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Duck Soup

Duck Soup

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: They don't make comedies like this anymore
Review: An all-time classic, and the Marx Brothers' best. Quoting from it liberally will earn you a spot among the cognoscenti as well-versed in comedy (as well as plenty of odd stares from the non-cognoscenti). Younger folks (like me) may have to view it in context, however, to really appreciate it.

A lot of people in their twenties and thirties hear about how funny the Marx Brothers were, but they aren't sure why. If you aren't prepared to look at this movie as an artifact of a Hollywood and a comedy landscape of a less cynical era, though, you might be underwhelmed.

Like the Hope/Crosby "Road" movies, they simply don't make comedies like this anymore. Audiences would find the comic asides, obvious double entendres and pat one-liners to be formulaic and cheesy. However, you need to keep in mind that these were the guys (and women) who came up with that formula. The slapstick and humor of these movies is what generated the Loony Tunes humor we grew up on. Remember Bugs Bunny mirroring the actions of that big Red monster? This is where it came from. So, although it may seem corny at face value to modern viewers, it has to be watched with a little uncynical forgiveness for the fact that it now seems cliche - because it started the cliches.

I highly recommend this movie as a beginner's introduction to the Marx Brothers - it tosses you waist-deep into their brand of humor. If you keep a sharp ear peeled for the one-liners and you appreciate the subtlety mixed with the slapstick, you'll find a real gem.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Hail Hail Freedonia!
Review: One of the best anti-war movies ever made. It's barbed comments on the stupidity of war and the self seekment of patriotism and politics, coupled with scenes depicting the puffed up importance of military-types, make it thoroughly enjoyable.

The Declaration of War is an outstanding highlight, especially when the boys use the military helmets as instruments.

It is a movie that has stood the test of time (nearly 70 years) and sounds as funny and fresh as if it were made but recently.

A very funny, sardonic, movie

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: One of the best Marx films
Review: This is such a great movie to watch, it's a shame it's not longer. Groucho is superb as Rufus T. Firefly, I think this role probably suited him the best of all his films. His sharp wit is most evident in this film. If the war scene was longer, then I would have given it 5 stars, because the ending seemed somewhat anticlimactic, but still an excellent picture.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not that bad!
Review: The video quality is NO WORSE then other films from the same era. The quality can be compared to the newly released Frankenstein. Comments about being transfered from video seem a bit harsh. If you are a Marx Brothers fan you will enjoy this set.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Can't be found on a Chinese menu
Review: Of the handful of movies the Marx brothers made, this one stands out as the best. This is the last screen appearance of the youngest brother, Zeppo (aka Herbert). The many comedy skits performed here are still considered imaginative and very funny after all these years. This is a film which because of its plot, received revived popularity during the Vietnam War.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hallarious.
Review: I Loved the movie. I alway LOVE the Marx brothers.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I have taped them from tv - with better quality!
Review: Five stars for the films, no doubt about that. But even if I consider the age of these flicks, the DVD-quality is the WORST I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!
At times you can hardly make out what is happening on screen. I think they have used an old video taped version, cut out the commercials and transferred the film to DVD.
Shame on the makers of these DVD's! My advice is not to buy them: they are too expensive for what they offer.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Timeless Classic Says More About War than Dr. Strangelove
Review: If I were stranded on a desert island with a working VCR and could only have one film, this would be it! Gaggingly hysterical lampoon has Margaret Dumont offering financial aid to her country, Freedonia, only if Groucho is appointed leader. He takes control and Freedonia grinds to a halt as rival Sylvania plans to overrun it subversely by Ambassador Trentino's love appeals to Dumont! Zeppo gets wind of this, plots with Groucho to goad Trentino, who will strike Groucho and he declares war. Feedonia good, Sylvania bad. Great plan, only Groucho gets Trentino to insult "him" (with the term "upstart" of all things) and Groucho declares war! It's insane tom-foolery unparalleled! Chico and Harpo have several low paying jobs starting as Sylvanian spies against Groucho ("You give us a pixchure of this man and say follow him? Well we lose-a da pixchure!"); peanut vendors outside the Fredonian palace (dueling with the late, great Edgar Kennedy over lemonade, peanuts and hats -- this gets so surreal you'll spit up laughing); and ultimately Harpo is Groucho's driver ("This is the fifth trip I've made today and I haven't been anywhere yet!") and Chico becomes Secretary of War ("I say we have a standing army - that way we save money on chairs."). It is the unabashed visual and verbal commentary on the senselessness of war that just shines in this, however (look for Chico to punch the timeclock as he enters the war and Groucho's brilliant retort to Trentino's stopping the war: "It's too late, I've already paid a month's rent on the battlefield.") Priceless, timeless and always watchable. If there is one sour note, it is the sensitivity of our time colliding with the insensivity of the 30's with the "darkies" comment. Ignore it. I do.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Outrageously Inventive
Review: Although the Marx Brothers are always worth watching, the core situation of Duck Soup gives this particular film a drive which sets it apart from such other classics as Animal Crackers, Horse Feathers, A Night at the Opera, and A Day at the Races-- for while these films often focus their riducule on the pretensions of high society, Duck Soup takes on the subject of war. What is perhaps most striking about the film from a historical perspective is that film was made squarely between World Wars I and II, and very intentionally mocks the trivial European rivalries that sparked the first World War, which in turn set the stage for the second World War.

A dismal failure at the time of its original release, Duck Soup spelled finish to the Marx Brothers association with Paramount-- and given the tenor of the times it isn't hard to see why the film failed at the box office; the film's intent is openly and outrageously subversive. But historical perspectives aside, it was and remains a hilariously funny film, featuring the Marx Brothers at their best with some of the best comic dialogue and situations ever put on film.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Pure delight in every bite
Review: That's what Duck Soup is: clever, insane, almost arteful too. Chico Marx has some of the best lines I've ever heard, and he deliever's them with both flair and a sense of reality.

You only wish that you could make a film this funny. It truely is ingenious, and yet any idiot (like the "viewer" from Florida as he/she/they wish to be called, hogwash really) can watch it and be baffled and, wink-wink, delighted.


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