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1941 - Collector's Edition

1941 - Collector's Edition

List Price: $12.98
Your Price: $9.09
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: What shoclk.....
Review: Spielberg and Colombia Pictures parted ways for ten years after doing this rather abismmal 1978 movie with so much tasteless humor and bad jokes. Spielberg has gone on record as saying that this was the worst movie of hos directing career.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: 2.7 out of 5
Review: 1941 is Steven Spielberg's most infamous flop. The film is one of Spielberg's very few comedies, chronicling the adventures of a group of citizens and soldiers in 1941 California, who fear they'll be next. Spielberg's directing is nothing special, an extremely rare occurence; Robert Zemeckis' and Bob Gale's script has some of the most unfunny circumstances made into attempted comedy; John Williams' score is great, but as with Spielberg, nothing great; there's also some wacky cinematography by William A. Fraker. Some of the main members of an outstanding cast include Dan Aykroyd, Ned Beatty, Christopher Lee, Tim Matheson, Murray Hamilton, Lorraine Gary, Robert Stack, Treat Williams, Warren Oates, and Slim Pickens. Of course, the true highlight of the film is John Belushi, who never lets us down for laughs. As a matter of fact, Belushi may be the only good part of the film in his role as a crazed war pilot. While true war historians and the like may think that the occurences upon which the film is inspired are nothing to be made fun of (I myself feel the same), 1941 isn't a total waste, as unfunny as it is. Bottom line: Good moments, but only for those who have seen everything else Spielberg has to offer.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: 1941 A Funny Film
Review: I give 1941 3 1/2 stars. Not quite 4 stars. The film is very funny and is still good even though it is now nearly 25 years old. It is worth viewing once every 2-3 years and is worth purchasing for under $$$$. Bulushi and Aykroyd are very funny. Good screwball comedy preying on the fears of people in California and along the western coast of a Japanese Invasion just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Slim Pickens is hilarious as the country bumkin captured by the Japanese. It is worth just seeing Slim. Worth the price of the DVD.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: All the hype is worth it.
Review: This movie has stellar performances by many great actors. Ned Beatty is superb, Slim Pickens is unforgettable, John Belushi is extremely wacky, Dan Ackroyd is top of head, Treat Williams is completely in character. This movie is, was and always shall be the spoof that it is. I would say it is Dr.Strangelove meets M*A*S*H* Meets It's a Mad,Mad,Mad,Mad world , Meets Animal House all in one. It is funny as hell. I give it 5 stars as I still chuckle to myself after seeing it, picturing it in my mind. Ned Beatty firing a cannon through his house is uproarously funny,and Slim Pickens in iterrogation is fall down and laugh funny. Completely MADCAP..... This movie is a CLASSIC.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Very funny film
Review: Although many people find this film largely unfunny I find it hilarious. They got John Belushi to play the same kind of character that he did in Animal House and, in my opinion, it works!! Dan Aykroyd is also as funny as ever, he gets a bump on the head and does some crazy things that are sure to make you laugh. This film is worth renting just to see John Belushi's many comedy falls and Dan Aykroyd's impression of a bug.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Typical Spielberg
Review: In the documentary that accompanies this director's cut version, Spielberg makes the comment that he agreed to direct 1941 for the simple reason that he didn't have anything better to do at the time. It was an attitude that didn't bode well for the film, and the final result was one of the most horrific critical and box office disasters of the late 1970s: a film that opened with tremendous hype one night and all but vanished from theatre screens the next.

I did not see the original release, which I understand was quite a bit different from this director's cut, so I can't say if I find the present version better or worse. But I can say it isn't as bad as you may have heard. (Indeed, in some respects it is better than most Spielberg films, for it generally lacks the ham-handed sentimentality so typical of his work.) All the same, I can also say that it isn't as good as some would have you believe. As slapstick comedies go, it is only incidentally funny.

The premise is intriguing. In the wake of Pearl Harbor, Californians have fallen prey to the fear that they will be the next attacked--and that fear spawns an increasing paranoia. If the writers (and Spielberg himself, who apparently egged them on) had focused on this, 1941 might actually have been a truly memorable comedy... but instead the film rips and snorts in every direction imaginable in an effort to cram in everything from riffs on DR. STRANGELOVE to the Los Angeles "Zoot Suit Riots" to expensive special effects pratfalls that are only mildly amusing at best.

The plot inevitably splits into several different directions, and the result is rather like IT'S MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD meets ANIMAL HOUSE and the two do a belly flop into a bucket of Hollywood gloss--but without making much of splash. Many of the individual performers are quite good (Slim Pickens, Ned Beatty, and Treat Williams particularly so), and many of the situations have tremendous potential. But in the final analysis, 1941 is the sort of film that you don't bother to pause when you go to the bathroom.

That said, the DVD package is quite nice: the film looks good, and I was particularly impressed with the sound. There isn't a director's commentary track, but there is a rather lengthy "making of" documentary that includes extended interviews and home-movies taken of the set that provide behind-the-scenes glimpses of the cast, most particularly of the late great John Belushi. Fans of the Spielberg style will likely adore the whole thing, but for rest of us... this is a rental you won't mind returning the next day. Whether you finished watching it or not.

--GFT (Amazon Reviewer)--

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The Japanese are Coming, the Japanese are Coming!
Review: This movie was under appreciated by critics. Ever see them praise a comedy, especially a spoof? Any fan of movies like "Airplane", "Animal House", or "The Russians are coming, The Russians are Coming!" should like this movie. After this, movies in the same comic vane like "Naked Gun" would receive more credit. A few more jokes, and a little less length and it probably would have been a bigger hit. The first time I saw this when it was released I thought it was a bit long and it wasn't quite what I expected. With more viewings it gets better. Look for numerous cameos. At the current price for the collector DVD it is a bargain. Any fan of Saturday Night Live or Second City TV should grab it up.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: BETTER THAN YOU WOULD THINK..
Review: When this movie came out, it was universally ripped by critics. To Spielbergs credit, he includes several of those reviews as extras on the DVD. Of course, he can do that now, he's Spielberg.

Still the movie is great fun...a little long, but still fun. The extras are more than one might expect for a rather minor movie that's well over 20 years old. And most places have it relatively cheap...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: DVD Could Have Been Better
Review: I first heard about this movie when i went on a Belushi Binge. It seemed like it was going to be another classic Belushi Film(I.E.-Blues Brothers). The first time around it seemed boring and was difficult to watch with a non-anamorphic presentation(black bars taking up most of my 16X9 tv).But the second time around i watched it with my family and the humor mostly took its course.I personally believe it would have been much better had John(the man) Landis Directed it, and if Belushi, Akroyd, and Matheson had more screen time. Belushi's Patton Spoof could have been analyzed further through flashbacks etc. but all in all this is a must for any John Belushi Fan. The main thing that upsetted me was that they changed the cover artso now it no longer says collectors edition along the side which would have looked wonderful with my other belushi collector's Ed.s.This review may seem to jump around and off topic, but im sure those gifted with ADD will understand it. If any of you universal home video and DVD marketers read this, change the damn box back to what it was and i'll even splurge and buy a second copy cause my OCD conformity is so bad.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The Forgotten Spielberg Classic
Review: This movie is BIG. It had big stars, a big budget, big expectations and it was a big flop in the box office.

This movie was hot on the tails of Spielberg's first classics Jaws & Close Encounters, so everybody was expecting a mega-blockbuster as a follow up. His next film was the hugely popular E.T., so this one just faded away.

For what it's worth, I wasn't entirely impressed with it when it came out, but I'm a huge Aykroyd and Belushi fan, so I enjoyed it a bit more than the average person. As years passed, I realized (along with a lot of other people), that this was not really a bad movie.

In retrospect, it's got quite a few good moments and it's worth seeing again with an open mind. The extra footage added to the DVD helps fill in some of the continuity gaps that were not in the original, so it may be worth seeing just to see more of the original cut.


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