him until after the big game in hopes his team will lose without him. This movie is flawed (mainly in its lack of production value) but it's well worth a look, especially for fans of mules and lover of silly Disney comedy.
Staci Layne Wilson
Movie Review: Gus kicks!
Summary: 2 Stars
UPDATE: When I first reviewed this I gave it fewer stars due to the poor job they did on the DVD. I give the movie itself 3.5 stars. The web site won't let me fix the amount I put in, but they used to let you change stars when you edited a review. The DVD release at this time does not seem to have improved sound or a re-mastered picture, nor does it include extras such as the trailer, interviews with actors, or a cartoon. Worst of all the huge widescreen shots that Disney made in the stadium are ruined by the lack of widescreen. It may be cheaper for now to buy the VHS or keep yours, plus you send a message to manufacturers that you will not pay DVD prices for a quick buck project.
FILM REVIEW: The California Atoms NFL football team is facing yet another season in last place until they stumble upon a mule named Gus that can kick field goals. Andy Petrovic is brought from Yugoslavia (Gary Grimes) along his mule Gus to kick football as half time entertainment, Andy's brother is a big soccer hero back in his homeland. The owner of the team, Hank Cooper (Ed Asner), hopes the mule can increase the poor attendance. The Coach (Don Knotts who also starred in the "The Apple Dumpling Gang" and its sequel, "...Rides Again", "Hot Lead and Cold Feet", and "No Deposit, No Return");) is so impressed he puts the mule on the team. No one seems to mind if the team that is the joke of the league wants to humiliate themselves a bit more, that is until they learn that the mule can nail 100 yard kicks right between the goalposts. The team begins winning game after game. Since the rule book does not say anything about mules, he gets to stay despite protests. "Gus Day" is announced but our mule hero has a bit much to drink and ruins his own ceremony. The mule is well liked by all he comes in contact with, and even helps his shy owner find romance with Debbi (Liberty Williams). But suddenly the big stakes in football cause the competition to hire crooks to stop Gus by stealing him, leading to a chase scene that goes through a grocery store. . And the chase is on... Great ensemble group of comedy actors that includes Tim Conway as Crankcase, he also appeared in other Disney movies such as the "The Apple Dumpling Gang" and its sequel, "...Rides Again", "Worlds Greatest Athlete", and "The Shaggy D.A."; Cal is played by veteran Dick Van Patten, who also starred in "Snowball Express", "Superdad", "The Sahggy D.A.", "Treasure of Matecumbe", "Freaky Friday", and "The Strongest Man in the World" for Disney; Spinner (Tom Bosley); Pepper the nutty sportscaster, played to the hilt by Bob Crane, also appeared as the lead in the zany "Superdad" for Disney),
TRIVIA & BEHIND THE SCENES: The movie had a huge cast that also included some well known names in football including Johnny Unitas, Dick Enberg, Stu Nahan, Dick Butkus, and George Putnam. Don't forget that Walt's son-in-law Ron Miller was running the studio after Walt's death, and he was a former tight end with the L.A. Rams. He had the connections to get the studio an unprecedented level of cooperation from the NFL and the Rams, including being allowed to shoot at the LA coliseum, the Sports Arena, and background shots at real games. For close up shooting they made a portable sod grass field they put over a parking lot at the studio lot. They also used the animation building as a hospital; you can read why the building was intentionally designed to look like a hospital when it was built in the Disney biography by Bob Thomas. Directed by Vince McEveety, who got his start as an assistant director on the Mickey Mouse Club, later directing Disney films such as "Treasure of Matecumbe", "The Strongest Man in the World", "Million Dollar Duck", "Superdad", "Castaway Cowboy", "Charley and the Angel", and "The Biscuit Eater". Screenplay by Arthur Allsberg and Don Nelson, adapted from the book by Tom Key. The movie is not too long, with a running time of 96 minutes and was released as a summer movie to theatres on July 7, 1976.
It did booming business at the drive-ins, as dads that had been reluctant to get dragged to Disney "kiddy" movies suddenly became agreeable when football was involved. It aired later on TV in a special 2 hour format on "The Wonderful World of Disney" on 9/18/77, then as a two episode show in 1979, and 1982. First video release was in 1981, earlier than most live action films. An entertaining gimmick comedy, this time it's a mule that plays football. Disney released quite a few such films during this period, relying on a basic formula that included a proven team of character actors, the obligatory chase slapstick scene, production team, director, etc that had worked as a formula so far. Bringing the same actors back from other Disney films allowed the studio to jump into the plot quicker as the character type of some of these actors was already recognized by the viewer. While the formula is predictable that's OK, it's a part of the humor, and it's good clean and hilarious family fun and kids just love it.
Movie Review: Not Like You Remembered...
Summary: 1 Stars
Ah, the Disney live-action films of the 60's and 70's. I remember seeing many of these pricless gems in my grammar school years, at afterschool screenings, youth camps, and at matinees with my grandmother. Classics like 'The Unidentified Flying Oddball, 'The Cat From Outer Space,' and of course the un-killable 'Herbie' franchise have all won a special place in the hearts of the thirtysomething set born in the late sixties and early seventies. Approach with caution, however. "Gus" is just plain awful.
It's actually so bad it makes you feel a lot better about the kids movies of today. God bless Pixar, and think twice before you browbeat Disney for monopolizing the entertainment mind of your child - thirty years ago they actually made movies about donkeys kicking field goals in the NFL. We have evolved.
Not even the double-threat star power of Ed Asner AND Tom Bosley could save this one. It does however, earn the one-stat rating for films that fall into the 'So Bad It's Good' category.
More Movie Reviews:
1 2
1 2