Rating: 
Summary: From Here to Obscurity.
Review: When the American Film Institute brought out its list of 100 greatest comedies, FIVE of Woody Allen's films were listed: ANNIE HALL, BANANAS, MANHATTAN, SLEEPER, and TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN. All great movies, to be sure. You may notice that LOVE & DEATH is missing from that list. To this day, I do not understand why.LOVE & DEATH is the most consistently funny film Woody Allen has ever made. It is one of the few of his films I can watch over and over again and not get tired of it. True, knowledge of Russian literature may help you understand some of the jokes, but it is in no way required in order for you to enjoy this film. Combining hilarious visual comedy mirroring that of Chaplin or Keaton along with witty banter that would make Groucho proud, LOVE & DEATH is the greatest hidden treasure in the Woody Allen library. "Yay, I shall walk through the valley of the shadow of death. In fact, I shall RUN through the valley of the shadow of death cause you get through the valley quicker that way."
Rating:
Summary: Best of Woodman's Early Funny Movies
Review: Along with "Curse of the Jade Scorpion", "Love and Death" is amongst the best of all Woody Allen's funny movies. A complete dearth of dull moments in what is the usual one-and-a-half-hour Woody Allen feature aside; it is most endearing to see how the sparks fly between Allen and Keaton (in her best comic role ever); and a clever dialogue with the effect of launching viewers into a whole new way of thinking (funny) and speaking (wittily) to boot. "Love and Death" is definitely one movie to be re-watched over and over again, be it rain or shine.
Rating:
Summary: Woody's best comedy
Review: This is the most imaginative and humorous film from Woody Allen. Well cast and well written. Those with no knowledge of history may be a little confused, but then, ignorance has it's price.
Rating:
Summary: Woody Allen V. Russian Literature
Review: Allen, before he decided to become an artist, was spray-milk-out-your-nose funny, especially if you'd suffered through some of the massive tomes he suffered through when HE was in high school. "Love and Death" is his hosing of Russian lit (and Russian film; Allen does it to Eisenstein as much as he does it to Gogol, Dostoyevsky, and that lot) and man, is it ever a riot. Crammed to the gills with sight gags, in-jokes, odd bits (check out Allen's take on the "give my beloved this ring" routine) and also just plain humor (the "educational play" about syphilis has NEVER failed to bring down the house), this movie is a riot. If you want broader comedy, "Bananas" is equally funny (and has a cameo from, of all people, Slyvester Stallone) and the same price, but definitely pick this up; "War and Peace" will NEVER be the same!
Rating:
Summary: One of the funniest movies ever made
Review: War, sex, death, and herring. Silly puns, Marx Brothers style slapstick, affectionate but scathing mockery of the emotional convolutions and labyrinthine philosophizing found in great Russian novels. Some of the funniest lines in cinematic history ("I wondered... if Jesus was a carpenter, how much would he charge for bookshelves?") This supremely silly (and sublimely witty) Woody Allen comedy, set in early 19th century Russia, is arguably the best film he has yet made. Guarnteed to make your sides ache, and throat burn, from laughing so hard, and so loud.
Rating:
Summary: Hot cockles and wheat
Review: For me, "Love and Death" bridges together the slapstick satire of Woody's early movies with the grand verbal wit of the later movies. It never falls into the trap of relying too much on the former, and its reliance on the latter produces some of the silliest Woody dialogue I've ever heard. But it's the perfect mixture between the two that makes this my pick for funniest Woody Allen flick. So far. I've always felt that the context (Russia in the 19th century and the Napoleonic Wars) and the content (pre-existentialist philosophy) were fine targets to satire. The opening scenes, where Woody as narrator introduces his screwball family, are truly looney-tuney. And the scenes where Woody (Boris) and Diane Keaton (Sonja) talk philosophy, serve more to make fun of the ridiculous gibberish they are engaged in than to further the philosophical discourse. The truer philosophical discussions come in the form of setup-punchline jokes delivered later on ("If it turns out that there IS a God, I don't think that he's evil; I think that the worst you can say about him is that basically he's an underachiever"). This is all good stuff. Woody's performance here reminded me a lot of really good Groucho Marx. His wiseguy retorts to oblivious inquisitors are done in the same winking/nod to the camera manner that Groucho mined for gold. And Woody, with his messy red hair and horn-rimmed glasses, looks every bit the sarcastic clown that Groucho did. There's one particular scene ("She's a great kidder... No, you're a great kidder... No, you're Don Francisco's sister") which mimics the Marx Brothers doubletalk style perfectly. In the film's second half, Woody takes a step back, to allow Diane Keaton some grand time in the Groucho persona. And she runs with it. Keaton is an underrated comic actress, usually overshadowed by Woody. Here, she rolls her eyes, grins goofily, has great comic timing, and appears to be having a gloriously good time delivering her dialogue. You can see Woody's pride as he stands to the side and watches her go great guns. There are many truly hilarious scenes here (my favourite: Woody, drawn into a duel, is offered to choose his weapon from a pair of guns; he picks them both up, examines them for a moment, and then says "I'll take these"), the scenery is shot gorgeously, the music by Prokofiev is jubilant and fits in perfectly with the film, and there is never a down moment. Come to think of it, the pace reminds me of the joke-a-minute style "pioneered" by the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker "Airplane" movies. Only Woody, dear Woody, bestows such intelligence and wit upon the material that it is elevated to a divine state.
Rating:
Summary: A WONDERFUL SATIRE
Review: Like many viewers, WOODY ALLEN often annoys me by talking too much in his movies.However, when he makes a satire as good as this one,i like him very much.This was his first real good comedy ,that you could enjoy from the beginning to the end.It was a great idea to make fun of RUSSIAN culture, and like many of the movies he made, WOODY is often a master in choosing the music appropriate for his projects.PROKOFIEV'S troika from THE LIEUTENANT KIJE SUITE is such an enjoyable gay number ,very well used here.WOODY and DIANE are wonderful, and many of the gags are side- splitting.If you don't laugh at this one,there is a problem with you, you need a psychoanalysis.
Rating:
Summary: Some of Woody Allen's best
Review: Some people like Woody Allen's early movies like Sleeper and Bananas, full of slapstick, puerile sex jokes, and silliness. Others like his later movies like Annie Hall and Hannah & Her Sisters, full of neurotic dialogue and strange relationships between men and women. Love and Death was characterized in a review I read as a movie situated directly in the middle of these two styles. This is wholly accurate. There are a lot of amusing slapstick bits in the movie, and lot of silly jokes and scenes. But also there is a lot of that humorous Woody Allen dialogue where people spend a lot more time talking than doing. And above and beyond all that, this is a fantastic spoof of 19th Century Russian literature. Anyone at all familiar with Tolstoy will find the familial situations (Diane Keaton's character falls in love with Woody Allen's character's brother, but Woody Allen's character loves her, etc.) very amusing and true to the genre. One of the funniest dialogues manages to work in a character from or the name of many of the major Russian novelists of the 19th Century. This movie is so funny and it works on so many levels and I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: I Also Loved Him For His String...
Review: I used to hate Woody Allen, I used to just abhor the idea of him, but then I saw Love and Death and everything just clicked. Now I think he's absolutely hilarious. While I have seen several of his other movies, I think Love and Death is one of the best because it is funny in that silly, slapstick sort of way, but also has some very intellectual jokes as well (for example the philosophizing). The first Woody Allen movie I ever saw was Crimes and Misdemeanors which was all intellectual jokes and it just completely went over my head. But Love and Death is a completely different kind of comedy. I would recommend it to everyone in search of a good laugh.
Rating:
Summary: So Funny it Hurts!!!
Review: External references abound in this, the funniest of Allen's comedy films. Look out for literary references, silent comedy (Buster Keaton, etc...) references, and, my favourite, Marx Brothers references. This is a very quick film, the gags are totally killer. The first time I watched this film was in my school on the videos in the library. The whole experience took around five hours because I had to keep stopping it to get my laughs out of the way. This (unfortunately or fortunately depending on your sensibilities) marks the end of his visual, slapstick run begining with Take the Money and Run, then Bananas and Sleeper (all corkers too). And what a great way to end it! If your going to buy a Woody Allen flick, make it this one. It's one of the few movies where you'll laugh out loud even when your on your own.
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