Rating: 
Summary: "TOGAS, TUTUS ...............et tu?"
Review: "But I don't even look like a girl...""LIE DOWN, and think GIRLISH thoughts.........." Even the names - "Vibrato", "Hysterium", Erronius", "Fertila", "etc" ....... still raise chuckles!
What a treat! [Probably inspired the names in Monty Python's "Life of Brian"!] AND then there's the dreamcast - headed by Zero Mostel as "Pseudolus", with Phil Silvers, Jack Gilford - even silent star Buster Keaton strutting his stuff on a treadmill circa somewhere BC - searching for his long-lost offspring. There's also Michael Crawford as "Hero" a few years before "Hello Dolly" and the triumphs that followed. If you've never seen this classic - shame on you! It's bawdy, ribald, irreverent and very funny, complete with chariot chases, matrons, virgins [male and female], raging hormones, protruding pulchritude, and bonus of all - It's a Musical! The kids will love it! Just sit back, relax and enjoy this one! For kicks - add "The Producers" also with Zero, and Mel Brooks "History of the World - Part 1". For the Purist - perhaps Eddit Cantor's "Roman Scandals" with Lucy [and if you don't know from Eddie Cantor - leave the page!]. Toga! Toga! Toga!
Rating:
Summary: We Live for Roman Cluture
Review: A "Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" is a laugh out loud hilarious musical comedy. My sides hurt from laughing so hard. Like slap-stick comedy of the movie and play is outrageous. Besides being funny this movie is also educational. It gives you an insight in the way of Roman life. The way this movie is presented makes your emotions go soaring. You feel compasion for each and every character, except for Miles Gloriosus. When Hero meets the love of his life Philia, it makes you just want to cry. And when he almost loses her, you're just sitting on the edge of your seat with anticipation of what is going to happen. This movie is an all around great film. I would recommend it for anyone who loves to laugh, cry, and most importantly laugh.
Rating: 
Summary: Classic Funny Men enliven this trip to the FORUM
Review: A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM is one of those shows that you just have to let go of all disbelief, in order to accept the broad and wacky humor. Using the 2 stars from the original cast (Zero Mostel & Jack Gilford), this film is a fun and silly romp for everyone to enjoy. Mostel leads the pack as the crafty slave plotting his way to freedom, while Gilford is perfect as his VERY nervous cohort. Buster Keaton is a gem as the befuddled, blind-as-a-bat, old man searching for his long-lost children, while Phil Silvers is oily perfection as Lycus, the buyer & seller of the flesh of beautiful women. Leon Greene is vanity personified as the roman soldier, Miles Gloriosus. Richard Lester directs using his trademark quick-cuts and cinema tricks, and while they don't always work, they keep the film from dragging too much. Fans of the stage show will be disappointed to see some of the musical numbers cut, as well as the liberties with the script. (The part of Lycus is expanded in the film to accomodate Silvers.) However, the chance to see these old pros of burlesque humor strut their stuff makes this trip well worth taking. Be aware, however, that this film is NOT for the PC inclined. This is a "Comedy, Tonight" worth recommending.
Rating: 
Summary: A giggle at the forum...
Review: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum was a very important project indeed. Not only was it the first show that American Theatrical Sweetheart Stephen Sondheim did both the music and lyrics, but it also brought the amazing Larry Gelbart (M*A*S*H*) to the musical theater, a journey he would take again in 1990 with "City of Angels." I love the show but, it was for Gelbert's laugh-a-minute book, not the one-joke-songs of Sondheim. Not to say that Sondheims lyrics are not clever, only that the quick paced book dialogue actually stops for each repetitive"Lovely" or redundant"I'm calm."(cut from the film) Its been said that Stephen said he did that intentionally to break up the pacing. That sounds like after the fact justification to me. I think this pacing problem explains why, upon initial release, this show was a "Zero Mostel" show, not a "Stephen Sondheim" show. This pacing becomes even more apparent in the film where most of the songs were cut. In watching the film you successfully forget it is a musical after each number and the sudden singing is as jarring as I've ever seen onscreen. (The first song in the story - Lovely- is after 20 minutes or so of screen time. and the remaining 2 songs appear after long intervals spanning the hour forty minute running time.) So, this was not to be a staged play. Richard Lester, who had successfully mounted a couple Beatles films, was brought in with his quick cut editing and a firm reliance on film techniques that will always look 1960s. They also brought in the late Tony Walton whose scenic design and costumes are just wonderful. Finally, the cast (including such wonderful funny folk as Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, Buster Keaton and Jack Gilford) shows one of the great examples of screen teamwork. But, yet, the experience is lost in a sea of Benny Hill-esque action. This was not needed on stage - but to be fair, could not have been accomplished. So, the film is a watcher for the wonderful words of Larry Gelbart and for the 4 leading men. Michael Crawford, funny man turned Phantom man, plays the aloof one dimensional hero "Hero". All the female roles are even flatter. Many, many songs were cut from Sondheims original material: "Love I hear", "Free", "I'm Calm", "Pretty Little Picture", "Impossible", "That Dirty Old Man" and "That'll show him" are nowhere to be found. Enjoy a Comedy Tonight.
Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest film comedies ever
Review: An almost perfect comedy until the final chase scene which is overdone and forced. The movie successfully treads the line between bawdiness and good taste which Hollywood long ago forgot. While the movie unfortunately doesn't include many of Sondheim's songs, it does include four of the best from the broadway score, including the brilliant "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid" and a song in which Roman general Milius Gloriosous sings the immortal line, "I am my ideal..." The casting is perfect, and Zero Mostel was never better. This is a cheerfully and unabashedly broad comedy, and there's nothing subtle about it, but it succeeds on every level.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: Easily one the most memorable musicals to date. Hilarious script, great songs, and an all star cast make this one a must have for any home.
Rating:
Summary: Something Familiar
Review: First, this CD is a must for any Sondheim enthusiast. However, as any Sondheim enthusiast knows, the movie itself was a mistake: a poor movie transfer of a hysterical Broadway hit. The movie's one redeeming factor is that it visually preserves some of the original Broadway performers. If you're not a "Sondhead" buy the Original Broadway Cast recording or the 1996 Revival recording; the performances are better and there is much more music. If you are addicted to Sondheim, you probably already own this one...along with the VHS release...and the recent DVD...sigh.
Rating:
Summary: Even Better Than I Remembered It To Be
Review: Great fun musical comedy loosely based on T. Maccius Plautus' 2nd century B.C. comedy "Miles Gloriosus" ("Braggart Warrior").
The widescreen format lets you see pratfalls and edge-of-scene antics that are missing in the pan and scan version. Zero Mostel was a comic genius; it's a pity that he didn't leave us more movies to enjoy. Michael Hordern is superb as Senex, as are Jack Gilford and Phil Silvers as Hysterium and Lycus. When I was a child I didn't enjoy the musical numbers, I remember fast- forwarding through to get back to the comedy. I now appreciate the songs as well; they are genuinely funny and full of double-entendres that you have to hear repeatedly to fully enjoy. The entire movie, despite its classical setting, has a swinging-sixties feel that you'll have to watch a Rat Pack film to match. You almost expect Frank Sinatra to walk into a scene, singing a song in between drags on his cigarette.
Rating:
Summary: Even Better Than I Remembered It To Be
Review: Great fun musical comedy loosely based on T. Maccius Plautus' 2nd century B.C. comedy "Miles Gloriosus" ("Braggart Warrior").
The widescreen format lets you see pratfalls and edge-of-scene antics that are missing in the pan and scan version. Zero Mostel was a comic genius; it's a pity that he didn't leave us more movies to enjoy. Michael Hordern is superb as Senex, as are Jack Gilford and Phil Silvers as Hysterium and Lycus. When I was a child I didn't enjoy the musical numbers, I remember fast- forwarding through to get back to the comedy. I now appreciate the songs as well; they are genuinely funny and full of double-entendres that you have to hear repeatedly to fully enjoy. The entire movie, despite its classical setting, has a swinging-sixties feel that you'll have to watch a Rat Pack film to match. You almost expect Frank Sinatra to walk into a scene, singing a song in between drags on his cigarette.
Rating:
Summary: Overdone -- and underdone
Review: Hard to believe Ken Thorne's adaptation won an Oscar. Richard Lester's overdone (and underdone) comedy got music to match. It has its felicities, mostly the imaginings of ancient-Roman-style jazz with flutes and lutes; but where Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal gave Sondheim's score a dignity greater than the score itself, Thorne had a bad case of the arranging cutes, broadly abetted by Zero. It doesn't help that the allegedly sexy "Vibrata's Dance" sounds like sixties-Phillies-baseball intro music. (I can almost hear the ump yelling at the end, "YERRRRRR OUT!" That and the billboard.) A generic chorus more at home with Patty Duke (same studio) tops off the undistinguished work. The album came from the LP's masters and perpetuates its minor production glitches (like Michael Hordern singing "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid" in a brief and unintended duet, and Zero belting several bars of the opening "Comedy Tonight" out of tune). Deleted, of course, along with the rest of Rykodisc's "MGM" soundtracks and cast albums. (What is wrong with the name of Pickford, Chaplin, Fairbanks and Griffith -- United Artists?) The trailer does have some nice jiggling, though.
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