The Worst Film Ever

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Director Michael Winner did make some good movies during his career, though not only did his talents lie more towards action and suspense, but even in his better movies he sometimes had a heavy handed style. So it's really surprising that he was chosen to direct this silly comedy. Actually, labelling it as "silly" is giving it too much credit. For the most part, it's a really lame comedy, never finding a constant tone and instead going all over the map from slapstick to satire. That might not have mattered had the humor been funny, but it never is, one reason being that it more often than not comes across in a low energy style. There is some fun seeing so many well known faces in cameos, but these actors are usually not given enough material to make a really good impression. It doesn't help that the movie is shoddily photographed, particularly in the outdoor sequences. "The Dog Who Saved Hollywood?" The dog (who is almost an afterthought many times) should have tried to save this movie instead.

EVERY movie nut has a few in his collection that he hides from his friends... films that "aren't cool", trashy films with no redeeming social value, outrageous films with no importance whatever. Films that you secretly watch from time to time just because they're FUN!I'll come clean here... ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, POOTIE TANG, SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT, CANDY and ROCK & ROLL HIGH SCHOOL are among MY Guilty Pleasures.An outstanding member of my back-of-the-shelf collection is WON TON TON, THE DOG WHO SAVED Hollywood.This one is DEFINITELY for those folks whose knowledge of American cinema goes back a LONG way... back to the Mack Sennett comedies, and to the days before Hollywood became a multibillion dollar Money Machine. It's a sort of Love Letter to the silent screen stars of the 1920's; they appear in a copious number of cameos here. If you don't know who the Ritz Brothers were, you won't get this film!Madelein Kahn literally steals the show from a somewhat dopey German Shepard, a MAJOR achievement for ANY actor or actress! There's an old stage saying that one should NEVER work with kids or animals; they'll steal your scenes every time without even trying. Kahn MORE than held her own, even successfully stealing scenes from the pooch. Check out the scene where the roast chicken falls off of the delivery truck, and Kahn and Won Ton Ton fight over possession of it. She just DUSTED the dog, and overall HE comes off as the comedic straight man!The only other recent actor that comes close to this level of thespian gallantry and sheer talent is Jim Bellushi in his performance in K9... he's ANOTHER screwball comedian who can pull it off successfully.Bruce Dern's performance is somewhat wooden. Dern's persona literally radiates instability and danger... NOT good for comedy. He's gamely going through the motions here; it quickly becomes painfully apparent that Dern, as fine an actor as he is, has NO potential in comedic roles.Art Carney does his usual masterful job of playing a curmudgeonly movie producer, constantly shooting down Dern's half baked movie ideas ("There's this little girl in Kansas, see, and a tornado takes her and her house to this magic land, somewhere over the rainbow...").One of the unsung heros here is Ron Liebman; he shows a flair for subtle comedy that's totally unexpected.It's not a film for everyone; a LOT of folks will HATE it. But.. if you love the REALLY old movies, and you can FIND it, WON TON TON is good for an evening's entertainment.

About the only interesting thing about this movie is just how many old stars you'll see, and for many of them, it was to be their last movie. Too bad it was in a stinker.

I saw this movie when I was in high school. It sticks in my mind as the worst movie I've ever paid to see.