Rating: 
Summary: Laugh
Review: See Crawford way before "Phantom of the Opera". See Zero et al in a hilarious movie. See a musical that works. See Buster Keaton. Who? If you don't know, shame on you. Have fun. Oh yeah, this originally was written over a two thousand years ago.
Rating: 
Summary: Still good the second (or third, or...) time
Review: I still laugh out loud at this one no matter how many times I've seen it. Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers and the rest are the "old masters" of modern humor, and this movie shows why. Buster Keaton's contribution is memorable all out of proportion to its brevity. The visual style is a little dated. The hero, Hero, is an artifact of the "British Invasion." OK, every movie was made in some time and place - the good ones, like this one, outlast their times. I first saw this movie in my teens, and howled at it then. It's one of few that I still like as an adult, and has a prized place in my collection.
Rating:
Summary: It's like a Lost Monty Python Film!
Review: Ok, what do you get when you cross Monty Python with Borscht Belt comedians? You get "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum". I have never seen the play so I cannot compare, but this movie is one of my all time favorites. I originally saw this film as a kid back in the 60s. When I re-watched it in the 80s I was struck by some very Pythonish episodes like the Gladiator instructing a student the proper way to kill slaves with a ball and chain. The British humor is obviously the work of Director Richard Lester who made "A Hard Days Night". I cannot help but think that the members of Monty Python were inspired more than once by this one. One of the funniest movies ever and just try to get the song "Comedy Tonight" out of your head!
Rating:
Summary: WOW!!!
Review: When the reverend at my church first recomended this movie to me claiming it had the "funnest 30 seconds ever filmed" I just had to see it for myself! Lo and behold, Zero Mostel as the fortune-teller was (and is) the absolute funniest thing I have ever seen. But the laughs don't stop there! The whole movie is great. I reconmend this movie for anyone who enjoys a good slapstick as much as I do.
Rating:
Summary: brilliant
Review: This is my all-time favorite film. It's almost beyond words -- a spectacularly gifted cast, a whole slew of hummable tunes, brilliant language play at every turn (every time I see a wine list in a restaurant now I'm tempted to ask, "Was 1 a good year?") and a plot that's so full of twists and reversals it takes about three viewings to sort it all out. It has everything: love, lust, greed, revenge, drag, confusion, magic potions, and the best chase scene ever filmed (on chariots, of course). It's gotten funnier every time I've seen it, which is probably a dozen times now. It's a real treasure.
Rating:
Summary: Recommended by my Classic Professor
Review: I remember my Classics Professor at San Francisco State recommended this film as being spot-on accurate in terms of the costumes, hairdos, general feel of the Roman period of the time. I found it interesting that the director went to that kind of trouble for what is obviously a outrageous spoof. I love this film!
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: Something appealing,something appalling!!
Review: If you cherish the memories of Zero,Phil,Jack,and Buster...you must get this very funny and very well-presented DVD.It's a great mixture of slapstick;burlesque;hamming it up for the camera;and silliness that makes you long for the days when these wonderful ,almost obscenely talented, and always hilarious men were making movies.It's a delight.Hopefully,if this is your first exposure to the likes of these fellas,you will be compelled to investigate more of their screen work.One of my friends who watched the movie with me when I received it commented that "they surely had a ball making this movie,didn't they?" That's what you'll have when you watch it! I really miss these guys.If you don't laugh out loud as Zero plays the "soothsayer," check your pulse!!
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.
Rating:
Summary: How Not To Film A Hit Musical
Review: I was lucky enough to see this show on its pre-Broadway tryout in Washington and I loved it. When the film came out, I was hugely disappointed. Seeing it again on video after all these years has not only reinforced that sense of letdown and missed opportunity, but has also emphasized how much its "swinging sixties" style has dated. The problem is not with the material. The idea of staging a Roman farce with New York Jewish vaudeville stars and humour was a great one. Add to that a collection of witty songs by Stephen Sondheim (his first score as both composer and lyricist) and you have a hit musical. The film should have belonged to the great Zero Mostel (reprising his stage performance). But the busy camerawork and frenetic editing never give him the freedom to let rip and be himself (as Mel Brooks wisely let him do in The Producers). Most of the songs have disappeared from the film. Those that remain are overwhelmed by jump cuts and overly clever direction. The film's style is not helped by having a cast that is a mixture of old American comics and British stalwarts. Phil Silvers and Buster Keaton seem embarrassed to be there. Jack Gilford, so funny on stage, has his role reduced to little more than a cameo. The Brits, such as Michael Hordern and Roy Kinnear do slightly better, except for Michael Crawford's manic turn as Frank Spencer (his tv sitcom character) in a toga. Amazingly, even the girls are not as sexy as they might be. Presumably, anyone who has never seen the show on stage will find much in the film to enjoy. It does have its moments. But I still think that it could have been - should have been - much much better.
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