Rating: Summary: Wonderful Review: This is a very funny, subtly thought-provoking, brilliant mock documentary, and Woody Allen is at his best. Unusual, creative, and extremely entertaining.
Rating: Summary: Life is a endless nigthmare of suffering! Review: This is one of Allen's funniest, and certainly his most visually intriguing films. An excellent commentary on the Jewish-American experience as one of the film's players says, (to paraphrase)"He was like so many Jews coming to this country who were desperately trying to fit in and assimilate." This is an essential film for anyone who likes Allen.
Rating: Summary: The Best Review: This movie is so incredibly, freakingly funny, and yet most often so subtly so, that one must watch it over and over again to make sure you've picked up on everything. I've only seen it twice in seven years...I am compelled to rent it again. It must be sampled and savored--not wolfed down like a common cheeseburger, but chanced upon and delighted by again like discovering creme brulee on the menu of an unlikely favorite restaurant...you have no idea of what I'm trying to say (sigh). A true comedy classic featuring Woody as a man with the ultimate in multiple personality disorders dancing his haphazard way through old film cuttings, being pursued by his analyst, Mia. Think Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, then tone it way down. If you're one of those people who finds himself laughing in the theatre alone because the locals surrounding you don't get it, then this is definitely a film for you! No Stooges, no Carrot Top, no Andrew Dice Clay. Zelig is Woody at his finest, entertaining the discerning human mind.
Rating: Summary: Doing the Chameleon Review: This one-joke film is a masterpiece. The MOCKumentary is a great vehicle for Allen's work and this film, ZELIG is his best use of that format. Although the joke is the high concept (a man who changes his appearance to feel comfortable in his surroundings), it still remains an extremely clever, often hysterically funny piece. The laughs are not rapid fire but when they arrive, they are worth it. The film has received a nice widescreen transfer and a great audio soundtrack, although most of the beauty of the film is in its recreation of poorer quality film reels and muffled sound. Several years before FORREST GUMP, ZELIG is a great film for fans of the Woodman. This DVD is alos part of teh excellent 3rd WOODY ALLEN Box Set.
Rating: Summary: overlooked, underrated work of art from the master himself Review: Very much the precourser to Forrest Gump in terms of special effects and certain themes, Zelig is a feast for the eyes, ears, and mind. My one criticism, and I am not sure how to expand on it, is that the timing isnt quite right. At 79 mins, it is either too long or too short. Certain things seem to be given to much or too little detail. Nonetheless, the jokes are great and the ideas are dramatic and presented both realistically and absurdly. Mia Farrow is excellent. One of Woody's ten best in my opinion, and one that should be sought out by everyone smart enough to appreciate its creator's genius.
Rating: Summary: I Can't Believe This Movie Isn't Better Known! Review: Well, maybe I can...there's no gratuitous sex or violence, no gen-x messages about the failure of the modern American family, no explosions, car crashes, guns, or bad language.Just intelligence, and a lot of wit. This picture really reminds me a lot of the newsreel sequence in "Citizen Kane," and it's done just as well. The characters are also incredibly sympathetic...I fall in love with Mia Farrow every time I see this. The chemistry between Allen and Farrow, at least in this movie, rivals that between Hepburn and Tracy as far as I'm concerned. One disappointing thing about the DVD is the lack of special features...I'd have loved a commentary by Allen, at least. But then again, it only cost [dollar amount]. I'm absolutely shocked that only 10 other people have reviewed this movie, seeing as how it is possibly the greatest film Woody Allen, a comic genius, ever made.
Rating: Summary: The unsaid joke(s) Review: What I love most about this movie are the jokes (sight gags, situations, etc) that are alluded to but remain unsaid or unseen. The way that they are simply spoken about by the announcer of this "documentary" in a straight manner invokes a scene that could have been shot and included, but is so much funnier in your mind. (My review lacks eloquence, but I think the effect of Allen's interesting presentation of the comedy must be seen. It had me laughing out loud.)
Rating: Summary: gret flick Review: Woody Allen at his best Ablack and white movie sensetive fuuny a true delight a must see
Rating: Summary: You may be six people, but I love you! Review: Woody Allen is simply the greatest comic genius that has ever walked the face of the earth. His insights into the human condition are honest, funny, poignant & definitely do not suffer from anything even remotely close to "jejune-osity!" This film is the story of my life -- I AM Leonard Zelig -- which of course prejudices my opinion.
Rating: Summary: Amusing and Profound Review: Zelig is one of Woody Allen's most overlooked films. It was filmed in a black and white documentary-style, but it's pure fiction. Zelig is set in the 1930's where Leonard grows up in a New York Jewish family living above a bowling alley, where ironically, the bowling alley complains of their noise. Leonard had developed a low self-esteem from a harsh upbrining, and so, when ridiculed at a fateful party for not having read Moby Dick, he begins his chameleon-like transformations to become whomever is around him. This movie is loaded with metaphors of 2nd-generation immigrant assimilation and the draw of fascism (Leonard at one point, though Jewish, finds himself morphed into a Nazi). Mia Farrow is charming and believably professional as Leonard's psychiatrist who tries to coax out his true self. Throughout Zelig, commentary is provided by many leading intellectuals of the 80's, including World of Our Fathers author Irving Howe, cerebral giant Susan Sontag, and author Saul Bellow, all done in the style as if they were commenting on the phenomenon of a real person. I highly recommend this film...it manages to find that perfect Woody Allen balance between amusing and profound.
|