Siamo uomini o caporali - Are We Men or Corporals? (1955)

One of Italy's most famous actor's and Italian counterpart to America's Charlie Chaplin, Toto Esposito built his career in the era of physical comedy and repartee.  While the United States had it's share of physical comedic actors during the silent era and into the "talkies", Toto was one of the forerunners for Italy.  His debut in the 1937 film Hand's Off Me! as his self titled character Toto, was the start of a 100+ film career, most of which centered around the same self titled character.
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Sweet Charity (1969)

I've learned there is something I can't stand more than musicals, Shirley MacLaine. Combine the two together and it's a recipe for boredom.  It's either a horrible coincidence or somebody was really fond of Barbara Bouchet to cast her in three MacLaine "comedies".  Unfortunately a spoonful of the lovely Bouchet can't help you stomach this large a serving of Shirley MacLaine.

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Hot Enough for June (1964)

As I've stated before (on numerous occasions) the success of the first couple of James Bond films in the early 1960's launched an entirely new genre in the in the film realm as low budget studios attempted to capitalize on the public's ever growing interest in the spy films.  This gave birth to the Euro-spy genre, often simply referred to as the "James Bond knock-offs" which usually came out of Spain and Italy.  But even lesser known British film companies tried to capitalize on their own new national spy figure, usually in the form of spy comedies.  And much like their Euro-spy counterparts these films were not of the best quality, and in some cases as Casino Royale I'd say they were actually worse.

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Dark Shadows (2012)

Dark Shadows, a film I've been anxiously anticipating for at least two years finally makes it to theater screens today.  It's been a bumpy ride for a film that's been in the works for a long time, and since the first trailers appeared about a month ago, most fans have quickly discounted it, and everyone else has grown excited to see it.  In the end, I think it's the general fans that will be more pleased, and the general public who will be more disappointed.

If you're not familiar with the expansive history of the Dark Shadows series it was a daily half hour soap opera that ran on television from 1966-1971 and generated approximately 1,245 episodes.  It was not your normal soap opera but centered around the supernatural with the show's main star being a vampire.  For me it's best modern day comparison is something akin to The Vampire Diaries.  The show gained cult status and since it's run in the late 1960's has garnered two feature films and a couple attempts at reviving it for television audiences.  Needless to say the show is definitely an acquired taste, the budget was minimal, everything was usually shot live and only once so the show was notorious for cast slip-ups or technical issues, and the story-lines tended to drag at times, but this was all ultimately the intrigue of the series.

Not being alive during the show's original run I recently got into the series only a few years ago, a combination of ironically discovering the series through an episode of The King of Queens where it's briefly made fun of, and then discovering Tim Burton and Johnny Depp where planning on resurrecting the story for the big screen.  This got me interested to check it out, where so far I've made it through about seven volumes of the DVD set, which have been reviewed on this site and might be worth checking out if you're thinking of delving into the Dark Shadows expanse.

Now I must say even though I'm not a hardcore fan of the series, I was a little weary of this new interpretation after the release of the first couple trailers which appeared to be more of a mockery of the series like so many TV to film adaptions have been in the past couple decades.  Surprisingly the comedy depicted in the trailers is about the extent of the comedy in the film, which is why I stated in the beginning that the general public might actually be the ones who come out of this disappointed.  For me Tim Burton and Johnny Depp did a very good job in sticking to the series and the characters while at the same time putting their own spin on it.  Unfortunately this might ultimately also be the film's box office downfall.

The film features Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins, a man who is transformed into a vampire due to his denial to love the very beautiful and jealous Angelique (Eva Green) who he learns a little too late is a witch.  She kills his true love Josette, and curses him to live eternity in a coffin buried in the woods.  Almost 200 years later he's released and finds himself in the 1970's, where everything he once knew is gone or in shambles.  In his attempt to rebuild the Collins family he once again gains the attention of Angelique, still alive and still wanting him all to herself.  When Barnabas falls for Victoria Winters, the nanny of the youngest Collins child (David) and the spitting image of Josette, the jealous cycle begins all over again!

Dark Shadows is typical Burton style, which actually fits extremely well with this series, unfortunately the film plays it too safe which I think will ultimately alienate most viewers.  I could easily see Dark Shadows purists still being somewhat put off by the changes made, here Victoria Winters and Maggie Evans are essentially the same person, Carolyn Stoddard ends up having a secret I doubt she had in the series (I've yet to watch the entire series so I can't confirm this, but it does appear to be striking deviation), and some other inconsistent aspects.  Personally these didn't bother me as one must realize the difficulty it would be to accurately summarize the entire series into a 113 minute film, and still make it somewhat modern and relatable to a wider audience. Changes are going to have to be made and for me they did a wonderful job in still keeping true to the series.

Ultimately the general public (those not familiar with the series) or those old enough to remember it but haven't watched it since they were a kid probably will be disappointed as well, if they expected the trailers to reflect the tone of the film, because they don't.  Dark Shadows is much more akin to the style and flow of the series than the trailers ever lead on.  This is not a straight comedy, but more a of dark comedy, although there are campy elements, this is really a modern day version of the soap opera, and in a sense it plays out a lot like the old soap opera series even down to the script.  It's in this case that I can easily see someone who is not familiar with the series, or the characters quickly becoming bored, especially if they're expecting a lot of laughs or action.  While the film does have it's fair share, the trailers are a false representation of how much.

I was generally entertained, and I could see most people who don't have any preconceived ideas going in and being entertained as well.  The acting is really quite spot on with most of the characters, except for Jonny Lee Miller as Roger Collins.  Louis Edmonds, the original Roger Collins played the character so brilliantly in the series (in my opinion he was the best actor in the series) that Miller's interpretation just falls extremely flat for me.  Everyone else though hit their characters pretty spot on, with the exception of Eva Green as Angelique which I can't comment on as her character appears much later in the series so I'm not too familiar with her.  But Green being my favorite actress was definitely a plus to film for me, and not only looks delicious in that red party gown but plays the role of the villainess quite well.  This is a completely different vein of genre for her and she fits in perfectly.

Overall, I give Dark Shadows a solid passing grade, which is about the same grade I'd give what I've seen of the TV series.  The film takes itself a little less seriously than the series but still retains the same campy dark vein that made the series so enjoyable, without going over board, finding a balance somewhere between Burton's Sleepy Hollow and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in terms of camp. It should satisfy most general fans of the series like myself but probably alienate most everyone else, leading to a pretty mediocre box office display.  Unfortunately being released on the coat-tails of The Avengers is not going to help it out either. Maybe in twenty or thirty years it will be a cult classic just like the series.  Until then it's a respectable film interpretation of a once loved show that has since then drifted into somewhat obscurity, which on the bright side is better than most TV series to film adaptations usually are.

8/10

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Serving Sara (2002)

Originally Reviewed

Sunday August 20, 2006

 

This isn't some gangster rap movie where a bunch of hooligans dance off only to end their moves with the triumphant yell of "you got served!" Serving Sara is a film about getting even, beating the system, and of course the only true reason anyone would bother watching this film... Elizabeth Hurley in tight pants.

Matthew Perry plays Joe Tyler, he hunts down people and serves them divorce papers, law suits, you name it. Although as of late Joe has been having a little bit of trouble serving people due to a fellow server who has been tipping off his hits ahead of time making it harder for him to serve them.

Then the big job comes along, some wealthy Texas cattle rancher, played by Bruce Campbell, has hired Joe's company to serve his wife some unexpected divorce papers. But once again Joe's target Sara Moore (Elizabeth Hurley) is tipped off that he is coming and makes a quick run for it. Finally after catching up with Sara Moore, she offers him a rather intriguing proposal. She offers to hire him to serve her husband first in Texas so that she can get half of his fortune, 10% of which she'll give to him, totaling 1 million dollars.  Joe accepts and so begins the race against time as Joe and Sara have to travel to Texas and serve her cheating husband before Joe's rival can catch up with them and serve Sara. 

Serving Sara isn't a great film, but what do you expect from a film with Cedric the Entertainer and Bruce Campbell? And while the film is rather forgettable it still ends up being pretty entertaining while you're watching it. It's definitely not as bad as a lot of people make it out to be, and Matthew Perry and Elizabeth Hurley actually worked quite well together in this rather silly comedy. 

All in all it's much more entertaining than Hurley's other attempt at a "romantic comedy" Bedazzled, which is really wasn't one, but neither is Serving Sara really much of one. Although, in the end it's no where near as corny as Bedazzled and managed to sustain my attention for the entire film so I'll be the second person on RT to give it a barely fresh rating.

6/10

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Casanova '70 (1965)

Comedy is one of the more difficult genres to grasp internationally as every country has their own brand of humor.  British comedy is usually pretty dry and heavily laced with sarcasm, Spanish comedy seems to find adults dressing up a children highly amusing, and Italians seem to be heavily involved in comedies centered around sexual escapades; at least such was the case in the 60's and 70's.  Casanova '70 is easily one of the tamer Italian comedies of this era and undoubtedly one of the better written ones as well.

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The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997)

Originally Reviewed

Monday December 12, 2005

 

This is the Bill Murray of old, the classic, the hilarious Bill Murray not the straight dark comedy Bill Murray, the one I find excruciatingly hard to sit through any of his films.  I don't find him funny anymore but I guess he's having more success with his new style and genre of film. The Man Who Knew Too Little ranks somewhere in the Top 10 funniest movies of all-time, it has to, because it's just that good. It's Wallace Ritchie's (Murray) birthday and he is coming to London to visit his brother. Bad timing because Wally arrives on the night of his brother's big business meeting and his brother knows how much Wally hates boring meetings, so he sets him up to participate in the Theater of Life. Something he expects he brother will enjoy since he's in the movie business... well actually he works for Blockbuster in Demoine, Iowa!

The Theater of Life is a live action role playing drama where the customer is the main participate in a story made to appear real. Ironically Wally gets mixed up in something much bigger, an assassination plot to foil a treaty between two countries. Although the whole time Wally believes this is all an act, all part of the experience of the show. Wallace Ritchie soon becomes the main target of the resistance and is thought to be an American spy hired to foil the plot, but the whole time he's enjoying himself tremendously and has no clue whatsoever that his life is in great danger.

The Man Who Knew Too Little is one of the funniest movies I have seen, and it's no less amusing after the tenth time. Definitely the funniest Bill Murray film as he has no clue what's really going on yet he's outsmarting the bad guys who think he's some type of super agent. I highly recommend this film; you are guaranteed to laugh, if not see a doctor because something is wrong with you. One of the best written comedies ever, it flows extremely well and there is never a dull moment.

9/10

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Mystery Men (1999)

 Originally Reviewed

Thursday June 29, 2006

If you're tired of the same old superhero action flick with the, all loved, ever so popular, untouchable hero who fights the mutant bad guy set on conquering the world, then maybe you should give Mystery Men a try. Mystery Men is one of the rare superhero films that dares to give you something different...wannabes.

The setting is Champion City, the local hero Captain Amazing has pretty much put himself out of a job. He's locked away all the evil villains and is now reduced to stopping robberies at the old folk's home and being a sponsor for Pepsi and Reebok. Meanwhile you have those "superheroes" on the bottom rung who really aren't that super, such as Mr. Furious whose anger usually leads to him getting beat up rather than him beating up others; Blue Raja who ironically wears no Blue, speaks in a fake British accent and hurls forks (sometimes spoons); and finally The Shoveler whose main weapon of choice is of course a shovel which usually finds its way upside the head of one of his colleagues rather than a villain.

These three misfits are beginning to get depressed when all the do is lose, and then Captain Amazing comes in and takes all the thunder. But Captain Amazing is tired of taking down petty thiefs. Therefore, Captain Amazing decides to do something to boost his career, its time he had another huge battle. He has Casanova Frankenstein, one of his evilest adversary's, released from the insane asylum, only to quickly be outwitted and find himself in the hands of Casanova and leaving the city at left at bay.

Now with the disappearance of Captain Amazing our three foolish friends Mr. Furious, Blue Raja, and The Shoveler take it upon themselves to find and rescue him from the clutches of Casanova, but they have no chance alone, they decide to recruit some more misfits to join their rag tag band. Those include: The Bowler whose weapon is the skull of her dead father encased in a bowling ball; The Spleen who has been cursed with the ability to fire knockout blasts of fart at will; The Sphinx who cuts guns in half with his mind and has an arsenal of wise sayings, and finally Invisible Boy who can only become invisible when no one is looking at him. This group must learn to trust each other, work together, and most of all believe in themselves if they wish to save Champion City from the destruction of Casanova Frankenstein.

Mystery Men is a supremely corny film, but that's what makes it so great, to take a heavily worked genre and spoof it into a different style of an action hero story. It's quite logical that if there are some very popular superheroes, somewhere in the streets lurks the ones that dream of being so famous and skilled, this is their story.

The casting in the film is outstanding, and all the Mystery Men should be recognizable, from the most popular Ben Stiller all the way to the has been Paul Reubens aka "Pee-Wee Herman", yes Pee-Wee Herman and he also plays one of the funniest characters... The Spleen! What makes this film so great is it's not afraid to be stupid, and in fact the stupider it is the funnier it becomes. Another one of my favorite characters is the Sphinx who has a lot of "wise" sayings, which Mr. Furious refers to as "formulaic", for example:

The wise man knows that he is weakest when he thinks himself strong.

You were not ready to face so great an enemy. Not until you have vanquished the enemy within yourselves.  

He who questions training, only trains himself at asking questions.

When you care for what is outside, what is inside cares for you.

To summon your power for the conflict to come, you must first have power over that which conflicts you.
 

Until you learn to master your rage, your rage will become your master.

Overall, if you're a fan of action hero films, give this one a shot if you haven't already, its fresh, its funny and it's a different side to the world of superheroes. Everyone does a great job, the soundtrack is great, and the creativeness of the film is excellent. Some of the lines are classic to the point that you'll find yourself repeating them in conversation for weeks later!

8/10

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Greedy (1994)

 

Originally Reviewed

Friday January 13, 2006

The title pretty much explains it all.  Kirk Douglas stars as Uncle Joe McTeague, an old grouchy rich dude with a pain in the butt family. Of course if you had family like him, who were waiting for you to die and the only reason they were ever kind to you was because of your money, you'd be pretty grouchy as well. Uncle Joe finds himself a nice hot young British girl and the rest of the family thinks Joe is going to give her all the money, so they become desperate and track down Uncle Joe's favorite nephew Danny (Michael J. Fox) in hopes that Danny will set Uncle Joe straight.

Daniel McTeague is a washed up bowler who has the opportunity to be apart of a great investment, but the problem is he has no money. When he is contacted by his relatives about coming to surprise his Uncle Joe he figures maybe Joe would loan him some money. Once there Danny begins to get sucked into the same greedy game his cutthroat relatives have been playing their entire lives. He begins to do things he never would have thought of doing, all in hopes of gaining his Uncle's fortune. But what Daniel and everyone else doesn't know is that Joe isn't as old and senile as he looks, in fact the jokes all on them.

Greedy is an average comedy with a lot of well known faces, although most of the characters will almost automatically get on your nerves, but both Michael J. Fox and Kirk Douglas give pretty decent performances. The film is fairly basic and predictable, although the last fifteen minutes turn out to be really good, with a couple of surprising twists at the end I didn't see coming.

7/10

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About a Boy (2002)

  Originally Reviewed

Friday June 2, 2006

"In my opinion, all men are islands. The important thing in island living is to be your own activities director. And I find the key is to think of the day as units of time, each unit consisting of no more than 30 minutes. Full hours can be a bit intimidating and most activities take about a half an hour."

Watching About A Boy: 3 units. Taking a bath: 1 unit. Thinking about what to write: 1 unit. Writing, reading, reviewing and completing this review: 2 units.

"It's amazing how the day fills up, and I often wonder to be absolutely honest, if I'd ever really have time for a job. How do people cram them in?"

Will Lightman (Hugh Grant) is an island, Ibiza to be exact. See Will really doesn't do anything, and before that...well he really didn't do anything then either. In fact, Will hasn't worked a day in his life, yet he manages to live quite comfortably and well off. That is all because of this one Christmas song that his father had written, Santa's Super Sleigh, which he essentially lives off the royalties, which surprisingly seems to be pretty large. But the only problem with island living is that every once in a while you have to come inland, and mix with the locals. Will hasn't had much success in that, especially in terms of women, what's the point, they'll just end up leaving when they find out his life is pretty "blank". So usually Will ends up breaking off the relationship and in turn causes him to be the bad guy, that is until he found out about single moms.

Will figures single moms are great, they look at you as a great guy because they were once hurt by some jerk before you, you treat them good, and you can have guiltless fun and then a clean breakup because they aren't ready for a long term relationship! So Will decides to make up a kid and go to a SPAT (Single Parents Alone Together) meeting to meet tons of beautiful single moms...well at least single moms. Will meets one single mom though who is rather attractive and goes out on a date with her, she brings along her little girl and an older kid, her friend's son Marcus. 

Marcus could be the birth child of a member of the Beatles and a Vulcan, mixed with the fashion sense of a homeless person. It turns out Marcus's mom is quite a nut job, she sits around at home all day and cries, and attempts to commit suicide, so needless to say Marcus has quite a screwed up life, not to mention he has no friends and continuously gets picked on by the kids at school. Marcus begins to gravitate towards Will, possibly because of the fact that Will doesn't seem "too awful" and since he does nothing maybe he would enjoy doing nothing with someone else.  Plus Marcus doesn't want to come home from school to the pitiful depression cycles of his mother. So Marcus pushes himself upon Will, especially after he figures out that Will doesn't really have a kid.

Will is put off at first by this kid's persistence and nerve but eventually begins to enjoy the company, and tries to give Marcus helpful tips in fashion, music and girls, but shies away from getting involved with his life and his mess of a mother. Surprisingly things begin to go well, Marcus actually meets a girl that likes him, even though she looks like something out of Mad Max, and Will meets someone very beautiful and interesting, Rachel (Rachel Weisz). The only problem is Will doesn't see much of a chance since soon the question of what it is he does, which is nothing, will come up and that will immediately end the conversation, and it does until Will interjects a statement that leads Rachel to believe he has a son. Wanting to get to know her better Will doesn't correct her and goes along with alluding to the fact that indeed he does have a son and his name is Marcus.

Throughout the rest of the film Will must come to grips with his life, tell Rachel the truth, try and set Marcus's mother straight, and prevent Marcus from committing social suicide in singing a love song for his mom at the school rock concert. In the end, Will has to make the attempt to get off of his island and let some other people into his life, to truly find out what he has been missing.

About A Boy is a really entertaining film, and Hugh Grant, as always, doesn't fail to provide an entertaining and comedic performance. They picked a great kid for the role of Marcus; his Spock like look really sets him apart from the rest of the kids and does a great job in spotlighting him as the loner/strange kid. The chemistry between the two of them was great as well and brought forth many a laughs. Toni Collette who plays Marcus's mother also fit the part perfectly and looks very homely and nutty.

Overall, About A Boy is a great story that is well written and well developed, the characters are great, the music is great and the film moves along rather quickly. Having seen this at least five times, my favorite scene is still the rock concert when Marcus performs his song, and Will comes and saves him from making a complete fool out of himself by accompanying him on guitar. In the end, About A Boy is almost perfect, my only complaint is the overuse of useless profanity which seemed to be a little too much for a PG-13 film, on the flip-side in did get a kick out of some of their English equivalents which were constantly used throughout the film like "bugger off" and "wally". So in closing, if you didn't like my review just "bugger off" you "wally"!  

9/10 

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Duplex (2003)

 

 Originally Reviewed

Thursday December 8, 2005

Duplex is one of the forgotten Ben Stiller films, similar to the ever so strange Envy, where you saw the preview once and the next thing you know it's out on DVD and in the bargain bin. It's your typical no-brainer comedy but I was actually quite surprised at how funny this film actually was, and kind of stumped as to why it tanked so badly.

Starring Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore, Alex & Nancy move into a fairly large old style apartment in New York, although this is no ordinary apartment, it's a Duplex and a little old lady lives upstairs. They would love to evict her but rent-control laws in New York prohibit them from doing so, leaving them stuck with a crazy old lady who pays $83 a month to live on their second floor, driving them absolutely insane. Alex is a writer and has a deadline to meet, but the old woman is constantly bugging him to do things, he can't write a sentence and he can't sleep at night, finally things get so out of control that they actually plan to take her out!

This film is nothing spectacular, but I did find it to be rather comical at times, must have been the teaming of Ben Stiller against an old Irish Lady who reminded me a lot of Mrs. Doubtfire. Why it got such horrible ratings I don't know, I have seen many horrible comedies and this one is no where near the worst. Sure there wasn't much of a plot or anything new and inventive but it's classic Ben Stiller, and no where near as horrible as Envy, a Stiller film I can understand the negative reviews on.  If you're a Stiller fan, check this out and if your like me maybe you'll be pleasantly surprised that Duplex is actually rather enjoyable, which in and of itself is always a treat. 

7/10

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Dirty Deeds (2005)

 Originally Reviewed

Tuesday September 5, 2006

This is another rare occasion where straight forward and concise review is all I can muster up, as this film hardly warrants the time and effort to try and make up something to give a false impression it's any good at all. Dirty Deeds is your typical teen comedy, which for the most part I rarely ever find funny, completely low budget (even for a teen comedy), below average acting, and completely and utterly... stupid.

The basis of the film is the completion of what is called "The Dirty Deeds", which consists of a list of ridiculous pranks, misdemeanor crimes and a couple felonies. Zach steps in to do these deeds in order to protect a young freshman friend who carelessly challenged the school's jock and all American pain in the butt. Zach also has a major crush on the kid's sister, played by Lacey Chabert, and hopes that by being one of the few to complete these dastardly deeds he might finally gain some respect from his peers, the of course score some points with Chabert.

The film is mildly entertaining at times, but for the most part it's either completely stupid or insulting and an overall waste of time; luckily it's a relatively short waste of time. The only reason at all I bothered watching this film was the fact that Lacey Chabert was in it, and probably right away I should have known that if her name is the only name in the film I recognize I'm probably in for a major disaster. While Lacey is incredibly hot, she hasn't been in anything worth noting, except for Mean Girls, and how do you go from that to some terrible low budget disaster!?! The fact of the matter is, and I hate to say this, Chabert is a second rate Jessica Love Hewitt, being stunningly beautiful yet not being able to get a descent role to save her life, and when your getting worse roles than Hewitt... well you know something is wrong.

In the end, Chabert is in the film for probably less than 15 minutes, so your one reason to watch this is now quite non-existent. The only aspect this film succeeds in is perfectly achieving a straight zero percentage rates from the critics and viewers, so in short everyone thought this film was a total piece of crap. I happened to check out one of the bonus features on the DVD that had some short interviews on the casting of the film and found it hilarious when the director stated that in casting the major roles they weren't looking for any "big names" they were just looking for good actors. Well, I question his definition of good, as I saw nothing close to it. That statement is more of a lame excuse for the fact that there was no way they could have gotten any big names to do this film anyway. 

2/10 

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John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (1965)

I've seen my share of horrible movies over the years, but it's rare to find one like John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!, a film filled with such a talented cast, yet manages to be such a horribly pieced together mess.  I take that back, it's not THAT rare... there's Casino Royale!

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Sex and the Single Girl (1964)

Sex and the Single Girl is the final uncredited role in the early career of Barbara Bouchet and a fitting follow-up to our last Bouchet film Good Neighbor Sam, starring Jack Lemon.  Tony Curtis is Bob Weston, managing editor of the tabloid rag STOP magazine.  After a successful smear article on psychologist and best selling author of Sex and the Single Girl, Helen Brown (Natalie Wood), Weston plans a follow up article in which he looks to uncover whether or not Miss Brown follows her own advice on relationships.

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1001 Nights of Pleasure (1972)

There's nothing more I hate when it comes to movies than false advertising, and the cream of the crop has always been plastering some big actor or actresses face on a DVD cover with their name in big letters making it appear as if they were the star of the film.  Then it turns out they make a five minute cameo sixty minutes in.  While I'd probably watch the film anyways it would still be considerate to know ahead of time that I shouldn't be expecting the certain actor or actress to have much of a part in the inevitable pile of crap I'm about to watch.  And honestly if the marketing of a film is focused on a person who is barely in it, it's almost certainly going to be crap.

1001 Nights of Pleasure aka (Finalmente... le mille e una notte or Les mille et une nuits érotiques) is a film that not only advertises Barbara Bouchet as the lead star on posters and DVD covers but also gives her top billing in the opening credits; shockingly she doesn't make an appearance until about 3/4th's of the way through.  To describe this film quickly and bluntly it's simply pure sleaze, an Italian sex comedy with a lot of implied sex and not a whole lot of comedy, at least nothing I found very amusing.  The basic plot of the film is an Arabia sultan receives a new beautiful slave (played by the second and only other good looking woman in the film Femi Benussi) only to discover he's got a serious case of erectile dysfunction (wonder how many Google hits I'll get off of that!?!).  In an attempt to regain the use of his manhood he issues a proclamation for people in the city to tell him an erotic story, if they fail to arouse him they will be beheaded.

Unfortunatley for them their stories are far from erotic, I'd simply call them extremely stupid with a sexual bent.  Plus the only one I really gave a flying flip about was the second story featuring a brief appearance by Barbara Bouchet as Aladdin's mistress Mariam.  Mariam had been Aladdin's girl but somehow got mixed up with an old rich guy and married him, so Aladdin goes to the genie and procures an invisibility potion and a flying carpet.  Being invisible he's able to sneak into Mariam's room and tell her of his plan for them to be together on a nightly basis, which basically involves them doing it on the flying carpet and never getting caught by her cranky old husband.  The catch is the flying carpet will not land until the two people on it have made love three times in a row, which is fine with Aladdin concerning Mariam, but that catch soon leads to a rather awkward encounter at the end of the story.

Overall this story and other two were simply quite lame, most of the women were average looking (considering looks played a huge role in the stories), and the sole reason I bothered watching this in the first place ended up amounting to five minutes of Barbara Bouchet in a mediocre role.  Still considering the fact that Bouchet is blatantly marketed as the star of the film and wasn't anywhere close to it, 1001 Nights of Pleasure didn't end up being as horrible as I would have expected it to be had I known before hand that she was barely in it.  The set designs and costumes were quite good, and while pretty cheesy and lame the overall product wasn't sleep inducing.  Still that's no glowing endorsement, I doubt I'd ever revisit it again and certainly not the type of film I'd recommend.

Available on DVD

4/10 

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